EDIT: And here is the moment when André Koitzsch, MDS Sales Director DACH, Baltics & Scandinavia, took over the prize! Pictures are taken from invidis.de website, pls see them at their source

The information gathered will help in forming an opinion for your own airport advertising. Heathrow T5’s notorious opening in 2008 and its resulting recovery is a study in management and consumer opinion. Digital Signage was a key influencing cause in regaining customer confidence. The early battle-plan and its outcome was reviewed at this same venue last year and had most of the attendees on seat-edge.

The Heathrow Channel
Ad revenue on the Heathrow screens has increased by 20%. Early adopters of the technology are part of the reason. Digital Signage, as an ad channel, is climbing because of types and numbers of screen available. At the date of this report there are 400 screen at Heathrow. Heathrow is the 4th largest airport in the world, just behind O’Hare Intl. Annual passenger total is over 38 Million.

Present dwell time at Heathrow is about 160 minutes. Of which about 100 minutes is in the departure lounge.
A different kind of info is expected along the chain of Touchpoints up to the gate. Main priority is flight information. Thus information provided needs to be contextual, real-time and in the appropriate language interspersed with flight warnings and alerts. A certain element of Wayfinding is paramount.

Bernay’s Touchpoints. Touchpoints are the signs seen by the public as they approach the airport and finally arrive in the departure lounge. The same is in reverse although with reduced dwell time.
• Large billboards outside the airport begin to influence the passenger’s mind-set to the event he or she is about to experience.
• The influence and conditioning begins also within public transport to the airport. Heathrow Express provides the first rail system in Europe with a LED tunnel advertising system. Major brands use this to enter branding messages into the subconscience and set anchors.
• Another point is the gathering area just before the check-in booths. Flight information boards provide catch points and extra anchors.
• The check-in desk is the beginning of a more personal approach. Here more details of flights are revealed. This period can also be used to firm brands anchors, also introduce offers
• Cafes and Restaurants provide another anchoring opportunity, with interactivity.
• Customs and security check areas provide more opportunity to dispense with flight information and advertising anchoring sessions.
• Air side retail areas further provide opportunity for branding (anchoring) and information.
• Departure lounge more branding and interactivity areas.
• Overall anchoring opportunities can also be broadcast on Wayfinding screens.

The audience is now becoming the Key Point of Difference. Heathrow has a special kind of audience. The majority are up- market and liquid. We could classify them into;
• Executives: High-end travelers, people who make decisions and set strategies for their companies. That is why airport advertising is so important for the world’s premium brands.
• Blue Chip Managers: Second-tier management
• MidLevel Executives.
• Holidaymakers. Refined.
• Avid Adventurers.

Heathrow Express Shares a station within Heathrow’s T5 with London Underground This is a special passenger commuting train from Paddington Station in London. The time from London to Heathrow is 15 minutes. The audience on these trains is upmarket, providing a £100 million turnover. Surveys revealed that passenger satisfaction is high.The passenger’s need to remain connected has been satisfied with extra investments into Wi-Fi equipment, as it’s becoming a key business driver.

In Summary
The discussion was not all about Terminal 5, but rather Heathrow in general. The word out this year is audience, Audience is fast becoming the Point of Difference, and this is positive at Heathrow.
A huge investment had been made with the result being that no cannibalization from standard advertising was made. ROI for most companies advertising at Heathrow was a healthy 16|% increase in orders from passengers passing through. This makes the setting a valuable real estate for any brand style advertiser.
To attain this not only was there a substantial monetary investment but also research. Eyetracking research using technology more at home in a fighter jet proved that screens were in the right locations. Content playing on the screens also attracted enough attention to satisfy the Bernay’s “8 Times” rule.
Finally with Heathrow placed in one of the financial centres of the world, the passenger passing through is not only interested in getting to his or her plane on time but has a keen need to remain connected. Heathrow has well catered to this service. Thus customer experience has been high on the agenda when planning this airport. This and providing the service the airport was built for, planes, will with digital signage, help preserve the focal point Heathrow commands.

James van Etten, Executive Editor, CLIPPINGs – Digital Signage Newsletter

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.

Digital screens are important for us being a source for information or just for being the carrier for commercial messages. But, to be honest, people could live without them. For airports, on the other hand, signage really is important and indispensable. Tight flying schedules with delays etc have to be communicated accurate. That is why, I think, airports always take the lead in innovative screens and the use of these screens. By the way, did you know that as soon there is an airplane accident somewhere around the world it seems that all the screens at airports worldwide immediately broadcast cartoons? Just because they don’t want to frighten passengers looking at CNN at that moment broadcasting something about this crash?

Also for brands airports are really lucrative. Passengers are in a good mood. Open for commercial messages. Take a good look and you will notice that on every airport worldwide the really big brands are advertising just because of this mood.

And, actually, screens and content really look good at airports. Talking about the creative link between content and the technical aspects of our industry. Good example of simple and creative signage is to be seen at my own home airport at Amsterdam. They really understand how to use the landscaped screens to indicate departure and arrival times combined with wonderful Dutch tulips, windmills and the Amsterdam channels at the background. Doesn’t this look good?

But let’s get back to what is going to happen within airport signage in the near future. Lately I visited the digital signage corner at IBC in Amsterdam, (which by the way was very tiny indeed but don’t forget it doubled in size within a year so please don’t be too hard on it and let give it a chance the coming year as I think it will keep on growing) and was invited at the Bell Micro booth. They showed fantastic screens (not 16:9 but 16:4.5) perfect to be used at airports to replace traditional signage. See the clip below. I think this will and got to be adopted really soon by all airports worldwide. And please let’s pray for once DO NOT BROADCAST COMMERCIALS VIA THESE SCREENS!

I will keep my eye on airport signage. Please do too. Found something special? Please let me know and I will place it in my posting here at Minicom. Because for reducing dwell time, for example in case of a flight delay, there still is a lot of work to do at airports.
Interested in a good forum about airport signing and more? See Drew Stoddard’s http://interairport.typepad.com/.

On the display on each pump is presented either traffic or weather info, or different kind advertisements are running . Only video, no sound was reported.

The whole InfoNet has been split into 4 networks – business (with 164 screens), general (167 screens), kombi network (328 screens) & premium – a giant 103 inches screen at the straircase to departure area.

The estimate is 40.000 visitors per day, who would be looking at one’s commercials for these prices.