The Digital Signage ExpertThis week we speak to Stephen Yetsko, Director of Media Research Services at Video Mining. Steve has been involved in sales for over 14 years, after working in an operations management role for 5 years. Prior to joining VideoMining, he was with AccuWeather, the largest commercial weather company in the world. While at Accuweather, he helped to introduce weather information services to the emerging digital signage industry. He holds a BS degree in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business. He is responsible for growing the market share of VideoMining’s media research services for digital media networks as well as helping to establish VideoMining’s measurement services as a standard for rating in-store media.
Minicom Blog: Could you please tell us a bit more about Videomining?
Steve Yetsko: We mine data from video. We extract data on people’s behavior and characteristics and provide information on demographics such as age, gender and ethnicity. We break down the traffic into finer details such as the direction of the traffic, looking at it from 360 degrees. Were they attracted, engaged and motivated by the digital signage? We also measure if they looked at the screen and what was duration of their view. Did they look multiple times in the opportunity to see zone?
MB: How do you do this?
SY: We don’t used any proprietary hardware. What is unique is the software we use. We take video extracts from it of the behavior and characteristics we’re looking for. We do custom research to analyze very specific actions and behavior of people. For instance: Did they go to the opportunity to see zone? Did they look at the screen? Any glance – we would count as attraction but not engagement – engagement is a more sustained view or multiple views. We look at motivation such as what do they do directly afterwards?
The research depends on the content and what it is trying to achieve. If it is in a bank and is trying to reduce the amount of transactions made at the teller that would be different to an advertisement for something. If one million people walk past an ad and none of them look at it, than you have to ask if there is any value there for the advertiser?
We’re against the idea of captive audience network because the audience doesn’t have to watch it. They have 360 channels whereby they can look anywhere else but the screen. We find out and reveal why people are attracted to and what they will watch.
MB: What have you learnt from your research thus far?
SY: Digital signage networks can become real world test labs of what works. It is very important with digital signage to do your testing within the context of where you want it to be effective. What works in a convenience store may not work in a supermarket or in a mass retailer. You need to tailor your digital signage content and the signage itself to the location where it is. For example what works in the produce aisle may not work for checkout.
Then there is the massive trick that people fall into which is confusing digital signage for television. It is not television but a glance medium where a glance is around 3-5 seconds. In a retail environment, people aren’t going to watch so closely. This is different to sitting on the couch watching from home. There are a number of little things and nuances that are the difference between success and failure. In one case we changed a sign by a matter of feet and changed the angle of the sign by several degrees and saw viewership affected by 300%.
If you only measured traffic you could never see those things. You have to break it down such as the specific direction of traffic and the velocity of the traffic. Are they there to buy a few things and go or are they dwelling. Dwell times differ according to the time of the day and also the time of the week. Weekday mornings are bound to engage less than weekend evenings.
The standard measure of digital signage is traffic but the times of peak engagement aren’t the same as those of peak traffic. A weekday afternoon is when a mall receives peak traffic but its peak engagement tends to be later in the evening or on weekends. People might stop at the mall after work/school but they are in and out very quickly so its hard to capture their attention and to engage them. In the evening or weekends they are there with a different mindset. They are more open to just shopping.
What also is important is the message you are trying to portray. There was a paint company which had a kiosk in a mall who were attracting more females but engaging more men.
MB: You are restricted to doing your research in malls?
SY: No, in addition to malls we have done research in Drug stores, Specialty retail, Mass retail, Supermarkets(Grocery), C-stores, and Fast Food (QSR). We are stuck doing venues which are inside for now as direct sunlight hinders the way we conduct our research. We are going to be doing some research involving people’s response to digital signage at gas pumps in the future too as its under a canopy.
MB: How is technology changing the way you do things?
SY: What we do is very cutting edge and we are working on some things that we believe the market isn’t ready for yet. Things haven’t evolved enough yet. The market hasn’t figured out yet how to monetize different parts of the day, let alone different target audiences. At the moment when it comes to digital signage you buy a spot but it plays on a loop, but digital signage viewership in mall common areas is four to five times greater on the weekend than during the week. The mindset is also different on weekends when people are more open to being attracted, engaged and motivated. Currently there is very indication on people actually watching it digital signage, so if I own the network there is no incentive to put screens in good places or display good content – I’m making the same amount of money and I couldn’t care less about the viewer. This has to be changed so engagement replaces traffic as the new currency. The network owner should have a new incentive so advertisers know that if their ad can’t, won’t or doesn’t attract and engage, then it’s making his network look bad. The same change in thinking happened to the internet when the mentality changed from page view to click throughs.
MB: Could you elaborate?
SY: Traffic is the old school measure and is no different to ratings for television or newspaper circulation. I can tell you that your ad was seen by my newspaper circulation of 100,000 but I can’t tell you how many of those 100,000 actually saw your ad. Those coming from an advertising background like traffic as a statistic and those coming from a merchandising perspective prefer point of sale data. What is needed is something inbetween. We provide that and think of it as the middle part of the funnel.
MB: What do you see as the future?
SY: Digital signage need to be more positioned so that people will buy the product. Advertisers and agencies are yet to believe en masse the power of digital signage. This is changing though. The powers that be need to know that a 3-5 second view can be affective. Traditionalists only know the one way method of advertising but the new age which the internet present is a two way model where people get to interact/choose with what they see and what they don’t. That’s the way digital signage has to go – it has to become an interactive media. We think it will happen soon when digital signage tips.
MB: How will you recognize when digital signage has tipped?
SY: When it goes from a niche to being a legitimate measured mainstream media. When people don’t see it as the internet or as
television but as a distinct and new medium which can be measure it would have tipped. I love the fact that I can help facilitate it become a legitimate medium of its own thanks to the indepth understanding of it which we’re doing that no one else has done.
MB: Lovely speaking to you Steve.
SY: Likewise.