Digital Signage

Digital signage aggregator ADCENTRICITY announces four new partners

Posted on Jun 10, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

From Digital Signage Today comes the following post about ADCENTRICITY’S new partnerships:

• 01 Jun 2009

NEW YORK — ADCENTRICITY, aggregator and strategist for digital out-of-home media, today announced a new set of partnerships that will expand on its capabilities for advertisers to effectively reach more consumers in the places they frequent most. The expansion includes additional restaurants and bars, golf courses, convenience stores and various forms of public transportation. These partnerships expand ADCENTRICITY’s reach within the digital out-of-home space, providing marketing executives and agencies with the most extensive and innovative opportunities to reach consumers where they live, work and play.

Additions to the network include:

• TargetCast Networks — a network found in bars and restaurants in venues like Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s and Chili’s
• 4G Metro — provides screens in public transportation locations along with a free WiFi network for consumers
• WESEE Digital — screens are located in hair salons, coffee shops and other hospitality venues
• Hercules Networks — a network operating unique kiosks in malls catering to cell phone users, as well as screens at various Six Flags theme parks

“With these networks, ADCENTRICITY crosses the 150,000 screen threshold, delivering 275MM monthly audience impressions,” said Rob Gorrie, CEO of ADCENTRICITY. “Upholding scale and quality are two important elements of managing our digital out-of-home capacity. These new partners are a welcome addition in creating hyper-targeted and effective digital out-of-home campaigns for our advertising clients.”

ADCENTRICITY launched its AdVenue platform in 2008, a robust solution that helps marketers plan campaigns based on business objectives and goals and target by region and venue type, along with specific demographic information. ADCENTRICITY is also a member of the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau, The ARF and POPAI and recently won an award for best local campaign given by MediaPost.

KioskCom: Digital Signage Show Highlights New Tech for Real World Demands

Posted on Apr 20, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

From Self Service World.com comes this very informative article about how self-service and digital signage can help the bottom line:

The question has always been asked, but as the economy continues to worsen, it has become more pronounced: How will self-service and digital signage help the bottom line?

It is a question organizers of KioskCom Self-Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show plan to answer when the show convenes May 6-7 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. As businesses look to cut costs in a shrinking economy, executives have to be more focused than ever on efficient and effective ways to communicate with customers, employees, patients, and students.

“The real question businesses face is how does this address and solve a problem they have,” said Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of the event. “It’s kind of always been there, but I think people are more openly focused on it than they would admit to before.

“Now it’s front and center. Granted, it’s cool technology, but it needs to be more than that. It needs to make their operations, communication and overall business better. That’s one of the reasons for our success, it’s the laser-beam focus of how this technology solves a problem for businesses. It’s been proven that when they work, they really work.”

Last year, the show floor saw more than 300 exhibitors and about 3,000 attendants. Dvorchik said he thought the conference would draw close to those numbers this year, if not more. To entice attendees, he said he is providing free full conference passes — as opposed to exhibit hall-only passes — which last year cost up to $1,500.

Attendees can hear a host of customer-facing technology users from many different industries talk about the challenges they’ve faced and the solutions they’ve discovered.

Experts will talk about maximizing existing data and on-screen content production to be used across multiple platforms and giving advice on the next logical step for first-time deployers — do you add content, invest in additional machines or try digital signage or handheld speakers?

“I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all for any of these solutions,” Dvorchik said. “There are many options to choose from, and people need to really understand the value of these options and select what works best in their situation.”

One scheduled speaker is Robert Fort, chief information officer and vice president of information technology with Virgin Entertainment Group, who will talk about how his in-store digital signage network pushes customers to listening stations that are tied to loyalty programs, blending all the components together to create a sales lift and enhance the customer experience. The company recently announced that it is closing all its stores, but that business deal does not impact the lessons attendees can learn from the store’s programs, Dvorchik said.

“You can imagine there’s quite a bit of noise in that kind of store,” he said. “He’s very in tune with it being something customers pay attention to, rather than something they’ll ignore.”

And Ron Potesky, a corporate communications executive for Ricoh Americas Corp., will speak about why his company chose to use wind- and solar-powered digital signage in New York City. The 35,000-pound sign will be 55 feet off the ground, and it will go dark if it doesn’t get enough power, as a message to consumers and other companies that resources are important.

“It’s about their program that they launched of eco-friendly digital signage, and why they went green,” Dvorchik said. “It’s easy to put up a digital sign, which uses a lot of energy. There’s always a risk with (solar-powered) digital signage that on a dark day it’ll go out, and they’ve got it up in Times Square. Ron and his group weighed the options, and chose this route. It will be exciting to hear from him why they made that decision, and how it impacted their brand and their strategy.”

Other education sessions include a discussion of how digital out-of-home media is reviewed, analyzed and purchased by advertisers. The discussion will be led by former NIKE digital signage expert Pat Hellberg, ConAgra vice president of marketing and communications Gerald Johnson, and Ray Rotolo, senior vice president and managing director of Schering Plough DOOH agency Chrysalis.

There will also be a session on employing digital signage on a limited budget, with tips on choosing low-cost but effective software, for example.

“People are looking at every item within their businesses and how effective and efficient they are,” Dvorchik said. “Those that are not are being replaced with alternative ideas. Getting the best practices of successful — and sometimes unsuccessful — projects first-hand helps to further that process. Coming face-to-face with the solutions that can help allows organizations to test drive the technology and ensure that they work with a company that meets their every need — from understanding their strategy to their deployment timeline to the cultures working well together. All these factors contribute to an organization’s success, and we want to do everything in our power to make sure they have access to the tips, tools and techniques for success.”