Shop online, if you can actually get online.

This past weekend found me digging around Home Depot for various items including patio furniture. I found a couple of chairs and a table, but the table did not have a price tag. Enter the kiosk you see, located conveniently 10 feet from the table. I figured, with that big “Shop Online” sign on the front, that I could take the SKU number and get a price.

Instead of talking only about what went wrong, I have three simple solutions that can completely change this kiosk:

The monitor was surrounded by store tchotchkes, including a staple gun and cleaning supplies.
The very first impression is whether this is customer-facing. Clean it up. Get rid of all the employee items, leaving only the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse. These items should be clean and free from dust and dirt (I’m going to assume the employee could clean it, not leave the cleaning supplies for the customer to use…). I’m sure the kiosk has network connectivity, making it an employee workstation, but this is no excuse for the clutter and unattractiveness. This was not built for the employee.

The screen was showing the default Windows XP screensaver.
The screensaver is the first thing a customer sees when approaching the monitor. Make it inviting. If you don’t have the store logo, use one of the scenic-photo-montage screensavers that comes with the operating system, anything other than the default XP screen.

I hit a key on the keyboard and up popped the Windows XP login screen.
Strike three. At this point, there is no way a customer will go further with this.

It would take no more than 15 minutes for an employee to remedy these issues, ensuring that every customer who walked toward this kiosk would actually use it.

When the login window popped up, I tried a halfhearted login, “homedepot,” and was met with denial. I walked away from the kiosk, and Home Depot lost my business that day.

And all because their customer kiosk didn’t look like a customer kiosk.

Before the problems get too big.

This is a guest post from Jeff McQueen, Creative Director and Partner of Proscenium Pictures. As a creative director, he brings some interesting thoughts to the industry on how we can better position ourselves over the long run. You can learn more about Jeff and Proscenium Pictures here.

Are these High Relevance Issues for Today’s OOH Industry, or did I miss the memo?

As I try very hard to stay current and dare I say, even ahead of the curve, I have noticed several trends in OOH that I consider potentially problematic for the entire industry going forward.  At the risk of sounding uncharacteristically contrarian and curmudgeonly, I think a few things need to be said.

WE NEED A BETTER TERM THAN “CONTENT”
The industry needs to firmly acknowledge that we are ADVERTISING – albeit in a very special niche of the industry that requires a unique combination of understanding and ad-making sensibilities, but advertising nonetheless.   The more effective our advertising, the more effective the industry will be.  Let’s call it what it is and be proud that we work real hard to sell real stuff to real people for real companies.    And if we need a unifying differentiating phrase to be clever, what is it?  It definitely isn’t “content.” Whatever it might be, let’s coin an accurate phrase and rally behind it.

OOH TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS NEED TO SLOW DOWN
Big faster better technology companies that have the incredible skills to make placement deals everywhere need to slow down a bit or the bubble of OOH will soon be recognized as over-stated, over-promised and over-priced, despite the zillions of invested VC.  How many screens can viewers absorb until they completely lose their effectiveness?  The industry is already showing signs of oversaturation with big initial players going bankrupt, and in today’s world, there are many lessons that can be learned from unbridled and uncontrolled growth without internal industry monitoring.  This solution might be tricky and require cross-company coordination, but the future of OOH effectiveness and ultimate value may rest upon the collective decisions that are made.

METRIC TECHNOLOGY MAY NOT BE A PLUS FOR OOH
I’m concerned that when unbiased (or not too biased) metric technology can truly measure ROI, the industry is going to financially flat line.  If sponsors can’t realize measurable profits from OOH advertising, they will pull out of the game. Let’s make sure our advertising is generating additional profits for our paying sponsors, and that technological expansion is helping to achieve this goal, not dilute it.  Should we be doing internal tests as an industry to troubleshoot ROI related issues (not impression related issues) prior to Nielsen or another company publishing negative and potentially damning results?

IN-STORE ADVERTISING IS DIFFERENT THAN OOH ADVERTISING
In-Store is different than OOH, and an area that will have even more importance when sponsors realize that spending the money on a big interactive digital display somewhere near a bus stop rather than in a purchase-potential environment doesn’t necessarily generate dollars.  There is technology used in Europe via mobile phones that help make more places purchase-potential, but what do we do in the meantime to keep OOH effective – or should I say, effectively driving sales?

Jeff will be speaking at Digital Signage Expo on Content Day during the “Interpreting a Creative Brief: Many Views, Many Methods” panel on February 24th. I will also be speaking at DSE. You can learn more about our presentations and register here.

We care inside and out.

In response to my post about Columbia Outerwear’s storefront touch screen interactive, I got the following note from Mike Cole with Visual Planet, a manufacturer of touch-screen technology. His note provided more valuable insight into the purpose of content, specifically with touch screen technology and even taking it beyond the normal working hours of the retail environment:

We are the manufacturers of the through window technology and as you say it is so important to use it in the correct way depending on the application.

So for example when used through a retail window during opening hours, the key objective is to use the technology to get customers in the store. If you can cut down the sales cycle by providing relevant information even better. Of course the screen has another service after opening hours and the content should change to meet this new demand.

So during opening hours more is less as far as the content is concerned, first you have to attract people to use the touch screen, a game for example then the content on the screen has to encourage the customer to enter the store, some kind of promotion is the key. Although you don’t want to create a jam on the high street you do what to attract people to look in the direction of your store, so if you attract people to use the screen others will be attracted too, we all have a tendency to rubber neck when unusual things are going on!

At night more content but still very simple navigation and most importantly a fast response to the touch, there is nothing worse than a non responsive touch screen in an outdoor environment in fact in any environment.

Keep the navigation in the centre of the screen and away from the edges of the screen.  The problem is that people often want put their web site on the window, the issue is that putting up 1% of that information may even be too much and the navigation is just wrong for a window touch screen. It is also still appropriate to have a promotion of some kind to bring in the customer the next day if they are passing the store.

Our technology can be used for many applications and every one requires a different form of content it’s true to say that there is a lot more thought needed to make the most that touch technology can provide.

Thank you for your article if we can improve the use of our technology so we can generate real ROI for the retailer we have done our job and people will buy more of our technology then everyone is happy

WHAT YOU SHOULD TAKE FROM THIS: Manufacturers care as much about successful content as creatives do. The synergy between the two should not be underestimated. As said many times, “Form follows function,” and regardless of which side of the industry we sit on, we are all in it for the singular purpose of driving that connection with the viewer.

Thank you, Mike.

A note: Best Buy is not affiliated with Visual Planet in any manner and this post should not be construed as an endorsement of Visual Planet by Best Buy.