If you are a digital signage newbie, this quick-start guide will help you take beginning steps towards an effective communication strategy. Because digital signage is part art and part science, most communicators start small with just one or two digital signs, test ideas and measure what works with their audience and then build on that. This discovery process is useful for any communications effort that involves interrupting people’s routine, because, after all, your message is not the most important thing on the mind of your viewer, or is it?

The most important thing to recognize when you start communicating by a digital sign is to realize that viewers don’t care about your message just because it’s digital unless you give them a reason to care. Certainly this applies to any communication effort. Just presenting information on a digital sign does not nullify lazy thinking or uninspiring content or other communication snafus.

Fortunately for anyone using digital signage, it has proven to be a great platform for breaking out of boring routines by experimenting with content, having a bit of fun, maybe even jolting your audience with something unexpected, and then seeking to engage your audience beyond a casual glance. For example, if your content produces a smile instead of a glance, you might just be on to something.

Because of its ability to change messages on the fly, by schedule, by data, or by various environmental triggers, digital signage represents a new way of thinking about communicating. It empowers communicators to address the ways consumers, customers, and employees think and act at the point-of-sale, point-of-wait, and in the point-of-transit environments. Since digital signage is not print, and it’s not television, it requires a different approach.

Modern digital signage products and services provide tools to help make your in-house messages or advertising reliable, consistent, on time and of high quality. However, a tool is not a strategy in itself. No worries! These guidelines will equip you with some key facts to make your messages more engaging and appealing.

Digital Signage Content Basics

When people are on the move, you have only seconds to engage them. Here are some attention-grabbing strategies to incorporate into your messages:

1. Use bright colors.
2. Use motion in the narrative to help tell the story.
3. Keep your message cycle length appropriate to the amount of time your average customer will be in the viewing vicinity. Many successful retail message cycles are 3-10 seconds in overall length.
4. Refresh signage content often to reflect sales, special offerings--and sales goals.
5. Reinforce product and branding messages.
6. Know your customers. Speak to their interests. Content should be dynamic and reflective of what people are doing.
7. Make sure the digital media experience complements all marketing objectives, from merchandising to branding.
8. Keep the look and feel of your content consistent with your brand equity.
9. Avoid excessive text. Keep your messages as visual as possible.
10. Don’t try to deliver full advertising messages, as you would for television, print or long-form video. Show product glimpses that pique curiosity or provide information.
11. Create designs that can exist independent of sound; assume that it will not be heard. On the other hand...
12. Use sound when the signage location allows it.
13. Try to incorporate product tips and information.
14. Experiment. Have fun.

Digital Signage Deployment Strategies

1. Use larger displays when possible and practical. Bigger increases WOW factor!
2. Make sure your messages are relevant to the time, place and purchase opportunities at hand.
3. Incorporate touch screen technology when interactivity is appropriate and useful to the audience.
4. Utilize motion sensor technology when appropriate and useful to the audience.
5. Utilize custom data when appropriate and useful to the audience.
6. Keep the customer experience at the front of your mind as you choose content. Digital signage should enhance--rather than intruding upon--the shopping experience.
7. Use an editorial calendar to determine the best timing for content.
8. Incorporate frequent brand IDs for your company and its products.
9. Use your signage to create add-on sales: accessories with that dress, extra cheese for that burger, etc. This strategy has created double-digit sales increases for many companies.

A Few Thoughts About Digital Signage Placement

Don’t make this mistake: not giving much thought to sign placement, or even worse, wasting your efforts and budget on misplaced digital signs. People are not likely to look up to your ceiling for product announcements. Instead, place product-specific content where products are, preferably at eye-level or shelf level. The closer the advertising to the purchase opportunity, the more effective it will be.

Even more than just hanging a digital sign where it’s convenient to see, think a tad further about the bigger picture. For example, digital signage can influence the ambiance of a building by the way it is integrated into the environment. Have you considered that your digital sign may be way too small and unimpressive to make your point? Try a video wall instead! Get creative…think of your digital displays as canvases for creative expression.

Finally, by locating your signage in the optimal place and choosing the best size, the creative content can now fully stimulate the senses, arouse and influence behavior that complements the purpose of the building’s design, which reinforces and extends the core brand image. Empowered with great design, you can inspire your viewers with an aesthetic experience.

Feeling overwhelmed or out of your comfort zone? Consider asking a full-service digital signage provider with a good reputation to help design your first campaign. This will reduce your learning time and increase your chances of success considerably. A provider of professional creative services will do their homework by performing a thorough discovery process. They will maintain your brand standard, and if you don’t have a brand standard, they will help establish one. From there they will research your audience to understand what they care about and create a call to action. Finally, a successful campaign will have various forms of measurement based on your return-on-objectives (ROO).

Given the time and willingness to learn from trial and error anyone, regardless of background, can be successful with digital signage; but, it’s important to shake off the common “a slide show is good enough” mentality—it’s not an effective strategy for digital signage. Sure, everyone is not a Picasso per se, but everyone is creative to some degree. A well-conceived strategy masters content that transforms digital signage from mere displays, computers, and cables into a dynamic communications medium with a limitless ability to inspire, inform and motivate.

David Little is a charter member of the Digital Screenmedia Association with over 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to effectively communicate their unique marketing messages. For many more helpful digital signage tips, examples and solutions, keep in touch with Little at KeywestTechnology.com

When executed properly and in the right context, digital signage can leverage sticky content to inform, inspire and motivate. It provides a concrete reason for viewers to return their glances again and again.

What is sticky content? The term comes from Internet lingo. It refers to content added to a website that has the purpose of getting users to return to that particular website and hold their attention longer than just a glance. This is why we commonly see such things as Internet games, weather, news and horoscopes on personalized web portals.

There’s no question that the traits of sticky content can also be useful with many digital signage applications. As many longtime operators of digital signage systems and networks will tell you, advertising loops are not very “sticky” when removed from the context of point-of-sale locations (POS). After all, how many of us flop in front of the television and flip on the “advertising channel” for late night entertainment?

The question we explore today is how this principle of sticky content can be applied to digital signage, and because content matters, what is likely the best sticky content when using digital signage in point-of-wait (POW) and point-of-transit (POT) locations. It’s important to know and distinguish the psychological differences between viewers’ attention spans and perceptions in all three possible contexts of digital signage. If you need to brush up on content guidelines quickly, the Digital Sign Content Best Practices guide from the University of Michigan should help you.

Basically, sticky content is about piggybacking existing content onto another medium to yield a greater value. For example, NASA scientists are considering a plan to piggyback future astronauts on –or even inside- asteroids orbiting between Earth and Mars to shield them from cancer-causing space radiation during trips between the planets.

While the proposal has some disadvantages, it offers the space agency an appealing, elegant way to sidestep problems like building a rocket big enough to boost heavy, man-made shielding into space as part of the spacecraft.

The plan draws on an ancient concept: Piggyback on –or inside- a more powerful object to get to a desired destination. Whether it’s buckling up in our cars, riding an elephant into battle after traversing the Alps, or climbing into a hollow wooden horse and being rolled up to the gates of Troy, the concept of piggybacking has a track record for success.

In the world of digital signage, sticky content piggybacks to your message and plays an important role in yielding a greater viewer value because it delivers something people generally want—to be entertained. Nothing can really do this better than television.

Just as television can inform, motivate and inspire its audience to take action, so too can it enhance your digital signage message. Simply throwing a TV channel on a digital display doesn’t automatically leverage the public’s love affair with TV. However, when executed properly within the agenda of a communication strategy with measureable goals, digital signage content that embraces television can piggyback on its stature in our society to cut through the noise and deliver powerful messages to customers that otherwise might be ignored.

Of course there are both technical and legal challenges that make it imperative to work with professional providers who can properly setup systems, support installations, and create branded playlists with an appropriate mix of content—in other words, providers who are accountable for obtaining results. And fortunately, with today’s digital signage advances, this is much easier than traveling to Mars.

Disruptive technologies can greatly change society. For example, in 2007, Apple released the iPhone that had a massive impact on how and why people use phones. Yes, most of us still talk on phones, but we are using smartphones for just about everything else, too. How much longer will society tolerate anything less than "smart", and what does all this mean to the future of digital signage?

Life was certainly less connected before smartphones. For example, before most people knew that an Apple was more than a tasty fruit, I was fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your perspective) to have had one of the first smartphones on the market, a Toshiba Pocket PC. If you have never heard of this product, that's probably because it was made about the time you were born or otherwise too young to care.

What do I remember about this phone? Nothing glamorous. It was slow, clunky to operate, prone to glitches, required rebooting about as often as Windows 95, even crashing with the blue screen of death on occasion!

And when I think about this a bit more, I realize the same could be said about legacy digital signage systems.

It just so happens I was involved with the nascent digital signage industry in the 90s, the same decade the original smartphones were invented. Yes, when I think about digital signage in the 90s, I can easily conclude it too was slow, clunky to operate, prone to glitches, required rebooting about as often as Windows 95, even crashing with the blue screen of death on occasion!

However, if I were to sum up digital signage starting in the 90s right up to the last few years, one would have to say that despite all of its quirks and limitations, it was glamorous. How about you? How did you feel about digital signage in its infant years? Try this; think back to the very first time you saw a flat panel television. You were likely spellbound with its thin stature and seductive HD resolution. If not spellbound, maybe you remember being gagged by its price with those early plasma panels costing over $10K each.

Peering into 2014 and beyond, I think we can safely say that digital signage is beyond glamorous-it's a bona fide medium-at least for advertisers. For example, at the 2013 Digital Place-based Advertising Association (DPAA) summit held in New York City, the panelists agreed that place-based advertising (think digital sign media) would continue to rise through 2017 (up from 5% to as much as 25%). "I think place-based will outgrow [other forms of media] because it lends itself to targeting customers," said Chris Paul, General Manager AOD of VivaKi. "It is just a matter of technology, terminology, and industry understanding being in sync before we see dramatic changes."

What kind of dramatic changes is Paul alluding to? Possibly, the 2013 ANA/Nielsen Survey has the answer. The survey states that in three years, the importance of integrated multi-screen campaigns is expected to dramatically increase, from 20 percent of digital media purchases today to a projected 50 percent by 2016.

We might consider at this point the attributes that would lead to such optimism on spending. According to the survey, spending increases on multi-screen campaigns will require three main things:

• Verification that advertising achieved the desired result (noted by 71 percent of respondents)
• Consistent metrics across screens (61 percent)
• Verification that advertising was delivered to the right audience (59 percent)

Are you one of those that still think digital signage is a fad? Heads up! According to the AdNation News article, Digital Place-based Media, What's Ahead?, there are strong reasons to believe it's here to stay. The article reported a case study related by David Krupp, CEO of Kinetic, who shared information about Degree Women's "DO MORE" antiperspirant campaign.

 "By focusing place-based media in gyms, likely to be seen by women while they were working out, the study concluded that consumers had better recall (56%) and a stronger intent to purchase (62%) than the control group. Krupp described Degree as 'the right brand for the right environment' because in this place-based campaign, it reached a large scale of consumers, who were in the right mindset to recall the product."

So digital signage went from glamorous to a medium to a business almost overnight. It started out as an eccentric technology with a glamorous flair. Eccentric because no one was exactly sure what to do with it and how to best use it-plus it was unfriendly to use and awkward to manage.

But glamour alone does not build markets. Results build markets because investors put their money where opportunities look promising, and digital signage has been adept at getting results. Looking forward to 2014 and beyond, we can now make an educated guess at where digital signage is heading, and we need to look no further than the popularity of smartphones, online gaming devices, tablets and the Internet itself.

What do these popular technologies all have in common? The single thread that ties everything together comes in the form of engagement. Digital signage of yesteryear behaved more like our parents' TV-it broadcast a message to its likely viewers without a plan for interaction. There's nothing wrong with this, of course, but the big opportunity for digital signage going forward has more to do with engagement. Engagement is the way forward for digital media of all kinds, including advertising, branding, infotainment, videos, movies, gaming, and social media at large.

David Little is a charter member of Digital Screenmedia Association with over 10 years of experience supplying professionals with trusted digital signage solutions. For many more helpful digital signage tips, examples and solutions, keep in touch with Keywest Technology.

Enhancing digital signage content may be as simple as tapping the power of social media.

Here is a remarkable statistic published online by USA Today's Technology Live website in October 2010. As of that date, there were 6.8 billion people in the world, 1.96 billion Internet users and 517 million Facebook users.

As Byron Acohido, author of the piece noted: "Put another way: about 7 percent of the world's humans are on Facebook." Just over a year later, Facebook notes on its statistics page that there are now 800 million active users of the social media network.

How many of those Facebook users carrying smartphones will visit somewhere that relies on a digital sign? One can only imagine the number for a particular venue. But consider this: Facebook's statistics page says there are 350 million users who actively interact with Facebook via their smartphones. So it's a pretty safe bet that the closer the demographics of the audience for a digital sign match those of typical mobile Facebook users, the more likely there's a vast opportunity to be realized.

The likely proximity of a smartphone to a digital sign creates an important opportunity for anyone communicating via a digital sign who possesses a bit of an imagination and a willingness to experiment. Consider a noisy environment, such as a popular bar, dance club or even certain restaurants. Could designating on-screen real estate of a digital sign to a special Facebook page, give a business owner a way to help patrons connect with one another on screen and in so doing cut through the noise, attract the attention of customers and promote goods or services in other zones on the sign?

Leveraging social media in this way could be as simple as giving patrons a virtual bulletin board on which to post vetted observations and pictures or as complex as giving them a way to play bar games, like trivia, with one another. Imagination, budget and creativity would seem to be the only limitations.

The good news for small businesses looking to take advantage of this opportunity is many are already quite familiar and fluent with Facebook. According to the quarterly Merchant Confidence Index released in February 2011 by MerchantCircle, 70 percent of local merchants are using Facebook for marketing -up from 50 percent the preceding year. In fact, MerchantCircle, among largest social network of local business owners in the United States with more than 1.6 million members, found Facebook has passed Google as the most widely used marketing method for local merchants.

In addition to its wide use by local merchants, the rapid growth Facebook saw over the past year saw among merchants is positive. It appears to indicate local merchants have proven themselves to be quite willing to explore the potential of this social network. Thus taking the next step to integrate a Facebook page as digital signage content doesn't seem to be too far of a stretch for merchants with a knack for the platform.

It's also important to note that Facebook isn't the only social media platform that can be leveraged for digital signage content. Twitter, too, easily fits into the same mold as a convenient way to let patrons publicly interact with one another on a digital sign via their smartphones. Like Facebook, Twitter also is familiar to local merchants. The Merchant Confidence Index found about 40 percent currently use the platform, which is up from 32 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

As business owners, outside creative agencies and internal graphics departments consider what digital signage content to present to the public, they would do well to remember that adding engaging, attention-grabbing element to their digital sign may be no further away than a Facebook page or Twitter account.

A new study finding many people are worried about businesses checking their identity online might shed light on how the public perceives digital signs that interact with their cell phones.

A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California finds that 48 percent of Internet users 16 years old and older are worried about businesses checking their identity on the Internet.

By way of comparison, the research -the "Digital Future Study"- reveals that only 38 percent are concerned about the government checking up on them online. What's going on and why is this relevant to digital signage, you may be asking.
On the surface, the concept is quite appealing. Digital out-of-home signs enabled with the right wireless technology could give smartphone-toting shoppers a way to interact with what is displayed and even deliver special promotional messages to their handsets.

Where things get a little dicey for this technology is with the correct notion that wireless cellphone communications is two-way. Some are likely to worry that the wireless link is somehow enabling the sign to retrieve personal information. Others, probably more accurately, won't give it a second thought. Still others may view it as a positive because the interaction via cellphone lets those responsible for the interactive digital signage content to collect information about search requests and modify what's presented to better serve consumers.

The "Digital Future Study" seems to suggest that a large percentage - nearly half - of shoppers may look suspiciously at digital signs linked wirelessly to their smartphones. A press release announcing the release of the study June 3 quotes Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, as saying many people "are worried that the Big Brother in our lives is actually Big Business."

"Internet users have major concerns about corporate intrusion - and who can blame them?" the press release quotes Cole as saying. "Considering the recent revelations about covert surveillance of personal behavior through GPS tracking and other related issues, we believe that user concerns about the involvement - some would say encroachment - of companies into the lives of Internet users represent a significant issue."

Indeed, it was recent revelations that Apple and Google Android smartphones were surreptitiously tracking the movements of customers that originally prompted my questioning whether or not wireless connections between digital signs and smartphones might do more harm than good.

With the public being bombarded by commercial messages pitching services to protect against identity theft, news that cellphones are keeping tabs on peoples' movements and being asked by cashiers for their phone numbers simply to make a purchase at a grocery or hardware store, it's not too surprising that so many people are vary of Big Business knowing their identity. Nor would it be very surprising if many members of the public look askance at the signage-cellphone link.

No one can be certain if that will be the case. But I think findings like those of the "Digital Future Study" suggest marketers and other communicators responsible for deploying digital signage should think long and hard about the risks and the benefits of adding the ability to link with wireless smartphones before moving forward.

Whether it's Sunday night or some other period of time when staffing is at a minimum, digital signage networks should be ready to respond to emergencies with timely warnings.

Twice within the past four months, I have been out of town on business when my general locale came under a tornado warning -not a watch, but a warning- issued by the National Weather Service.

For those who don't live in parts of the country where tornados generally occur, the distinction between a watch and warning is the former indicates conditions are favorable to producing a tornado, while the latter means a tornado has been spotted on the ground.

The thing about a tornado warning in metro areas is that although sirens will wail to announce the danger, they don't dispense information about where the tornado is located, the track that it is following and other threats that often accompany tornados, such as the presence of damaging hail. In other words, you know there is danger, but you don't know if you're in the bull's eye or some outer ring on the tornado's target.

Radio and television broadcasters typically fill in the details by telling or showing the public timely information to help them respond appropriately. However, both recent occasions when I encountered a tornado warning happened on a Sunday night, a time when many radio stations are playing nationally syndicated programs or automated music playlists and many TV stations are working with a skeleton crew. On both occasions, all stations, save one, were slow to respond with their typically excellent presentation of weather warnings.

Having experienced firsthand a dearth of information in an emergency situation made me think of all the digital signage networks in use that may suffer from their own "Sunday night syndrome."

Please understand, I am using "Sunday night" as a metaphor for whatever day or stretch of time your organization is typically off-duty or understaffed. The day of the week or specific time isn't important, just the fact that your organization is at rest.

Are plans in place to communicate critical emergency information via your digital signage network in a timely fashion during those periods? Sure, most buildings on a college campus may be closed after midnight, but what about the anatomy lab or design studio where students have gathered at the only time they can to study? What about workers on the graveyard shift at the factory? Or for that matter, the drivers on the interstate like me who see "Click it or Ticket" roadside digital signage messages from the state, but not "tornado spotted five miles ahead"?

A few helpful questions for managers of digital signage networks to ask include:

1. During what periods is our organization at its weakest?
2. Do contingency plans exist for emergency communications at off times?
3. Have personnel been assigned responsibilities for emergency communications during down times?
4. Does the digital signage network allow for control from an off-site Web browser or other remote access to generate and distribute emergency messaging even when no one is present at the operations center?
5. Are security methods sufficient to prevent unauthorized remote access to the digital signage network?

While the primary purpose of digital signage networks varies depending on the application, each should share a common role during emergencies: distributing warnings and information that can save lives and minimize the risk of injury. Whether it's Sunday night or some other down time, digital signage network managers should be prepared to do just that.

Having access to remote control over display functions like "on" and "off" can save time, effort and expense.

Sometimes what should be obvious isn't so till someone points it out. For instance, just the other day I was listening to a favorite radio program that I stream on the Internet when the topic of surprise endings of films came up.

The sidekick of the show's host identified the movie "Planet of the Apes" as one with a surprise ending. But the real surprise of that radio segment came when it became clear that while the sidekick recognized the movie had a surprise ending, he had no clue that the surprise was Charlton Heston discovered he was actually on Earth throughout the film.

When the host of the show understood his sidekick's failure to see the obvious, the real fun began. He had loads of laughs over the fact that his sidekick -from the time he first saw the movie, released some 40 years before- had not recognized the obvious till that very moment on air.

But haven't we all at one time or another found ourselves in exactly the same position as the sidekick -not recognizing the obvious, which stares us in the face, till someone else points it out to us?

Such is the case with digital signage network management and remote control over simple display functions, such as "on" "off" and "volume." Many displays come with RS232 ports that allow these functions -and others, such as changing the channel, which probably isn't important in this context- to be controlled remotely. This interface and the need for control over these functions should be obvious but might go overlooked without an understanding of why controlling them is so important.

Imagine having dozens or even hundreds of displays scattered throughout a university campus, shopping mall or sports arena. Having the ability to turn individual monitors, sets of monitors, or all monitors on or off at a given time is a good way to manage display life, minimize energy consumption and even play an important role in targeting vital information when emergency situations arise.

Rather than having to walk the venue and manually turn monitors off in the evening and on in the morning, digital signage network administrators can rely on serial remote control of basic on/off functionality to save time and improve operational efficiency.

When an emergency arises -particularly during off hours when only skeleton crews may be occupying a given building- having the ability to remotely turn on displays previously shut off for the evening so warnings about emergency weather conditions or other contingencies can be displayed can become a matter of life and death.

Remote control over volume can be important as well. Sometimes professors or teachers in an educational setting, passersby at public venues, like malls, and even employees in corporate settings may manually adjust the volume of the display outside the digital signage network administrator's desired level.

As with on/off functionality, controlling volume from a central location through serial commands to the display reduces the time needed to make adjustments and saves a lot of legwork.

Is the importance of controlling on/off and volume functionality obvious? Probably. But for those who may have been having a "Planet of the Apes" moment when it comes to having remote control from a network operations center over these basic functions, I hope this column produced an important "ah ha."

A new study from the Platt Retail Institute reaffirms how effective digital communication is in distributing emergency warnings and alerts on school campuses. In late September, a gunman opened fire inside the library at the University of Texas in Austin.

For many of us old enough to recall, news of the event immediately triggered memories of Charles Whitman, the sniper who fired upon the campus from the University of Texas Tower in August 1966. While the specifics of the two events are quite different, one major but easy-to-overlook difference is particularly noteworthy: campus communications. Forty-four years ago, radio and television carried the burden of warning the public about the presence of the sniper. Unfortunately, not many people at universities tune into radio or TV during class.

Today, new digital means of communications abound, and spreading the word that a gunman has opened fire on campus can be immediate, focused and highly effective. Text messaging, e-mail and cell phones make it simpler for campus authorities to reach individual students and faculty within minutes of an event occurring.

Digital signage also is an important component in this digital communications mix. After all, many students are advised to turn off their cell phones during class, so the availability of emergency messaging on digital signs strategically located around a campus provides another layer of protection in the process of communicating urgent emergency messages to students, faculty and staff.

A new study from Platt Retail Institute, "Communication Effectiveness in Higher Education" reveals the significant role of digital signage in communicating on campus. A press release announcing the study quotes Steven Keith Platt, PRI Director and Research Fellow as saying: "Our research study found that 97 percent of students prefer to receive information via digital channels, rather than from non-digital sources. Overall, text messages were found to be the most effective distribution channel, followed closely by digital signage."

It's important to note that emergency messages delivered digitally, like in text messages and on digital signs, do not have to relate simply to shootings. A variety of emergency situations require quick, accurate communication. Universities and other institutions regularly plan for contingencies such as fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and many others. Developing an effective communications strategy that taps the power of digital communications should be part of that contingency planning.

When it comes to digital signage and emergency communications, a variety of specific pages with the appropriate emergency-related information should be prepared prior to any event as part of a well-planned, campus-wide digital signage network. In the event of any given contingency happening, pages can quickly be updated with event-specific information and distributed to all or some of the signs on the network.

Having been involved with the planning and roll out of some of these systems, I want to offer a few ideas for those who haven't given digital signage and emergency communications much thought. First, the digital signage network administrator should coordinate with on-campus and off-campus first responders as digital signage pages are prepared for various contingencies. Often, plans already exist and can be drawn upon to create effective communications. Second, provide for Internet access to digital signage control in case the emergency circumstance prevents access to the campus command and control center and the computers ordinarily used to drive digital signage messaging. Third, be sure to password protect access to the digital signage network.

While the very thought of a gunman on campus, a tornado striking a building or some other contingency is tremendously disturbing, it is necessary to plan for them before they happen. Effective communications can save lives, and supplementing text messages and e-mails with emergency digital signage messaging might mean the difference between preserving innocent life and a lifetime filled with regret.

A preliminary tally of 2009 ad spending in the United States reveals a 9 percent decline -a drop that demands re-evaluation of old media choices.

Based on findings through the third quarter of 2009 by The Nielsen Company -the same business that collects and compiles TV ratings- I suggested the recession and decline in ad spending should motivate ad buyers to re-exam some long-held concepts about where best to spend their shrinking ad budgets and how they could benefit from redirecting a portion of their spending towards digital signage advertising.

Last month, Nielsen released its preliminary figures for all of 2009. They reveal an overall 9 percent reduction in advertising spending, or a decline of $11.6 billion from the 2008 total of $117 billion. With the fourth quarter of 2009 accounted for, the decline becomes the sixth consecutive quarterly drop in ad spending, albeit at a pace that has slowed for the past few quarters.

The latest figures also show that for the 10 categories where ad spending is the greatest outlays for advertising declined 9.5 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year. According to The Nielsen Company statistics, the top 10 ad categories and spending in each were:

Product Category - Jan-Dec 2009 - Jan-Dec 2008 - % Change
($ millions)

Automotive------- $8,039.1 -- $10,491. -- (-)23.4%

Pharmaceutical -- $4,504.6 -- $4,424.6 -- 1.8%

QSR Restaurant -- $4,068.5 -- $4,014.9 -- 1.3%

Department Stores-$4,066.3 -- $3,956.0 -- 2.8%

Wireless Phone----$3,386.2 -- $3,689.0 -- (-)8.2%

Motion Picture----$3,368.4 -- $3,414.0 -- (-)1.3%

Auto Dealerships--$3,227.2 -- $4,188.6 -- (-)23.0%

Direct Response---$2,465.9.-- $2,582.9 -- (-)4.5%

Restaurants-------$1,557.6 -- $1,615.0 -- (-)3.6%

Furniture Stores--$1,437.5 -- $1,553.1 -- (-)7.4%

Total Top 10------$36,121.2 - $39,930.5 - (-)9.5%


The Nielsen figures show both car categories -the "automotive" category representing factories and dealer associations and the auto dealership category- saw the greatest decline. That's not surprising given the high degree of apprehension among many U.S. workers, who have themselves lost jobs, taken a temp job to make ends meet, or seen friends and family furloughed and laid off. Understandably, there is a reluctance to commit to years of car payments while job anxieties are running high for millions of workers.

In this environment, perhaps the marketing executives at car companies and dealerships would do well to reconsider their advertising strategy. Rather than focusing almost entirely on getting people to walk into their showrooms through TV, radio and newspaper ads, they may be better served by reallocating a portion of their existing ad budgets to communicate via digital signage with the people who already come in on a daily basis to have their vehicles serviced.

While traditional advertising is important, I contend it's equally important to communicate directly with existing customers who have a track record of supporting the dealership or brand and are ready to spend money. Digital signage is an effective tool to accomplish this on-premise messaging because it can speak right to the needs of people in the dealership and at the same time exploit the persuasive elements of video, audio, graphics, animation and text that are the staples of television. The same could be said for most of top 10 ad categories that experienced declines in 2009.

To be clear, I am not advocating any advertiser drop traditional media. They serve an important function. However, what I am suggesting is those controlling advertising budgets give serious consideration to how they allocate their dollars. Ignoring how advertising via digital signage can benefit an enterprise simply because it doesn't' fit neatly into a pre-existing media category with a long history is unwise.

A far smarter approach is to re-evaluate existing media budgets and open one's self to new opportunities. A serious appraisal will reveal digital signage is a worthy and effective ad candidate.

The Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound airliner once again places into focus the importance of communicating warnings in times of emergencies.

It's easy to get complacent and drift from day to day without paying much attention to potential threats until an incident out of the blue slaps us across the face and demands we sit up and pay attention.

For many, the actions of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the man U.S. authorities say attempted to detonate an explosive device in his underwear, aboard Delta Airlines Flight 253 are such a wakeup call. The failed Christmas Day bombing came at a time when most people were focused on gathering for cherished family time and taking part in long-held holiday traditions. But with one news flash, those priorities, at least for a moment, were redirected into thoughts of safety and security.

Personally, beyond the typical reaction of most Americans to word of the failed effort, I could not help but think of the important role digital signage can play in delivering emergency alert messages.

Certainly, I'm not so wrapped up in digital signage that I think there's a place for 42in LCD panels and a digital signage network aboard an airliner. That's just silly. But what does come to mind is how businesses, educational institutions, stadiums and arenas, casinos, government agencies, the military and many others have taken steps to ensure emergency messaging via their digital signage networks as a component of their overall strategy for responding to a threat.

Consider these circumstances:
* Severe weather: Thunderstorms, tornados and other severe weather events can strike with little warning. In 2008, 125 people lost their lives in the United States due to tornados. Those in public places may have had a better chance of survival with adequate warning via digital signage.
* Fire: Public facilities with existing digital signage networks can add emergency fire information, such as escape routes, for use in the event of a blaze. The same signs also can deliver specific, vital communications from rescue workers to people in different parts of a building.
* Armed intrusion: Sadly, students and teachers periodically have been in the crosshairs of shooters at high schools and universities in the United States. Digital signage can warn of an intrusion and possibly direct people out of harms way.
* Military contingencies: Military bases with digital signage networks can tie the command structure into personnel scattered around the base via the signs as a supplement and backup to traditional military communications channels.

In each of these circumstances, digital signage can be used to convey important warnings, instructions on where to go, where not to go and what to do. Additionally, conveying emergency information via digital signs serves the needs of the hearing impaired and deaf. With digital signs, emergency alerts and messaging can be communicated quickly and effectively to those who otherwise might not realize a dangerous situation is unfolding.

For those businesses and institutions with existing digital signage networks in place, all that's needed to accommodate communicating during an emergency is a little forethought and planning. Often, a safety officer working for an organization will identify possible contingencies and the types of messages needed during such events. Canned digital signage slides with escape route maps, directions on where to proceed in a severe storm and other information can be prepared in advance and called up at a moment's notice when needed.

A digital signage network also can be built to allow authorized personnel in a public safety center, such as a campus police office, or even located anywhere with an Internet connection and password-protected access to take control of the network and create and display specific instructions on the fly.

The Christmas Day bombing attempt is a highly visible reminder that emergencies can occur at any moment. Responding to an emergency with vital information can mean the difference between life and death. Digital signage is an effective means to do just that.