So many digital signage installations are either a “train wreck” today or are going “off the rails” on their path into the ditch. Many are under-performing.
 
We’ve all seen them… dark displays or error messages showing, or stale, boring or poor content.. In each case, under-achievement of the intended return on investment and little chance of system build-out through further investment.

Failure starts to show at the planning stage and rears its head especially during operations.

The effect of that the initial investment does not provide the intended return, and ongoing investment to system build-out. Without build-out, the benefits of broader multi-location installation and the amortization of the costs of volume purchasing, content and operations are not realized.

The causes are typically one or more of the following:

Inadequate planning lies in the short-sightedness related to clearly defining business goals and the content approach that is central to achieving these through the technology. The initiative will fail unless objectives are defined along with the content to achieve these, following by sourcing and installing the technology suited to presenting the content that achieve the goals.

Organizational issues can be blamed when one part of the organization (such as facilities operations or Information Technologies) puts the digital signage in place, while another (such as visitor relations, marketing or human resources) is expected to use and operate the system to generate return on the investment. The lack of investment understanding, budgeting, suitable personnel or skills, or over-arching executive validation causes the initiative to hobble along, being "good enough” and never fulfilling the full promise of the media.. or simply stagnating. The fault in this case is insufficient planning.

Revenue sourcing is sometimes expected from advertising as endemic or third party organization are invited or expected to pay for message display. Without focusing on activating this revenue, it simply does not occur and this source of funding is not realized. The fault is in the planning.

System outage: Digital signage is a technology system of media ingest, management and display, with the inherent needs of system performance monitoring and remedy as needed. The approach to making “help” happen is part of planning as are the establishment of training and human resourcing needs.

Poor content is the not-so-silent killer of digital signage. Stale or poor content are the cause of under-performance of most systems that are currently operating. It is the content that ultimately achieves the results once the technology is in place and operational.

No Analytics: The lack of quantified impact data means that value is unknown, and more important, that there is no baseline for performance improvement. In both cases, further investment has no validation. Information about impact does not need to be expensive or time-consuming to gather, and offer the strong basis for network health improvement. The free, 21-page paper “Digital Place-based Media ROI Analytics - Defining Value. ROI or Die! can lead a network operator through the process of assessment.

Poor planning is again the culprit. Content strategy must consider intended results from the target audience along with the viewing timeframe and context. Content spots then align with the display location and playlist daypart and structure.  

The style guide and mechanical specifications of content for use by others who are submitting their messaging for display can help assure that content is suitable for display and of high quality.

The “Content Scoring Framework” paper will help improve content:

It is a “Fail to Plan – Plan to Fail” world where digital signage is concerned.

All circumstances related to network failure can be overcome through suitable front-end planning, while operational problems, extra-ordinary operating cost and under-performance can be addressed in a network review process. Independent, experienced expertise can be extremely valuable.

Papers referenced in this article are available for free download from http://www.lylebunn.com/Pages/aboutus.aspx to help in the assessment and improvement of network planning, content. Download:

•    Content Scoring Framework
•    Digital Place-based Media ROI Analytics - Defining Value. ROI or Die!
•    Fail to Plan – Plan to Fail
•    Getting Higher Value from Existing Digital Signage Networks

Lyle Bunn (Ph.D. Hon) is an analyst, advisor and educator in the Digital place-based and enterprise media sectors. He has assisted hundreds of firms to define and implement their media programs and was named as one of the “11 Most Influential People” in place-based media by DigitalSignageToday.com.

Digital out of home messaging brings tremendous economies and agility to branding and promotional marketing. Messages can be created quickly often using graphic, animation and text elements that are used elsewhere in campaigns. And unique messages can be created to suit the target audience, display location, time of day and reflecting the context in which the message would be viewed, such as major holidays, events, weather conditions and world events.

But this ease of message creation places a burden of clarity on the marketer or communicator.

The simple question is “are we clear?”.

The message must achieve intended results, and the minimal amount of information required to achieve this always makes for the best digital out of home use.

The medium can, and should be used to achieve multiple goals simultaneously.

As a minimum, the message should include the identity of the product or service being offered, its core value proposition (i.e. benefit) and a call to action, which might include a telephone number, web address or invitation to engage with product/service/event information through TXT, download or mobile commerce.

When the intention is to increase brand awareness and recall, the primary message elements would include brand identity, tagline, value proposition and other information that allows a viewer to align with and aspire to the brand.

A promotional or merchandising message would seek to achieve viewer response with the promise of value that matters to the viewer. Examples include attractive pricing, selection, ease in getting the value, the benefits of improved life and fun.

Message benefits are maximized when the message is visually appealing and easy to read.

Our brains are hardwired to notice motion, and so the visual appeal should include animation that will attract the eye even unconsciously. Viewers will pay attention and “ingest” messages that they believe are relevant to their wants or needs, and they will unconsciously ignore messages that are not.

Content creation traps that must be avoided include:

•     A lack of visual that easily represents the product or service
•     Too much information, beyond what is required to achieve the outcome
•     Text that is to small to read from the intended viewing distance
•     Use of background and text coloration that make the content challenging to ingest.
•     An unsuitable length of message relative to the viewing experience. Two short causes viewer frustration (and de-brands), while messages that are too long minimize the opportunity to make best use of display capability.

Generating engagement on the path to purchase can be achieved with simple messaging when the answer to the question “are we clear?” is “yes!”

Lyle Bunn is an analyst, advisor and educator in North America’s digital place-based media sector who has assisted hundreds of organizations to gain advantage from the medium, and who has helped to train thousands of professionals.

Digital signage hangs on one single word - "benefit" and it is content, the media presented on digital signage that delivers this benefit once the technology infrastructure is in place. The quality of content and the merit of investing in this has been an ongoing frustration for network operators. Perhaps this is in part because impact analysis is not commonly conducted and no easier mechanism exists for assessing content quality. What follows is a framework for evaluating content quality toward improving specific and overall benefits through imporved content.

The ability to display motion, animation in content that is suited to the audience, time of day and location of presentation make the medium inherently powerful. Too often the fuller advantages that can be gained from the medium are not realized as basic messaging is considered adequate to achieve suitable viewer impact.

Content can achieve four areas of impact simultaneously as illustrated in the graphic below.

Influence reflects the tangible outcomes of value such as product or service purchaseor enquiry, registration for events or programs, visits to websites of mobile engagement that is triggered.

Branding outcomes are measured through brand awareness or propensity for future purchase and product/service reference.

Ambience is measured in terms of the degree to which the content reflects for add to the environment in which the display is located. The reduction in perceived wait time is a further indicator.

Energy reflects on the level of vitality, excitement or calm resulting from presentation of the content at that location.

Content impacts on audiences in each of these four ways and may affect different viewer demographics differently, so distinguishing the target viewer demographic is a key element of content composition planning.

This 4-benefit framework provides an easy way to assess the quality of content.

Weighting can be assigned to each of these four areas of intended outcome. For example, an area of high importance, such as influence, might be assigned a score of 40 possible points, while an ares of lesser importance such as energy might be assigned a score of just 10 possible points wht branding and ambiance at 20 points each.

Then, score each of these four areas subjectively upon viewing the content, or more objectively based on impact data or viewer survey results. Strengths and shortcomings will become clearer, and a usable language with which to communitcate areas of improvement is available.

Some questions which might be asked during content scoring include:

a) Is what is being communicated consistent with intended outcomes?
b) Are the font size, style, color contrast to background and the pace of appearance or animation suitable for viewers to easliy consume or ingest the text?
c) Is there too much text for the viewer to read in the expected timeframe, in particular when they are in the process of making a decision based on the information presented (i.e. menu of product or service options)?
d) Are graphics and images appealing, eye-catching and a positive reinforcement of the value proposition?
e) Does the color palette used for the content reflect the brand accurately?
f) Are images of products the best that they can be to reflect the product the consumer will receive?
g) Are the text and images related to and aligned with each other?
h) Is there a specific or clearly implied call to action?
i)If there are multiple options for product/service selection, is the recommended option emphasized?
j) Are there graphics or icons in use that may not be easily understood or interpreted by the viewer?
k) Does each message appear for a suitable duration?

Answering these questions to score the content in each of the four areas identifies where areas of improvement are required. It also offers an overall score for the individual spot.

For example, if influence achieves a score of 20 out of 40, branding gets a 10 out of a possible 20, ambience gets 10 out of 20 and energy gets 5 out of 10. The total score for the spot is 45 out of 90 or 50%.

The level of an acceptable score can be established in conversation with the network operator, location provider, the message owner and content producer with whom acceptable or target levels can also be established. Content spots that do not achieve a high score are very good candidates for improvement.

It also makes sense to score the overall play loop while assessing individual content spots. A similar scoring structure around criteria such as play loop versus typical viewer dwell time, transitions, compliance with an overall style guide and suitablity of a multi-zone layout.

Some questions to ask during this scoring include:

a) How does the overall length of the play loop correlate to typical viewer dwell time? This should be a one to one ratio so the viewer can see all messages in the loop. Messages that are not seen cannot be expected to produce outcome and most viewers would find it acceptable to see messages two or perhaps three times.

b) Are transitions between individual content spots smooth and appealing to the eye, while maximizing message presentation time?

c) Do all of the content spots generally use the same color palette or is the viewer challenged to accept and interpret a range of composition styles and color choices?

d) Does the use of multiple zones on the display layout support or hamper the achievement of desired benefits?

Scoring of the overall playlist will provide indicators where adjustments could achieve greater benefits in this area.

Lyle Bunn has been recognized with many digital signage industry honors while advising more than 300 organizations to gain best benefit from digital signage and helping to train more than 10,000 user, brand and supply professionals.

Most of the trends in digital signage are positive, pointing to the ongoing success and value of this dynamic place-based media. Others point to failure and the challenges inherent in the growing industry. Seven trends in particular characterize the sector at this time:

•     Growth and installed base;
•     Focus on value;
•     Failure of networks;
•     ROI and ROO;
•     Integration into the media model;
•     Supply chain; and
•     Content and transmedia.

Growth and installed base: With an estimated 20 million displays currently operational in North America and growing at 2 million a year, dynamic messaging is increasing revenues, branding and viewer engagement, and reducing communications costs. The 400-plus ad-based networks, more than 1,000 large brand and corporate networks, and hundreds of thousands of smaller deployments offer an excellent base of example application and expansion potential. A key trend in supply is the focus on existing deployments that could benefit from technology, operational or content upgrades.

Focus on value: The "honeymoon" in digital signage ends about a year after initial deployment or use (sometimes faster). As the expectation of value increases, it is fortunate that improvements in viewer targeting and dayparting are an inherent capability of digital signage. The extent of investment made is causing many end-user organizations to seek higher return on investment through operating cost reduction, improved content strategy and increased third-party payments.

Failure of networks: While decision periods for video walls and installations of 1-5 screens are short, the launch period for new networks and expansion continues to be long. Key contributing factors include poor content, display outage (which may be as symptomatic as causal), revenue under-performance and lack of analytics (i.e. justification). While network dis-continuation is uncommon even when cost/benefit is unsatisfactory, such cases have, and will continue to, shock the sector and reduce the shine that the media enjoys. Underperformance as reflected by lack of expansion investment, suitable ROI, ad rates and uptake, and higher than acceptable operating costs, reflect the malaise of networks.

ROI and ROO: While distinguishing value in terms of return on objectives for less tangible value has been commonly used, this puts network managers and their suppliers on a slippery slope. ROO can be measured as it contributes to return on investment. The trend of using ROO for investment validation makes digital signage vulnerable to greater investment scrutiny while diminishing its capacity of forever improving benefits through optimization. Any deployment that fails to have tangible measures of value ready for presentation is on its way to "walking the plank." Lack of measurable value results inevitably in inadequate funding for content refresh and operations support, which result in the irrelevance of the network and the inclination to "pull the plug."

Integration into the media model: Multichannel and omnichannel communications, which take advantage of the best features of many devices, is the clear direction among marketers and communicators. Some operators of digital signage have embraced this approach and enjoy being part of campaigns and initiatives. By driving viewers to websites and mobile interaction, digital signage is effectively transitioning from an "audience of many" message display to "audience of one" engagement. This trend will continue as new approaches to mobile activation emerge.

Supply chain: The field of suppliers of digital signage continues to grow rapidly, with static sign and digital graphics providers becoming a mega-force in the same way that audiovisual/information technology integrators have mobilized and expanded the sector. Static sign providers inherently understand communications and messaging, have existing customers, are inherently entrepreneurial and competitive, and require little training to learn how to develop digital signage content. At the same time, hardware providers are producing better product bundles, software providers are becoming smarter or are being rapidly marginalized, and the most capable suppliers are transitioning into high value-added areas and areas of broader service. Shakeout will leave the sector stronger as revenues are less dispersed and margins can better support ongoing growth.

Content and transmedia: Once the technology is in place, it is the messaging that delivers the results. Better message strategy and composition equals better results. This hard-fought battle under the banner "content is king" is being won. The key trend is toward getting it right. The Digital Signage Today survey published recently published reflected a significant change in content sourcing. Where 56 percent of respondents previously created all content in-house, the most recent survey reflects that only 21 percent will create content exclusively in-house. Other data points to the trend that content matters and getting it right is a top priority. The transmedia trend of leveraging (re-purposing) media used in other communications formats is strong and will continue.

Lyle Bunn (Ph.D. Hon) is a well-known analyst, advisor and educator in North America's digital signage industry. He can be contacted at Lyle@LyleBunn.com.