There are two reasons people do digital signage: One is to get their message (or someone else’s) out there. The other is to make money doing it. And not not necessarily in that order.
It’s at this very moment where the philosophy and impact of branding comes into play. How do you make your message look and feel like…well…you? What are the proper principles of branding and how can you apply them to your company, or your message, or your existence in a given environment so that you have that crucial impact on the customer or client?
Digital Signage continues to grow, embracing principles and practices from several other areas of customer and consumer engagement. The philosophy of branding for many network operators may be a new thing because in the past there was never a real need to brand the message. A static sign in a store was just wall covering, for the most part. But, with a dynamic medium the need is greater than ever, especially for merchandisers who want to differentiate themselves and use their network as a factor of differentiation.
What is Brand Strategy Insider?
Brand Strategy Insider is the branding blog of The Blake Project, a brain trust of branding experts that “…design, manage and build brands that drive revenue through differentiated customer experiences.” Pretty much the purpose of a digital sign for many network owners and operators.
Who writes it?
The blog has several contributors: Derrick Daye (Managing Partner of The Blake Project), Martin Lindstrom, Steve Rivkin, Al Ries, and Brad VanAuken. All of them write on various topics within the brand strategy universe, and all of them write very well. Occasionally, they will disagree openly on the blog, and it makes for some fascinating reading among branding experts.
The blog also has several contributors from various disciplines that dip into the psychology of branding, advertising, and marketing, even going so far as to understand the neuroscience of marketing.
What do they write?
In VanAuken’s book, Brand Aid, he cites The American Marketing Association’s description of a brand as a ‘‘name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.” In a nutshell, they try to cover the universe of branding, taking real-life examples of brands and breaking down the reasons behind their successes or failures. The blog has over 50 categories of branding topics.
The length of each post ranges from a few hundred words to over a thousand, sometimes, and they post just about every day. It can be a challenge to keep up with all the entries. But each entry is a deep dive into the topic at hand. At the end of every article, you should feel like you learned something.
Why should I read this blog?
Because one of the most important things we can do in our industry is understand the impact that digital signage can have on an audience. With a screen’s capability for dynamic engagement, the opportunity to connect a viewer with a product or service and, particularly, with the provider of either the product or the service, the need to understand how branding functions is paramount.
Another important reason is that all of us in this industry lead or work for companies trying to be leaders in a category, whether you’re a hardware provider, creative agency, or consultant. This blog is loaded with insight on how the big companies succeed and fail with takeaways you can apply to your own organization, regardless of size.
Three To Read
Because they write every day, don’t try too hard to read everything. Instead, dig through their posts and find the articles most relevant to your discipline in the industry. They do write some about digital media, including social media, but I have found their overall marketing and branding insight to be truly valuable to me and my work.
There are literally hundreds of articles on their site, all of them great reading. Here are three posts that can give you an idea of the depth of their knowledge and experience:
The Principles of Marketing – January 14, 2010
In one post, Al Ries puts forth a great acronym to sum up the principles he practices and educated in marketing: FOCVS, “…a word using the original alphabet of the Roman Empire…” It’s a great piece of education on marketing, and I highly recommend reading this one first.
GM’s Appointment Shows No Respect for Marketing – August 19, 2009
I had put this post in an earlier Clicks post of mine. I think this is one of the best lessons in marketing you can read. It clearly shows that marketing is a discipline you acquire thorough years of marketing experience, not years of loyalty to a company.
Brand Focus Leads To Power and Profits – December 21, 2009
“…line extension inhibits the branding process. When a company makes and markets a broad range of products under one name, it is extremely difficult to build that name into a powerful brand. ” For a long time, Japanese companies like Sony have survived on a brand that connotes power and profitability. Al gives us a little reality check and helps us understand that focus can drive profits much higher.
And One More
Forgiveness and the Tiger Woods Brand – December 16, 2009
Part of the allure of the Tiger Woods debacle is the impact his personal brand has on the companies he endorses, how much money companies would lose by continuing to associate with him, and how fast some of those sponsors were to jump ship. This post is from contributor Dr. Robert Passikoff, and I found this very interesting. Two weeks after Tiger’s “transgressions” hit the airwaves, my partner, Pat Hellberg, formerly of Nike, said, “Remember Kobe’s mistake in Colorado? Nike stuck by him then. Today, Kobe’s Nike shoe is the number two best selling shoe in the world. There’s no way Nike abandons Tiger.” Sure enough, a week later Phil Knight issued a statement saying Nike would remain with Tiger.
You can follow The Blake Project on Twitter as well.
Past BUs:
Bill Gerba: Digital Signage Insider
Ken Goldberg: Broad Thinking. Narrowcasting.
Do you read a blog I should be following that is worth showcasing here? Send me a link. If I like it, I’ll write about it.
Imagine if everyone actually watched all the ads. Holy brightlightsbigcity...
As the industry matures, so too does the need to understand synergy between the screen and the viewer. It is paramount that resources be applied to understanding this synergy, discovering the challenges and exploiting the solutions. This continues to be the brass ring of out-of-home messaging.
That was a hoity-toity way of saying: Viewer engagement is difficult to achieve.
I see the current model of programming for digital signage networks unable to live up to its potential of viewer engagement for three reasons:
The content model of Digital Signage is the opposite of television.
Advertising is the programming feature on almost all digital signage with little to no emphasis on entertainment. Because ads are abundant for broadcast, it’s easy to re-purpose them for the digital sign. No one, no one, ever watched a screen just to watch the ads. Television as a cultural phenomenon was designed to entertain, inform, and educate, not sell, pitch, or swindle. (Sorry, Mr. or Ms. Agency, but arguing this is like saying you read Playboy for the articles. Yeah…right.) The Digital Signage programming model is antithetical to a consumer’s mindset when watching the screen.
Viewer control over the content.
TiVo has forced advertisers to be more creative in their approach. You now see production value and storytelling that rivals the top television programs; advertisement now is entertainment. That’s why the Super Bowl draws 30 million viewers. We all know that great advertising, regardless of product, is fun to watch.* The problem is that these good storytelling ads are hard to re-purpose for digital signage environments. A 30-second ad will never be fully absorbed in an environment where the viewer is always moving, like a storefront on a sidewalk. The story cannot be told. The ads are not versioned for a different audience and a different mindset. In addition, trying to say the same thing on a digital sign that the customer made every effort to avoid in her home borders on disrespect for the viewer’s time and attention. They don’t want to see you.
(Strange irony here: TBS does a yearly show highlighting the best commercials of the year from around the world. They have dedicated a site to it. I do watch that show, but I have to TiVo through Kevin Nealon’s mid-ad skits. He’s about as funny as a moldy watermelon.)
There is no such thing as a captive audience.
Advertisers are in love with the idea that a digital signage network provides a “captive” audience. Under no circumstances are viewers forced to watch the screen. Even in a movie theater, people will ignore the pre-show ads, talking with each other until they see the dancing filmstrip dude who asks all of us to hush up for the movie. Mobile devices have made escape even easier. The best a network can hope for is a captivated audience. The differences in strategy among the networks to create that type of interest is extreme. Because advertisers have yet to see any tangible return on their investment, they are reluctant to provide customized advertising to so many outlets.
In all three cases, the common variable is viewer engagement, the ability to get a viewer to stop, notice, linger, and engage with your message. Tough stuff. But understanding the potential pitfalls is key to building a solid strategy. The industry has come to understand that viewer engagement is the objective in compelling messaging. Remember, television has had 60 years to figure this out. We’re trying to get this solved in less than 10 with a brand new medium.
The out-of-home industry has entered a new realm of measurement, research, and understanding. It is extremely important to build a strategy that serves the ultimate purpose of your digital signage: to engage your viewer. Hopefully we can get there faster than television did.
*My dad worked in television for 30 years and knew good advertising when he saw it. I remember vividly as a child watching television with him and seeing an ad and him saying, “Nice ad.” I emulate him today when I see good advertising. Of course, back then the Miller Lite ads were the bomb and made everyone laugh. Maybe that’s why there was always a cold 12-pack in the fridge. And to answer your question, no. I never drank beer with my dad. Honest.
Don't be like that guy.
So here we are in 2010, the economy is starting to show signs of life after a flatlined ‘09. Retailers everywhere are continuing to modify their sales and value propositions to the customer. The competition continues to shrink while the customer continues to tighten the wallet and be more selective about where the money goes.
In an effort to attract customers, retailers are becoming more category and product agnostic. Walmart’s consumer electronics department is beginning to look a lot like Best Buy’s layout. Best Buy adopted a red theme for their new Musical Instruments department. It looks a lot like Guitar Center. Amazon just takes on everyone with unrivaled inventory. The customer has two choices to make: Click-and-order, or brick-and-mortar. And if the customer can get the same product from any number of retailers, the brand experience becomes the deciding factor for the customer.
The most valuable thing a retailer can own is its position in a customer’s mind. At the retail level, digital signage augments that perception by bringing the brand to life.
A digital signage network is an investment in your brand, not a line item on your P&L sheet. You build it to create a differentiated experience, not to show an ad a customer can see on her TV at home, online, or in another retailer’s space. Running ads for the sake of revenue denigrates the brand equity you have built for the customer experience. The network has a higher purpose at the intersection between the brand and the customer.
Your digital signage network allows you to consistently deliver your brand proposition, withstanding the ebb of market forces, product sales, and incremental revenue. This reflects in a customer’s choice between you and another retailer. Relying on revenue to drive the programming or the experience will force you to rethink your strategy every time the market fluctuates.
With a customer’s ability to deselect messaging as she moves through the retail environment, it is critical that your brand engages her instead of becoming a casualty.
