The Digital Signage ExpertSaturday 6, Feb., I sent out the link to a new movie called “Digital Nation”. This movie premiered on the 2nd of February this year by PBS Frontline. Purposely sent on Saturday, providing you an opportunity to screen the film in the more relaxed setting of your home. The result was that this “Special” received a record number of clicks.
My job as editor of CLIPPINGs is to find news, encouraging articles and videos for you to read and watch, helping you in your work. I have chosen “Digital Nation” because it is timely in its excellent examination of our digital culture. Three things influence the children of today, consumers of tomorrow, Home, Church and TV, whereby TV has become a victim of its own success. The sheer number of channels on offer causes the message to become fragmented. The power of that channel is ebbing rapidly. In its place will be a channel that nobody can change from, it’s called The Digital Signage marketing channel.
With each passing day more and more electronic screens are popping up and you have no remote control. You can only escape by walking away only to be met by yet another screen. The digital signage community has the keys in its hand to great power. Like a kid with his or her first car, driving it from morning till night. Once the first tank of gas is spent, only then will he reflect on what he has control of. We, the industry, are at that realisation this year. “Digital Nation” is an excellent examination of the consequences of our digital culture and our realisation.
The first show (ISE) of the new season has uncorked the cybergenie, who now has us multitasking like never before and our children too. The film documents without a doubt the awesome influence of the 5th Screen. When you have people who will quit their job to be able to play a cyber online game then you know the vast power of influence you have over them. Reality today is provided by the media, has been all along. What are you going to do with it, this new reality? Can you tell them in 10 seconds?
James van Etten, executive Editor, CLIPPINGs – daily digital signage newsletter
James,
Your conclusion that Digital Signage is powerful because viewers can’t change the channel is dangerous. I’d go as far as to say that it’s possibly the #1 reason why many Digital Signage projects fail.
Simply stated, a captive audience is not the same as a captivated audience.
The fragmentation of TV is not it’s biggest problem – it’s the fact that it is not measurable. That’s why advertisers are moving their budgets to the web. This is new media 101 and Digital Signage has to get new media to become a meaningful channel.
Digital Signage is both fragmented AND passive in most cases, so will not be spared an untimely death unless it can learn from the failings of other media channels – the lesson is NOT to be TV outside, but to be the Web outside – i.e. offer engaging content, connectivity to the audience, measurability to advertisers and less friction for media to move across channels.
Remember, the TV that we do watch, we watch because it is engaging NOT because we cant change the channel. It would be ridiculous to assume that a channel of advertising would be compelling, simply because we don’t have the remote control.
The word “Digital” in Digital Signage should be more than just moving pixels, its should be about connecting audiences to content. It’s the WEB and not BROADCAST that is disrupting our media consumption. Digital signage needs to learn from the channel that is disrupting TV, and not make the same mistakes as TV.
Stephen Randall – http://www.twitter.com/stephenrandall