One Reason Brands Don’t Like Digital Signage

Top: All the TVs in the electronics department at Target; Middle left, Whirlpool interactive at Lowe's; Middle right: Sony Altus display at Best Buy; Bottom, Phillips TV endcap at Target.

What is worse, paying a retailer to have static printed signage delivered to a store that never makes it to the sales floor, or hang a screen that is not turned on?

The brand paid an enormous amount of money to the retailer to have these displays as part of the retail experience. I’m guessing the retailer is the owner of the maintenance of these as part of the agreement (they usually are, but MDF agreements can get funky depending on who is holding the pen signing it). And, chances are that the brand representatives that frequent these stores are not happy to see how their displays are managed. In many cases, the retailer has direct influence over the content itself. With the home theater department, the content is run by the retailer. In Target (or Best Buy, or Costco, or Walmart), both the retailer and the brand lose.

If you want to see what the Whirlpool interactive looks like, visit my friend Mike Cearley’s blog here.

The Sony Altus display above shows the startup screen, not even the attract loop video. This display was at the Best Buy in Richfield, Minnesota, less than one mile from Best Buy’s corporate headquarters. I showed this picture to Sony corporate personnel during a presentation.

This was their response.

This is not how brands want to see their merchandise is a store. And this is yet another reason the adoption rate for digital signage continues to struggle. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who is to blame – the store manager, the brand representative, the technology. It is a bad experience for the customer, the one and only reason it’s there.