It’s a must read for anyone who works in digital media, regardless of whether you think this is an industry or not, and it’s vital for anyone that considers marketing part of his or her professional function.

The book provides “10 rules for digital marketing success in an anytime, everywhere world.” Rick calls them rules, but they are more like 10 methods for digital marketing. He doesn’t tell you how to do it, instead he gives you understanding on why multiple channels of engagement are important for marketing in what he (rightfully) calls the “now media” culture – a smart way to approach this since technology makes things invented yesterday obsolete. If these were truly “how-to” rules, the book would be out of date before it hit the shelves. It’s not really a business book, but a series of observations on the various degrees of digital engagement, and how brands can better understand and harness the power of branding in a “pull vs. push” culture.

It’s not enough to just know that the other channels – online and mobile engagement to name a couple – exist, but to know how these channels work and affect one another in the ecosystem of consumer engagement. Each rule is valuable in gaining greater understanding of impact. Right off the bat, he starts with “Insight Comes Before Inspiration,” where he very clearly shows that, like all marketing efforts, you must know the customer, and that you can’t really move forward until you do (something I have been preaching forever). He continues by showing that every channel of engagement deserves its own contextual approach, meaning you can’t re-purpose content for another channel (AMEN).

The book is loaded with current and relevant case studies. I have heard of almost every one of them, and I saw most of them in a new way when reading how they were developed and deployed. The beautiful part is that if you are unaware of any of these, there’s a very good chance you can find them online.

Rule 9, “Always Keep Surprises In-Store,” Focuses heavily on the in-store environment, and brings much of the previous eight rules together as a point of execution. Rick writes about ‘Social Retailing,’ the idea of bringing online experiences into the retail environment to enhance the product shopping experience. And he stresses that this kind of interactive engagement will require a new partnership between brands and retailers (again, something I have been preaching for a long time).

A fabulous feature of the book are the interviews Rick conducts with some industry heavyweights, including Laura Klauberg, Senior Vice President of global media at Unilever (“So it’s really about being in tune with the culture, and then finding the points where there might be a great intersection of a brand and what’s important to customers.”) to Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (“…the consumer – whether you embrace it or not – is involved in the creation of your brand.”) to Tom Nicholson, the CEO and founder of LBi IconNicholson and the ‘Father of Social Retailing’ (“The place where individual product brands can play [a role] is in creating experiences tied to the mobile device-services that consumers will want to access when they are in a physical store environment.”).

Klauberg, Bogusky, and Nicholson. The Engagement All-Stars

This book is loaded with practical and comprehensible insight, and belongs on every marketer’s list to read. Reading this before too long will even prepare marketers better for the coming holiday season, when consumers will hit the stores and websites even harder with greater demand on those brands that want to engage them at those levels. My copy of the book is completely dog-eared, post-it marked, and highlighted with several places where I can leverage his insight in teaching clients about digital media in a digital culture.

Rick provides a companion site to the the book: GENWOW, where you can read more about digital marketing and listen to interviews with other industry leaders. I suggest you subscribe to his RSS feed as well.

Go read this. Now. Before everyone else does and beats you to the customer.

You can buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.

Read my other book reviews:

• Noise Wars by Robert Freedman
• Sound Business by Julian Treasure
• Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage by Keith Kelsen
• Why We Buy by Paco Underhill

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He still can't tell me how the money magically disappears from my bank account.

One of the challenges that any of us in digital signage face is understanding the end result – the viewer. Regardless of what sector of the industry you live in, whether you’re adding special effects to copy in post production, or you’re wiring the LCD mount on the shelf, you need to understand why you’re doing it. The “why” is the customer.

And there is probably no better body of work where you can learn about the shopper than “Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping” by Paco Underhill.

This book is written for anyone who wants to know why shoppers do what they do in a retail environment. If you have any responsibility for the actions of a customer (you do), read this book in a week and take out of it years of insight.

One of the final passages from Mr. Underhill:

“First and foremost, shopping follows social change, and woe to the businessperson who fails to comprehend. Shoppers are fickle today, and their loyalty to brand name – whether of a product or a store – lasts only as long as the afterglow of the most recent shopping experience.”

Given the fast-moving evolution of electronic messaging and engagement, it’s important to bring this up now, because it lays the groundwork for the rest of the information.

Mr. Underhill describes four essential elements of store shopping that are core to the success of a retailer:

• Dwell Time: How long the shopper is in the store. (Studies routinely show that longer store dwell times lead to higher sales.)
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of shoppers to actual transactions at the counter.
• Waiting Time: Almost a contrast to Dwell Time, the longer a customer has to wait in a store, the lower his or her opinions are of that store. This would be “bad” Dwell Time.
• Employee Interaction: Going back to those studies, employee interaction leads to higher sales.

Much of his writing can be directly attributed to the philosophies of in-store signage. The purpose of signs, regardless of whether they are static or digital, is to get someone to do something. Understanding the shopper is the key to effectively using the store (and ultimately the signage) itself as a tool to engage a shopper.

Throughout the book, you will find bits and pieces in almost every chapter that can be applied directly to digital signage and electronic in-store experiences. We see touchscreens on shelving, mobile devices with the capability to capture QR codes on the spot, and knobs and dials that enable someone to make the speaker volume go to 11 on a stereo that he or she is interested in. Knowing how shoppers respond in the retail environment is the foundation for understanding how they will respond to the signage.

This goes to 11.

Mr. Underhill provides nuggets of information that fit very well into the world of electronic engagement and interactivity. He notes that “about one-fifth of all shoppers actually see the average product on a supermarket shelf. There’s a reliable zone in which shoppers will probably see merchandise. It goes from slightly above eye level down to about knee level.” This is important. Part of the equation of compelling content is where a screen goes. If it’s placed where no one sees it, then one one sees it. Not good.

Chapter Five, “How To Read A Sign” is worth the price of the book and should be etched in your brain. The chapter covers signage in a store. And almost the entire chapter can be directly translated to our industry by simply placing the word “digital” in front of each instance of the word “sign” or “signage” in the chapter. Even though we are using a new technology for communications, the fundamentals of right message, right place, right time are as accurate as ever..

If you walk into a Barnes and Noble, a Williams-Sonoma, or a Dean and Deluca, you can see the execution of Mr. Underhill’s insight on “900 different aspects of shopper-store interaction.” I’m guessing all the executives of these organizations have this book on their shelf.

Whether you are responsible for content, technology, or execution, this book will help you better understand why people do what they do, so you can better do what you do.

Do be do be do.

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DISCLAIMER: I am reviewing this book. I am quoted in the book, and I am also listed as a reference on Keith Kelsen’s companion website for the book, www.5thscreen.info. This review is entirely of my own doing and is not a result of any arrangement or agreement with Mr. Kelsen.

The hardest thing about creating something is that you write the rules as you go. What works today won’t work tomorrow because there are new variables that require new rules.

Keith Kelsen took on the challenge of writing about an industry that grew while he wrote it. And he has done a first-rate job.

Mr. Kelsen’s book, Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage, Content Strategies for the 5th Screen, (aside from owning a really long title) tries to capture the guidelines and best practices for creating and deploying content on almost all types of digital signage platforms.

In the first half of his book, Mr. Kelsen groups networks into three main categories: Point of Transit (where the audience is predominantly in motion), like highway billboards and sidewalks; Point of Sale, like retailers and public gathering areas such as shopping malls; and Point of Wait, (where people are predominantly static in front of a screen), areas like waiting rooms, elevators, and bars and restaurants. There is some overlap with the fundamentals of content, and while these three categories can potentially generalize the approach, which may not work for some, it’s a good starting point when considering the message on the screen.

Mr. Kelsen writes about relevance as the key factor in creating compelling content. He’s right. Simply put, if it isn’t relevant, it isn’t successful. He writes, “Fine tuning any of these networks-point of transit, point of wait, or point of sale-requires creative thinking, research, and great technology. But relevant content in context is what will make or break them every time.” Even the most beautifully shot video loses its luster if it’s either in the wrong place or an old clip. (I have some experience here: While running the network at Best Buy, I could not get Warner Brothers to give me content from “The Dark Knight.” Best Buy is still running “Batman Begins” in some stores.)

The second half of the book dives a little deeper into the process of content construction and delivery that can be applied to most networks. Mr. Kelsen highlights the production process, tools to use, and formats for delivery. If you have spent any time in the industry, some of this will be elementary, but it’s important to have in this book, as it serves to educate those who will turn to this book without ever having even uttered the words “digital signage.”

In Chapter 8, Measuring the Effectiveness of Content, Mr. Kelsen lays out basic guidelines for measuring content’s impact on an audience and, ultimately, the return on investment. He refers to OVAB’s/DPAA’s audience metric guidelines, a set of measurement techniques that arguably can be applied to any type of network.

Mr. Kelsen also discusses seven keys to a successful network: Content, Relevance, Interaction, Scheduling, Placement, Refresh, and Attraction. He groups these under the ROO (Return On Objectives) methodology. I agree that these are very important to understand. However, I would argue that these are the building blocks of ROI itself, and perhaps do not need a unique methodology identifier. After all, ROO is ROI.

Mr. Kelsen completes the book by talking about some of the finer points of content, such as interactivity, multi-channel/platform usage, and the legality with using content.

There are a few challenges the book faces. Overall, Mr. Kelsen makes the process and understanding sound much easier said than done. At several points in the book, I asked, “Okay, so how do I do that?” But, could not find an answer. As noted above with categorizing networks into three main sectors, the real understanding is in knowing that every single network, regardless of categorization, must have a unique and developed strategy. What works for one network will almost certainly not work for another. I feel it’s important not to gloss over this too much, to help the reader understand that it doesn’t matter if you own one screen or one thousand screens, this stuff is challenging and often nebulous. Industry veterans will attest to this quite freely. Perhaps that’s what makes the industry so exciting. (Heck, people continue to argue about whether or not we should call ourselves digital signage!)

In chapter six, Mr. Kelsen lays out some basic rules for color. He describes several points of proper color use for content and copy. But, the book is black and white, rendering the figures ineffective. (Which begs questioning the price of the book. $40 for the book – it should have color in it. Just my opinion there.)

To counter this, there is a companion website, www.5thscreen.info, where you can find figures from the book as well as some of the full video/animations versions of case studies he references. Too often we read books with case studies and would love to see it in action. He provides them, and it’s easy to relate his insight to the execution.

I believe this book is more of basic understanding and education than truly strategic thought, like the title implies. But education and understanding are crucial to building a strategy. If this book does anything, it should send you away with a lot of questions. That’s good, because that is where you will understand why doing content correctly is so important.

This book is a solid exposition of the application of digital signage as an emerging medium to be considered in any situation where you want to say something to someone. If you are in the industry, this will serve as a dependable reference. If you are new to the industry, this is an excellent starting point to understanding digital signage.

You can buy the book on Amazon here.

Read my other reviews:

• Sound Business by Julian Treasure

• Noise Wars by Robert Freedman

Have a book I should read? Let me know about it.

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In 2007, I was working with Best Buy on what Best Buy called “New Blue,” a new approach to the physical retail space: wider aisles, more carpeting, lower shelving, a center-of-store experience, and “stages.” These stages were placed at the front of each major department as demonstrations of products in a home. The computing stage was a home office; the home theater stage had a big HDTV, surround sound, and a comfy couch; and the kitchen stage had a kitchen. I felt they never worked because the stages were too open to the rest of the store and didn’t have the warmth of any of those locations in the home. It still felt like a big box environment; the ceiling was still that big box-exposed-rafter ceiling that made the store noise reverberate through everything. It just didn’t feel right. Best Buy claimed the customer response was positive, but that’s a seriously subjective statement.

Last summer, Bill Gerba wrote an article about audio and digital signage, and suggested reading “Sound Business” by Julian Treasure.

Working in an industry concerned almost exclusively with the visual medium, sound is largely an afterthought. While at Best Buy, I realized the power of sound in experiential and brand engagement, and now consider it crucial to the strategy of effective communication.

I wish I had this book in 2007.

Mr. Treasure’s book is a must if you work in an industry where sound is in any way a part of the communication medium or environment. The book does a splendid job of covering the spectrum of sound, from creation to transmission to impact in just about every type of environment where sound is used.

The book is broken into three sections. Mr. Treasure first educates us on the technical side of sound: decibels, resonance, frequency, waves, creation, transmission, and the factors in sound’s impact on the listener. He ends the section on listening. “Hearing is a physical process, but listening is a relationship, a choice, and a skill.” The text dives deep into the ability to listen and decode information, citing research that states, “We can handle only around seven chunks of information at once (plus or minus two).” This is important when thinking about a retail environment and all the competing noise.

The second section tours the several different classifications of sound and applicable rules for working with sound, including Mr. Treasure’s “Four Golden Rules of Sound:” Make the sound optional, make it appropriate, make it valuable, and test, test test. He writes about some new tools, such as Reactive sound, where computers with environmental sensors create sound on the fly. For example, when the room lights dim, the computer senses a change in light and automatically alters the sound.

Mr. Treasure introduces the SoundFlow™ model, a detailed process map that outlines the effects of sound on people and environments. He also introduces the SoundMap™, a 12-cell matrix with over 90 questions designed to drill down to the core issues around sound associated with a brand, product, or service. I’m willing to bet that you, Mr. or Ms. Marketing Executive, will be unable to accurately answer two-thirds of those questions. If so, you do not have a solid sound approach to your brand or product.

All of this information is the foundation for the third section where Mr. Treasure takes you on a journey through the application of sound in any given environment. He explains the value and impact of sound on a brand, ranging from brand music (British Airways using “Flower Duet” from Delibés’ opera Lakmé), to sonic logos (Intel’s five note logo or NBC’s three-note chime).

Mr. Treasure explains the factors of sound in just about every type of environment, from retail spaces, to hospitals, reception areas, office environments, private spaces (living rooms) and vehicles.

The book is loaded with case studies and examples of good sound and bad sound, providing detail on how sound can affect sales and engagement. Mr. Treasure cites a retail project where the front windows were transformed into giant loudspeakers, resulting in a 50 percent increase in customer traffic stopping to investigate.

Mr. Treasure provides ample detail on the effect of sound in a retail environment. For example, he describes how up-tempo music results in customers with a higher degree of energy that move through store faster. He suggests that slower music results in longer dwell times. But, if you’re Abercrombe and Fitch you would be hard pressed to change your Top 40 and electronic up-tempo music aimed at the teen and young adult demographic to slower music. Going back to the SoundFlow™ and SoundMap™ processes, Abercrombe and Fitch would be able to make the sound applicable to the environment as part of the brand, not just noise from the heavens.

The book comes with an accompanying CD that exemplifies the very situations he cites. After going through the CD along with the book, I cannot fathom how this book would work without it. I spent several tracks thinking, “So that’s what he means!”

This book has proven to be an invaluable resource for my work with some of my clients, substantiating details I already knew about audio and providing me with knowledge on appreciating audio’s impact and developing solutions better suited for the client and the audience.

I believe this would be a great addition to anyone’s desire to understand the impact of interactive experiences, and highly recommend it.

You can find some more of Treasure’s insights on his Sound Business blog. And you can watch him talk about sound at a TED event last year.

I’ll let Mr. Treasure close: “If this book achieves one thing only, I hope it is to move us out of this denial and into recognition of the enormous, varied and wide-ranging effects that sound is having on us all.”

You can find the book on Amazon.com here.

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“Noise wars looks at the role of media in society in a unique way – by focusing on the emerging trend of audience captivity: the relocation of TV and other intrusive electronic media from our home, where we have personal control over it, to all the settings in which we don’t have control: schools, gyms buses, subways, taxis, elevators, retail stores, hotel and office lobbies, street corners, street furniture, and gas station pumps, among others.”

The book also addresses several other areas of noise pollution, including boom cars, outdoor homes, and cell phones.

I always want to know what people think, especially of the industry I work in. In this case it would be easy to look past Mr. Freedman’s writing and argue the points in the book. However, with the way it’s release traveled through the industry, I felt compelled to offer an objective point of view.

Mr. Freedman starts a compelling discussion on the use of media in society. Clearly, there is a problem here. There is probably not a single person who will read either this review or the book who has not been annoyed by a cell phone, a boom car, or a noisy TV in a public space, so Mr. Freedman’s book brings to the forefront situations that have affected all of us.

He calls into question the use of audio and video in areas such as public schools and school buses. He shows how far some organizations will go to make a dollar, and the potential backlash to those organizations and the industry as well, which gives all of us a black eye. I do not believe I am alone in this feeling.

Mr. Freedman references two Supreme Court cases from 1949 and 1952 regarding compulsory audio as a founding point for the book. He includes most of the decisions in the endnotes, and they are fascinating to read. However, a 57 year-old ruling is pointless when, even as Mr. Freedman himself writes at the end of the book, “…the environment has changed considerably since 1952. Then, the issue was a single, novel instance of audience captivity.”

The book includes several statistics such as networks, the number of screens and number of impressions. But his argument against these networks is based almost entirely on opinions, comments from blogs, and quotes from articles. I had hoped to read insight into the potential negative impact of these networks. Instead, I read blog comments, such as, “I’m either going to bring ear plugs to the grocery store or just shot [sic] myself in the head when I see one of those TVs. Maybe that’ll get them to stop?”

In one very telling passage, he writes:

“…those who don’t go to the gyms because of the TVs are never counted, and yet based on the high annoyance level people attribute to the TVs, it would be hard to discount the sizable number of people don’t become members for just that reason.”

Attributing the “annoyance level” of TVs to a single outlet and a complete lack of supporting evidence make it very easy to discount this argument. This is an assumption, not a argument, and not grounds for a debate.

There are plenty of case studies on the potentially negative impact of television and noise on our health and Mr. Freedman mentions several of them in the book. Yet he seems to take extra effort to try and tie them to societal and public media. The chapter on boom cars exposes how undesirable this feature of our culture can be, and he references a London study about the relationship between loud noises and cardiac damage, loosely linking it to boom cars. But, he doesn’t provide a citation for this research, leaving me wondering how close the study is to the boom car effect.

In the appendices, Mr. Freedman notes that it’s beyond his resources “…to identify all of the organizations whose mission is in whole or in part to curb the unwanted intrusion of electronic media…” He lists 13 of them. At the same time he lists 65 organizations affiliated with the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) and the Canadian Out-of-Home Digital Association. I found it strange that he would list only 13 that advocate against media, yet have no problem listing 65 organizations that support it, especially in a book with a clear agenda against the idea. I thought he would make the lists to his advantage.

The book brings to light that our industry is not desired by everyone; there are many people and organizations that do not like media in society. This is important. We need to understand that for every action there is a reaction.

However, I found myself asking too many questions that the book could not answer, or answered with assumptions based on the opinions of others and without evidence.

Because the book has such little factual or direct evidence supporting its claims against media in society, and because almost all of the research is devoted to scouring the internet for citations from anti-media sources instead of providing expert insight and testimony, I cannot recommend this book as a resource to learn more about the debate on media in society.

The effort is admirable, but the execution may have been better suited to a research paper or critique than a full-blown manuscript.

Mr. Freedman authors a “research blog for critics of captive-audience media” at mediabychoice.com. I subscribe to it, and will continue to do so. You can find direct links to the groups advocating responsible media on his site.

You can find the book on Amazon here.

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