The Digital Signage Expert » Ronni Guggenheim

Ronni Guggenheim – “We will conduct an aggressive strategy” – interview for ooh-TV

Elizabeta — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:06:30 +0000

“We never made any secret, we will conduct an aggressive expansion strategy. Our desire is to be one of the leading players, between the content and display. We will therefore, in these sectors , make acquisitions that will complement and support our current offering.” – just an abstract of the interview with the catchy title, conducted by Denis Gaumondie from ooh-TV.

Read more about Minicom Digital Signage future plans and new products announcements exclusively in the interview

Excellent TV Footage on Digital Signage in Japan

Ronni Guggenheim — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 07:35:47 +0000

Check this out – it is one of the best reportages I have seen providing an elevator pitch on the bottom line story of the benefits of digital signage – from the real world of consumers, and in a language everyone understands:

http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/movie/feature38.html

New DS Rollout at Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station

Ronni Guggenheim — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:38:38 +0000

Shinagawa JR station is one of the busiest railway stations worldwide. So it is rather surprising that this high traffic venue has not been explored for digital signage revenue generation. I have always asked myself in previous visits when this will finally happen. So this time it happened – I caught a brand new installation which was not yet operational. 44 displays arranged alongside the main walk-bridge, back-to-back mounted 65″ screens. No indication, though, about the operator or the vendor visible. Only after examining closely I discovered it was Sony.

Now this is no surprise as the Sony headquarters are right across the street. I raised the topic in several meetings and learned that JR is currently piloting in a few stations. All independent systems which are not linked to each other. And, surprise, surprise, each one close to the main offices of a screen vendor. For example, at Akhibara station all the displays are Hitachi (pilot as well).

So it seems that we are in a play-mode right now, at the beginning of the learning curve, while JR relies on the big vendors to sponsor some displays as toys to play with. No doubts this will end up in a major roll-out one day.

AEON National Rollout in Japan

Ronni Guggenheim — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:33:11 +0000

I just returned from a trip to Japan where I have seen parts of a national rollout of AEON, the leading supermarket and shopping malls operator. We believe the rollout was done with Scala software and all screens are connected with Minicom Digital Signage’s DS Vision 3000 systems, allowing for full screen control over CAT5.

Have a look at a local TV footage:

The Rush before the Rush – First views from #DSE2010

Ronni Guggenheim — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:58:24 +0000

I arrived late night yesterday and as usually got up at 3am not being able to sleep. Not that I am so nervous towards DSE, but the jetlag hit me hard and I didn’t enjoy enough night life of Vegas as of yet.

This morning arrival at convention centre. First impression as always on the day before the show opens: one huge mess. But this is normal.

And walking the floor one can already identify some of the (new) main directions:

The show grew significantly. Most of the main industry vendors are here. Many of them for the first time.
Several new kids on the block. Names I personally have never seen in our industry before.
Various specialized screen vendors, i.e. not only blue chip companies such as NEC and Samsung, but also specialty integrators such as GDS, MRI, etc.
The AV industry has a real footprint, both by vendors and channel players.

I am keen to see tomorrow if there is a gap between the hype created by Exponation (DSE organizers) and the real traffic, or if expectations built up will be met. At the end of the day the test is tangible business resulting from the show.

We will keep reporting from the floor. Hope the other contributors will as well.

The subcontinent wakes up

Ronni Guggenheim — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:52:00 +0000

India went through a hard time the past two years. In two days it’s exactly one year ago since the Mumbai attacks which put the whole country in a state of paralyzing shock which is felt since then. Not only hit it hard, but accelerated also the economical crisis which was devastating the local industry and general economy to an extreme. Particularly, the DS industry suffered, being considered an experimental media which has not yet found its place in the marketing mix of the brand owners. So far, there were only 4-5 serious DooH network operators, and according to them they were literally fighting for survival in the past two years.

Together with our local rep office at Emarson, we decided that now is the time to contribute to the revival of the industry. It’s about time to leave the year behind us and start looking forward. The goal was to call for a networking and education event, allowing the DS community to come together, exchange views, start up new cooperations. We decided to run it under the so far very successful “Digital Signage Expert Tour” (DSET). The DSET is clearly committed not to sell, not to market and not to give centerstage to products, but rather educate and train, with a view on the full supply chain and eco-system of digital signage.

The event was planned for 50 participants. While I was presenting (1 hour after start), the hotel staff had to add row after row of additional chairs as people kept flooding into the banquet-hall. At the end, we had 100 persons attending, some of them crossed the Indian subcontinent to join. Now this is a signal: the market is waking up. The industry makes a bold statement: “the bad times are behind. we look forward!”. And yes, this was the spirit of the event. Most of the participants remained also for the networking after the formal agenda, some of them till mid night (and not because of the free beer!).

2010 will be a good year in India. The market has grown up. Yes, still there is a lot of price pressure, but the people I talked to all understood that a cheap consumer display at the end of the day will cost them more over the time. Yes, professionals start to understand the value of a narrowcasting software vs. DVDs. Yes, people start to understand the business model and the various verticals in this market. All very encouraging signs for the year to come.

And yes, we will be back and continue the DSET and expand its format. This is a commitment.

SERVUS! A milestone for OVAB Europe

Ronni Guggenheim — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:20:00 +0000

Servus aus Munchen, where the DS industry from all over the world gathers for the OVAB Munich DooH conference. Yesterday, the day before the conference, the OVAB board met for its quarterly meeting, however, the more interesting part was the meeting of the OVAB DBCI (DooH Business Climate Index), with figures such as Chris Heap (Imperative Group), Adrian Cotterill (DailyDOOH), Denis Gaumondie (OOH-TV). We hear a lecture of Prof. Schocke (who is auditing the index) about the sience of indices, including breathtaking statistical formulas I have not seen ever since my studies. Bottom line, the DBCI is scientifically set up and monitored. Well done Florian and Oliver from Invidis!

The big day is today with the conference starting at 9am, with people coming from all over the globe. We will report.

Wild East, Soft West

Ronni Guggenheim — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:08:00 +0000

I have been advocating for long time the theory and fact, that the real, long term future is in the East. CeBIT Turkey once again underlined my view. Although, coming from the west, all looks rather like an organized chaos at a first glance, but looking and digging deeper, one discovers quickly that we talk real business, a word is a word and people bring with them a fantastic dynamic and enthusiasm which I for long time am missing in our western world.

I find here real entrepreneurship and the capability to turn around decisions to reality quickly and efficiently. People, from top to bottom in the pyramid, are hands-on, loyal and trustworthy, understanding that their biggest asset is their reputation. Yes, connections and relationships are indeed important, and without the real, top-end networking nothing will move. Yes, the further east you go, the more corruption there is. But once you learn the instruments and ways of not getting involved yourself in the “I-know-the president-etc.” carousel by partnering with the right persons and companies, business flows and you can concentrate on the essential – selling your solutions.

Being a Western European, sometimes I feel looking pale and soft in light of the new dynamic in the East.

Just for the impression see the picture from our team at the booth in CeBIT Turkey, in the background the new DS Vision Wall launched this week worldwide.

Orient Express

Ronni Guggenheim — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:44:00 +0000

After all the shows I walked last week I thought I should afford myself a bit a different exhibition experience, so I flew to Istanbul to CeBIT Turkey, where our partner Saben, in partnership with Minicom Digital Signage is using all its power to move the Turkish market closer to digital signage. When I arrived at the show at 6pm the night before opening, it seemed as if the exhibition will be only in at least two days. But as you know, magic happens and these shows usually start on time the next day, and it appears that the speed of orient express applies here as well in this context.

The booth Saben built is impressive and reminds building rather than a booth. This is real commitment to our application and industry! Lazar Demisulam, Saben’s CEO is one of these real, authentic, hands-on DS pioneers who know that Rome hasn’t been built in a day and who understands what it takes to move things ahead in one of the most promising markets in Europe. Turkey is, not only for Minicom Digital Signage, a market with one of the biggest CAGRs and the projects we are seeing in Turkey itself, and far beyond in much more developed countries (yes, managed and rolled out by Turkish companies) are impressive, professional and visionary. Did you know that Turkey has the biggest screen manufacturing plants outside Taiwan/China??

So just to share with you, here is a first picture from the impressive booth in its construction. more to follow.

How to stick a poster on a screen…

Ronni Guggenheim — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:27:00 +0000

I just returned home after a long week of exhibitions. I gave already my view about Digital Signage Show in London – see our blog. I continued from there to Viscom in Düsseldorf and have to admit that my expectations were not very high. However, the surprise was positive when I entered hall 8a after passing the queues (yes, you hear q-u-e-u-e-s, we don’t see many these days…) – a buzzing business atmosphere welcomed us. A clean, well organized showfloor with a wealth of Digital Signage vendors, and all looked busy with customers. For a change, real customers, talking real business.

Björn Christiansen conducted the Digital Signage Experts tour with close to 100 participants in two days. It was so successful due to the nature of Viscom: real, traditional marketing people from the print industry start to engage in digital signage. It almost feels that these professionals look for ways on how to glue their posters onto screens, but need to learn digital signage from scratch.This is a very healthy and encouraging trend and the secret of success of Viscom (at least in Germany, all the other locations are a failure unfortunately…). It is a growing-up-sign of our industry, embracing traditional marketing. I met with agencies, creative persons, event organisors and other traditional marketing professionals – all keen to learn, and many participating in the tour.The interesting aspect of the tour is the side effects. Many persons exchanged cards within the groups, and we got reports by exhibitors such as Seen Media, that the participants returned to them at a later stage, requesting more in-depth information and explanations.

I had a excellent conversation with Petra Lassahn, the show director (a valuable, very nice person with a strategic, visionary understanding and view). She is very committed to the digital signage industry and we had an interesting exchange about possible expansion of the Digital Signage Expert Tour in the future, bringing more education and bird’s eyes views on the digital signage value chain.