Awaiting entrance into the trade show. I'm third row, second from left.
Another Digital Signage Exposition has come and gone. Last year I spent all my time in the sessions. This year, I spent all my time on the floor. Instead of giving you the top five things I learned (as was my habit with shows I attended last year), I will just drop some thoughts on you. Take ‘em or leave ‘em. (Or hold ‘em or fold ‘em, as Mr. Rogers would have you do if you’re the gambling sort.)
The industry is selling to the wrong audience and doesn’t know it.
The real audience for the exhibitors was upstairs in the conference sessions. The conflicting schedules kept many of them from diving deep into the trade show floor. And the buyers that walked the floor had more questions than answers after leaving. I know. I ran into two of them.
The sessions were well attended…
I did the opening keynote session and a final session of the conference, and both were well attended. I heard most sessions had good crowds.
…but there are too many of them.
Day One had three full day seminars, a half day seminar, and a half-day tour of Vegas. Days two and three had 43 sessions. This is too much, and I’m certain there is a lot of redundancy. I hope that over the next 11 months, the DSE will find a more efficient way to make sure everyone has the opportunity to learn, network, and explore without having to decide between one session or another.
The DSF was on people’s minds…
One of the interim DSF board members asked me if I thought it was the right thing to do. It is, if you take this opportunity to do what the industry needs. If not, the DSF and the DSA will battle themselves into apathy while the NRF, InfoComm, and other shows continue to lure away the exhibitors and experts.
…but not on all minds.
One executive told me, “The companies in there [the trade show] couldn’t care less about these boards. They care about landing clients and buyers.” Ouch. But I see his point.
#dse2010 was pretty cool…
Many screens throughout the show floor displayed the Twitter hashtag tweets, and it’s really great to see so many engaged with a community tool to spread the cheer of the show. There were over 1,200 tweets.
…but not very cool
So we all tweeted. Big deal. The DSE promoted that session attendees could use Twitter to ask questions of the session moderators and panelists before the conference. I was in two sessions and never got a question. Did anyone else? I doubt it. Was anyone not at DSE really “following” what was going on? Twitter is here and will be a great tool for communication, but we’re trying too hard to jam this into the ecosystem without allowing it to grow organically.
Good Rumor.
There is a deal for PRN on paper in the range of 80 million. That’s a song compared to what Thompson paid for them, but I believe PRN is doing a lot of good stuff. They are refining their business model, breaking apart their bundled services, and partnering with key companies to offer better solutions. What I mean is: They ain’t Walmart’s bitch anymore. I hope that continues. There are good people there working hard.
Bad Rumor.
One service provider told me his company learned they lost a bid for a client to their competitor. They heard it from their competitor. Bad form, folks.
Everyone is busy…
Everyone I asked said they were busy. And many that I spoke with said they had the resources (read: money and people) to make traction in 2010. Let’s hope that’s true.
…so don’t waste their time.
One guy wrote to me and asked me to meet with him. He wanted to talk to me about some “new retail initiatives” his company was working on. I was excited to hear this news and made it a point to connect with this gentleman. After shaking hands, he proceeded to tell me how drunk he got the night before. Then he walked away from me. That was the meeting. Oh, and he did this in front of his CEO. Classy.
Shoes, Socks, and Business Cards
Adrian Cotterill, of DailyDOOH.com fame, has a small list of suggestions for your next show visit.
Want to read more? Head over to these blogs and get more first-hand accounts of the show. Lots to read, but all of it worthwhile.
Dave Haynes, Sixteen-Nine
DSE Impressions…So Far
More DSE Impressions
Mike Cearley, 11th Screen
2nd (and last) Official Session of the Day #40
Cutting Through The Clutter at DSE 2010
Top 5 Moments of DSE 2010
Adrian Cotterill, DailyDOOH.com
#dse2010 – The Gossip
David Weinfeld, DS Insights
Thoughts from Digital Signage Expo 2010
Ken Goldberg, Broad Thinking. Narrowcasting
Themes from DSE
Finally
The UMA Motorcoach Expo was taking place at the same time as our little shin-dig at the Convention Center. I snuck into their show and checked out a few of their rides. There was a huge banner that said, “We’ll see you next year in Tampa!” I don’t know about you folks, but I’m liberating one of those moving condos and going on a road trip to Tampa next year. Right now you should be hearing the theme song to Vacation.
Black is the new green.
Last Tuesday before Thanksgiving, James Bickers asked for my opinion on Black Friday, given my experience working for a retail giant. He used a couple of the quotes in an article he wrote about the souring of the public on the notion of Black Friday (a great article, by the way), but I thought it would be fun to reproduce the whole e-mail here and follow up since last Friday:
Within Best Buy, we never really did much from a corporate level regarding [digital signage] network or store design. The stores themselves and their immediate territory/district managers handled a lot of the noise. We helped out where we could, and we built a circular that was to go out and we were all told very clearly that the deals were confidential and should not be leaked. More on that below.
Overall, I took two things from my experience:
1. Best Buy (and other retailers) let the customers make a bigger deal out of than it really was. Corporate definitely paid attention, but the customers themselves are what drives the advertising. Nothing says “Black Friday” better than video of customers waiting all night outside your store, eagerly anticipating that one gift they have given up hours of their sleep to nab at a low, low price. No single product for any price can match that imagery.
2. The harder we worked to create an environment where we were not supposed to talk about it (the “leaked deals”), the more we seemed to see the deals leak. Again, you’re playing into the hands of the customer on purpose. By leaking deals, you get them to wait in line at your store. Once in line, they stay there. They won’t give up their number in line for another deal anywhere else. They have made the commitment.
Over my time with Best Buy and since, I have seen the customer change because it is no longer about the deal, it is about the event. That’s why customers are not seeing the deals. When you see news stories leading up to Black Friday about teams of women and men who build game plans on attacking certain stores (like a military exercise!), you begin to see that the stores have less power over the event than the customers do. Waiting in line is now fun to [do]. Retailers, Best Buy included, simply play into that. It doesn’t really matter what you put on sale or how much inventory you have. If you can get a line of people out your store, you’ll get sales. And, if you don’t get what you waited in line all night to get, you’re probably going to buy something else. There’s no way you invest all that time and walk away empty-handed.
Thanksgiving morning, I passed by the local Best Buy around 9:00 a.m. I saw a line of people about 50 long or so, complete with tents, chairs, and perhaps a little tailgating going on at the cars parked nearby. They were already in line for the store to open over 18 hours from that time. Thanksgiving night, I watched the news and saw footage of a mall south of Minneapolis where there were thousands of people out shopping at 5:00 a.m. One shopper said, “It just something you should experience once in your lifetime.”
There’s that word: Experience.
We’ll see the results of Cyber Monday later this week, but these two days are clearly less about finances and money and more about a cultural event. Some retailers are reporting a modest increase from last year. However, the National Retail Federation still believes the overall numbers will be down. Did all these retailers move their bottom line into the black? Hardly. But, they don’t need Black Friday any more like they used to because so many of them have been pushing deep discounts around campaigns for a long time now. The margins on products are so thin; the retailer must push low prices all year long to remain with the pack.
The only thing black about the Friday after Thanksgiving is the night sky that everyone shivers under waiting for the store to open.
Am I breaking the law if I just can't watch?
I flew back from San Diego last week on United Airlines. (I know…I hate it when I have to go from Minneapolis to San Diego in November to meet with a client. Darnshootheck). United utilizes digital screens that drop from the overhead-bin heavens to provide the flight safety regulations, something we’re so accustomed to ignoring when the flight attendants give us the song and dance.
One might think that the application of video could be a more compelling form of communication. However, the flight safety video left way too much to be desired, and I cannot understand why United would not (or could not?) find a more attractive way to make the point. The actors were stiff as boards, the animations were pedestrian and unimpressive, and the running time felt like 20 minutes.
Federal law requires that we are informed of the safety measures every time we board a plane. But, like all other forms of communication, we are numb to the message when there is nothing unique about it. Granted, there is not much you can do with informing people about flight safety; the message itself is important stuff. However, using a new medium for the message does give you flexibility to modify and refresh the variables of delivery so that people do pay attention.
Off the top of my head, I could name five ways to make this much more compelling.
In an industry that is regularly vilified by consumers, and in a situation where that consumer is about as captive as possible, airlines can leverage this opportunity to present a positive impression.
