The Digital Signage Expert

Those of you who have been to Times Square, New York would remember seeing the installation playing out side of M&M’s World. It is hard to miss! For those who havent seen it, a clip of it is here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AvUAwpZJ8&rel=1]

This week the Minicom Interview speaks to Lanita Isler. Isler is Marketing Director for M&M’S World retail destinations, which is part of the MARS Retail Group

In her role as Marketing Director for M&Ms World, Isler is responsible for overseeing the marketing and advertising efforts for the company’s current M&M’S World retail stores, future M&M’S World locations, as well as Licensing. Currently located in New York, Las Vegas and Orlando–M&M’s World stores are the only retail destinations solely dedicated to M&M’S and M&M’S branded items.

Prior to joining M&M’S World, Isler served as Marketing Director for Minnesota-based Timber Lodge Steakhouse Inc., as well as Marketing Representative for General Investment & Development. Isler obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising from Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Minicom Blog: Hi Lanita. Thanks for joining us.
Lanita Isler: My pleasure.

MB: Tell us about the screens and how they came to be.
LI: M&M’s World wanted to take advantage of being in the middle of Times Square. We want to make a statement about the M&M’s brand. There are two screens: one is 44 X 57.9 ft and the other is 28X29 ft. The content highlights the brand itself and the personalities we have developed for each of the various colors. There is no sound so we have to make the most of the images. The key ideas were to expand upon New York City landmarks and past-times. The characters tell the story from that point on. Green as Lady Liberty, the characters in Central Park, eating hot dogs, etc. All a New York state-of-mind. Times Square lends itself well to tourists and what they would like to see.

MB: How often do you update the content?
LI: Content will change 2-3 times a year, however, it will only have inserts. The entire content will last more than a year. If we are having a launch or some other sort of initiative, some content will be inserted to reflect that. We can also do that for seasonal changes. Our approach to the content related to introducing the characters as well as making sure that people understood in a short amount of time that there was a store connected. We added humor to help people slow down and watch and not miss the store below. To add to that, the original signage was not LED, but were intended to be vinyl billboards. Eventually we chose to have the billboards tell more of a story by creating LED (and tilting the screens down toward street level).

MB: What kind of response have you got to the digital signage?
LI: Since it opened in December 2006 the response has been amazing. The screens run 20 hours a day. The public love it and have responded in kind.

MB: What about the technical details behind the screens?
LI: The screens were in place when they built the building. We leased them from Sherwood Outdoor and contracted Dixon Entertainment to create the content.

MB: What was the inspiration for incorporating the screens into the façade of the store? Trends, etc?
LI: The architecture of the building allowed us to be challenged by 3 of the 4 walls being glass. This challenge led us to create a facility that “breathes with color”. The color from the LED screens interact with the colors of the columns in the store. Creatively and architecturally, the facility was consistently moving. This all comes from a form of theme-design and was not inspired by any other architectural element or building.

MB: Where does the store want to go with the screens in the future?
LI: Use the screens for more broad marketing of the M&Ms brand and upcoming events. We have the ability to have the columns and the LED screens work off of each other. The real challenge about this was matching the colors to the screens. The programming on that required some time for to coordinate and creative direct.

MB: Nice speaking with you Lanita.
LI: Likewise.