The Digital Signage ExpertPlanes, Trains & Automobiles… Digital Signage Takes Transport – held 10th Feb. Attending these events reminds me so much of the days at Cornell. A congregation of wise-men and women agreeing to share knowledge to a hungry student body. The host Richard Cobbold comes across cool like the lead guitarist with the Stones. This Forum which begins with superb coffee and New York style Bagels sets the scene for networking with formal yet informal sharing of information. All this held in a setting called “The Hospital Club”.
Just to underline the growing popularity of this event, in the past the viewing room was packed often to standing room only level. On this occasion a bordering networking room was wired to stream the talks onto a large screen, signalling the audience has grown at least by 100%, congratulations to the lead guitarist then. For my money this forum was one of the best. Talking to Richard after the show he provided hints of plans, all I can report about them is to watch this space, they will be exciting.
The kick-off was launched by Jason Cotterrell – Commercial Director of CBS Outdoor. Responsible for all CBS’ bus advertising, Jason discussed how the CBS experience is developing their approach to digital advertising above ground. A subject that has always fascinated me. One would think that slapping a couple of LED’s on the sides of buses would be a no brainer while sitting back in the rocking chair to collect revenue.
To quote famous Advertising Age, Columnist, BOB GARFIELD, “You cannot walk down the street without being bombarded. You stand in an elevator looking at advertising in the corner of the elevator car. And you go to play golf and you go to pick the ball up out of the cup, and there’s an ad in the bottom of it. And you look up at the sky, and there’s skywriting. And you look at a bus passing, and there’s advertising. And you walk in Times Square and you go, ‘Is this Las Vegas on the Hudson? Am I entrapped inside a pinball machine?’ “
As Jason points out there is a firming trend for buses because of increasing fuel prices leading more consumers to use mass transit, which in effect expands DOOH audiences with buses, trains and subways benefiting. Having spread some interesting statistics to support his comments, he does throw a bucket of cold water on those wanting to jump into the pan. He outlines the quagmire of legalities thrown up by local councils. Summarizing with additional consideration i.e. who needs it? Improvement of public awareness? Light pollution? Plus a look into the future with e-paper planned. A well planned presentation leaving attendees enlightened.
Niall McBain – CEO of Spafax, the WPP agency that arguably invented the captive audience network with its in-flight entertainment work. With more than 60 international airline clients, Niall discussed how digital advertising is evolving in the air. Two things impressed me in his excellent presentation, the idea of improving the in-flight experience and passenger cycle “Touch Points”. Air travel has come a long way in providing a form of travel that is now available to nearly everyone. Despite the fact that flights previously took 3 days are now shortened to 9 hours, passenger boredom is a problem looking for a solution. This has created the most captive audience yet. What empowers advertisers is the whole cycle of passenger through put, a form of Pavlovian indoctrination. He spoke of “Touch Points”; these are points where the airline comes in contact with the passenger from online booking to disembarkation at destination. Bernays practised the same, he was taught the real sciences – which are higher than university level. Plato talked about these sciences of how to create and control cultures and whole empires. Message repetition during the passenger cycle works on Bernays teachings. The future of airline advertising is now in personalized channels made available through some of the cleverest marketing software ever developed.
Frederik Vroman – Business Development Manager at Dzine, one of the world’s leading suppliers of passenger information systems, discussed the trend towards combined information and advertising media solutions. Dzine has delivered about 100,000 players devoted to FIDS better known as Flight Information Display Systems over the past 18 years. These can be found in over 250 airports around the world, the first of its kind was originally found in Brussels airport. The key element and mission of a FIDS system is to deliver flight information effectively. All passengers watch these screens attentively and have considerable dwell times. Therefore any advertising placed on these screens must not disturb the status quo. Premium brands are the biggest users of this form of advertising because they can reach over a billion passengers a year using this method. Frederik outlined some the more essential issues in managing such a network even to point of addressing power consumption, now becoming a key factor in operational ROI.
Grant Brandfoot, MD of Ocean Outdoor, one of the UK’s fastest growing OOH companies, provided some interesting facts about roadside digital billboards. Stepping in at the last minute because of the drop out of a scheduled presenter. It was interesting to note that at the moment there are some 230,000 electronic roadside billboards in operation that have produced a £66 million revenue base in 2009. This figure accentuates that this industry, although around for some time, is just now lifting off the runway and beginning to gain considerable height. Ocean manages 55 of these and claims the reason the figures are modest is because agencies do not include electronic roadside billboards in their standard portfolios. My own research into this area has shown that many are not aware of the opportunities this form of technology can present, content to remain with the paradigm of static billboards. Part of this was because of limits set by local councils on electronic billboards. Recently these controls have been relaxed and we can expect to see more of these in the future.