Strategy > AT-RETAIL DIGITAL SIGNAGE: Opportunities for Advertising Agencies
Originally Posted April 2007
Three years ago, I attended the annual Global Shop Exhibition in Chicago, the retail industries leading trade exhibition. That was the first year that digital signage had a real presence within the show.
I remember many Chicago-based ad agency executives dropping by our booth to ask questions regarding displays, content, etc. It was clear at that time that they were trying to figure out what digital signage was all about and what the implications would be for their agency and the advertising industry as a whole.
Would this new medium have a negative impact on traditional media budgets? What would be the impact on established creative and production fee structures? Could they play a leading role in the development and integration of digital signage solutions at retail? Could they measure the impact an audiences? Was this new medium something they even wanted to proactively bring to the attention of their existing clients? And so on.
The Strategy Institute, the Canadian Digital Signage Association, the POPAI Digital Signage Group and many other associations and organizations have worked diligently since that time to educate and mitigate agency fears of any possible doomsday scenarios.
In fact, agencies are now in a position to be key players in this industry. Creative brand and content strategies are what drive software and hardware solutions in the deployment of effective in-store networks. Content is king with digital signage, and as such, agencies are well positioned to leverage their in-herent creative and production expertise to the private “narrowcast” medium.
Agencies already own the relationships with advertisers who look to them for new ideas that will complement their overall integrated marketing mix.
More recently, measurement standards and audited audience reporting for in-store networks have been developed by various organizations. This has not only made it easier for network owners to monetize their networks, but agencies can now confidently provide media buying expertise to their clients specific to private video networks. Industry research shows that funding for digital signage advertising has not cannibalized traditional media budgets for TV, radio, and print advertising. Good news for agencies.
The digital signage community should also put more emphasis on reaching out to the creative teams within the agency world. These key influencers must come to embrace digital signage as an exciting new medium to showcase their creativity.
This outreach could focus, amongst other things, on the benefits of the new digital signage authoring tools that deliver more direct creative control in an efficient and cost effective manner. The more familiar agency creatives become with digital signage, the more likely they are to be comfortable collaborating with third party content aggregators and producers. A win-win for the entire industry.
Three years ago, I attended the annual Global Shop Exhibition in Chicago, the retail industries leading trade exhibition. That was the first year that digital signage had a real presence within the show.
I remember many Chicago-based ad agency executives dropping by our booth to ask questions regarding displays, content, etc. It was clear at that time that they were trying to figure out what digital signage was all about and what the implications would be for their agency and the advertising industry as a whole.
Would this new medium have a negative impact on traditional media budgets? What would be the impact on established creative and production fee structures? Could they play a leading role in the development and integration of digital signage solutions at retail? Could they measure the impact an audiences? Was this new medium something they even wanted to proactively bring to the attention of their existing clients? And so on.
The Strategy Institute, the Canadian Digital Signage Association, the POPAI Digital Signage Group and many other associations and organizations have worked diligently since that time to educate and mitigate agency fears of any possible doomsday scenarios.
In fact, agencies are now in a position to be key players in this industry. Creative brand and content strategies are what drive software and hardware solutions in the deployment of effective in-store networks. Content is king with digital signage, and as such, agencies are well positioned to leverage their in-herent creative and production expertise to the private “narrowcast” medium.
Agencies already own the relationships with advertisers who look to them for new ideas that will complement their overall integrated marketing mix.
More recently, measurement standards and audited audience reporting for in-store networks have been developed by various organizations. This has not only made it easier for network owners to monetize their networks, but agencies can now confidently provide media buying expertise to their clients specific to private video networks. Industry research shows that funding for digital signage advertising has not cannibalized traditional media budgets for TV, radio, and print advertising. Good news for agencies.
The digital signage community should also put more emphasis on reaching out to the creative teams within the agency world. These key influencers must come to embrace digital signage as an exciting new medium to showcase their creativity.
This outreach could focus, amongst other things, on the benefits of the new digital signage authoring tools that deliver more direct creative control in an efficient and cost effective manner. The more familiar agency creatives become with digital signage, the more likely they are to be comfortable collaborating with third party content aggregators and producers. A win-win for the entire industry.