It seems that every month a blog or trade magazine or site drops the new “future of digital signage is…” on us.
We are in a constant race to grab that which continues to stay ahead of us. But we have not yet mastered what’s around us today.
He who say smart things write blog. Or so I've heard.
The future is coming, I have no doubt. I have no doubt we’ll argue about what kind of acronym to give it.
But I have just spent several million dollars to update my environment with 42” high-definition screens networked into server designed to play the right content in the right place at the right time. I have no idea if it’s really playing the right content in the right place at the right time because I still cannot measure it. I was told putting in this network would provide a substantial return on my investment.
Where’s my money?
And don't make me yell.
The holy grail of ROI (Return On Investment) is the proof that a message compels a viewer to act in such a way that benefits the provider. Or, someone bought that one thing because we talked about it on a screen. This ROI has not happened yet. I don’t know if I’m getting out of this what I put into it.
Everyone is telling me what I should be doing tomorrow, and not helping figure out how to leverage what I have today. Because what I have today is going to pay for my future.
Budgets are under closer scrutiny than ever now. You can’t get your cap ex money by simply saying, “Everyone else is doing it,” or even “Because they said I could make money off that.” You can’t chase bad money with good money any longer.
Yes. I did. I did because Jimmy did.
We spend much of our eyesight on what’s coming down the road, and we lose sight of what we need to manage today. Everyone (myself included, sometimes) gets caught up in the “art of the possible,” but buyers and users out there need to justify what they have already done before they can look that far.
This isn’t about measurement, this is about making sure that future is attainable by those who want to be a part of it. Networks everywhere would love the interactive experience that we tout at all the shows and on all the websites. But, it seems we are forgetting that someone needs to pay for this, that the money for this doesn’t come from the vendors, it comes from the buyers.
Part of the “path to purchase” is the purchase itself, and we need to track whether or not we have impact on that. If we do, then the future is going to come a lot faster and easier. If we don’t, then perhaps we need to stop for second and think about today as well as tomorrow. The future will always be there. I’m sure we’ll meet it.
Let’s just make sure that we’re ready when it arrives.
