Listening to NPR’s This American Life, Ira Glass and the gang were chronicling the experience of summer camp. About halfway through the program, Glass provided this perspective (Italics are my emphasis):

“Most of this simply has to do with tradition. The special songs and ceremonies are a part of so many American camps, and not just because they’re fun. A camp director in Wisconsin told us. . .that financially, you cannot run a camp without lots of repeat customers. These traditions bring kids back, year after year. You have the kids singing constantly about their loyalty to their cabin-mates and their camp, you let them know about all the extra rites and priveleges and honors they’re going to get if they return as older campers. It is part of making the business run. And, in addition, it is part of what makes camp thrilling. It is using all of the stagecraft that all of the world’s religions have always used, the ceremonies, the chanting, the repeated words, the official honors and offices, but for an entirely secular purpose: to thrill children, to make them feel part of something big and special.”

Three female campers chimed in:

“I think it’s really an important part of camp. . .I like the traditions. . .you know what’s going to happen. You can trust things.”

“It’s expected.”

“I come back for the traditions. I expect everything to be here the way it was last year because that’s the reason I come back. If everything changed, I don’t think I would like it anymore.”

Does your brand do that? Would your customers say this about you?

Episode: “Notes From Camp,” July 4, 2010.

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Me.

Well, I have been “on the speaking circuit” for a while now, but this is a new opportunity to help those who want to succeed with digital signage, digital media, and customer or viewer engagement.

I have created a series of seminars and presentation subjects based on my experiences in digital signage, and can lead half-day or full-day education sessions.

The core of my seminars and speaking is on the strategy, marketing, branding, and advertising side of digital signage, digital interactivity, and viewer engagement. With respect to technology (which I also speak about), once we all have a network, we need to do great things with it. How do you create real impact with digital media? How can you leverage the power of mobile devices with your venue?

That’s where I come in.

I spent 10 years running three networks. I have spent the last year consulting companies from every corner of digital signage on best practices for network management and execution. I have built a network, managed every aspect of its operation, produced content, collaborated with brands, agencies, production houses, and media planners and buyers, developed budgets (and met them!), and measured the network’s effectiveness.

Basically, I have been there and done that.

And that’s what I bring to my seminars and presentations – real-world insight that I believe is needed to help move this ecosystem of multi-channel communication in the right direction.

My practice is to tailor my presentations and seminars to your needs. I have yet to do the same presentation or session twice because no two audiences and needs are the same. While I use foundational topics, I know your time is valuable, so I’ll work with you to outline the important subjects. In the end, you get a targeted and unique session with takeaways that send you forward with your initiatives.

Please navigate over to my new section of this site, or click on the “About Paul” button on the right. You can learn all about my speaking and seminar services. You can also see some of my experience and testimonials from event and seminar planners, and industry leaders who have heard me speak.

I’m really thrilled to offer this. If you’re interested to learn more about how I can help you, please contact me.

Thank you so much.

(We’ll get back to our regularly scheduled blogging next week.)

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This is a terrific way to get people engaged with a brand. And Kraft and MonsterMedia took the essence of the product – the elbow macaroni – and created a fun and engaging interactive. Very well done.

But here’s the problem. This doesn’t sell Mac and Cheese. That’s the point. Right?

These interactive screens were placed around the country (Chicago, New York, LA) in high traffic areas. And it looks like it got a lot of audience engagement. But did it sell any Mac and Cheese? Here are three reasons why this is a challenge:

Where Can I Buy? One of the most important tenets with digital engagement is the viewer’s ability to act upon what she has just experienced. The takeaway here is not the smile, it’s the brand impression. She needs to move that impression forward on the path to purchase. But if she can’t, the impression is lost as soon as the next bright, shiny object enters her field of view.

There Is No Takeaway. Unlike the Smile Happy Ice Cream campaign that Unilever created, this doesn’t give the viewer any takeaway, like the product, or a coupon, or a QR code for their mobile device to really open the gates of communication. With an immediate return, the customer connects the impression with the result – the product or access to it. This creates an indelible mark on the viewer’s mindset, and provides marketers with real data on the success of the device.

Using a Shotgun When You Need a Sniper Rifle. These were placed in high traffic areas to get viewer engagement, but I’m willing to bet that a large percentage of the people who interacted with it aren’t really Mac and Cheese fans. Sure, you’ll get a massive amount of people who will try it, making the numbers sexy, but if those viewers are not customers of Kraft or Mac and Cheese, it’s an inefficient execution. The value of each impression is much lower because of the high traffic strategy.

In the end, someone has to pay for this (yes, I know it’s the customer, but bear with me). As these devices become more prevalent in our culture, so too will the need to justify the expense on the marketing budget to create and deploy them. This is advertising, and advertising is made to get people to buy. If they don’t buy, these devices are no more than costly wet noodles.

Ba dum dum.

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And in every case, that is not the desired purpose.

I can do that at home. Sometimes I do.

But how do we fix the problem? With my history of running a network and consulting with companies to run theirs, I have a few thoughts on the problem and the solutions.

WHY THIS HAPPENS
We need to understand the source of the problem. I’m confident in telling you that it is not the technology. This stuff goes through a few rounds of piloting and testing before it rolls out to all the locations. By that time, most of the bugs have been fixed. When there are issues, it’s easy to respond with adding some sort of monitoring system that watches devices for power, playback, audio, etc., or to install some security features such as removing power and volume buttons on the screen panel. But in most cases that just covers the symptoms.

The retailer (or venue) usually owns the repair and maintenance of the system as part of their store operation. This is part of what the brand pays for when it goes into the venue.

These devices still need to be set up and operated by humans. Whether intentional or not, a malfunctioning device can often be attributed to user error.

"Here you go, the new store uniform. Wear it with pride."

So how do we ensure these TVs are on? I have four solutions I have used in the past that have worked pretty well.

TEACH-OUT
Whether it’s the CEO, the store manager, or the teenage part-time employee, teach them how to operate the device and take care of it. Rarely is anything as easy as “install and just turn it on!” Give knowledge to everyone that has any interaction with the unit. And then encourage them to watch the program, regularly, and address any situations that arise.

During a test project with the in-store network at Best Buy in 2009, I went to a store one day to monitor the program. The manager approached me and said that an endcap TV wasn’t working. I asked her if anyone had done anything to try and figure out the source of the problem. She said they looked in the main communications room (where all the store’s necessary operating technology is stored) and could not find a problem; everything was hooked up just fine. So I looked behind the TV. It was unplugged.

IF THEY BUILD IT…
For all the knowledge we think we have about a venue, no one knows it better than the people who work there. If you wanted to know everything you could about a high school, who would you ask? The principal? I would ask the janitor. If I wanted to know about a store, I would ask the employee, not the manager.

The eyes and ears of the institution.

Often these devices go through a process where the instructions for building the device, particularly an endcap or self-standing POP display, are written by companies that do this for a living, or by the corporate employees who signed the deal. Rarely are these done by actual store employees. It makes strong sense to have it constructed by those closest to it every day.

You can read more about my thoughts on creating employee engagement with in-store networks here.

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
Provide a direct phone number to the person(s) responsible for the function of device. The number is not to retail corporate headquarters or the brand, it is to the company that built it, the company that knows how it works. Often you will read instructions that provide a service number associated with the retailer. This is a waste of time. Give them a number for someone that can fix the device before the apocalypse in 2012.

There goes all that ad rev.

SHARE BACK WHAT YOU KNOW
The venue can share back with the brand the status of devices and the progress of repair and maintenance. This, along with the content itself, is an affidavit that every effort is made to ensure the systems are working. No brand will fault a venue for occasional downtime, it happens. This rapport builds trust between the brand and the venue, and it works. Brands pay top dollar for exposure and should be treated with professional courtesy. It’s amazing how often this does not happen.

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it’s a start. And here’s the best part: These methods are low-cost and easy to implement. Every retail store has some sort of team meeting before the store opens for the day. That’s a good time to talk about this. If a third party is contracted to install a POP with digital signage, they should have the authority to teach the managers and employees as well.

By helping the retailers be better at executing digital signage in the store, the brands will be more responsive to deploying it.

The cliché handshake image to connote partnership. When did we stop hugging?

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How cool is this? Unilever is taking digital interactivity seriously, and three things really stuck with me on this:

Personal Engagement. It’s not enough to just look at a camera and smile, but the computer recognizes a smile and then reacts to it. The computer captures your smile and “measures it 15 times a second, and if it’s big enough, rewards you with your very own ice cream. For free.” The physical interaction with the screen is more fun because it’s less work. You don’t need to push tons of buttons, you just need to smile.

It takes 72 muscles to frown, 14 to smile, and five bucks to fake it. (Click image to buy 'em!)

Connectivity. By allowing users to upload the images to Facebook, word of mouth goes digital. This makes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and all the others much more relevant to people and products. For decades, word of mouth has been the most effective marketing tool. Making it easy for people to do that will give brands prime real estate in a consumer’s brain.

The Source. It isn’t a retailer or a brand, it’s Unilever, parent company of brands like Bertolli, Hellman’s, Dove, and Axe. Oh, and Unilever is the world’s biggest ice cream manufacturer with brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Good Humor, Breyers and Klondike. They can take this experience across any number of brands with the potential to engage the viewer.

The demo unit was unveiled in Lisbon, Portugal on May 21. Unilever plans to roll out to high-traffic customer locations around the world over the next 18 months.

The video ends with great copy: “An ice cream van for the digital age.”

That's sweet. I won't have to run after this any more.

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