The Fourth Screen: Advances in Digital Out-of-Home
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Notes from the Emerging Media Council, Thursday, August 14, 2008
What comes after television, the internet and mobile? The fourth screen was the focus for recent Emerging Media Council meeting, chaired by Terri Dwyer of Avenue A | Razorfish. Digital out-of-home advertising is one of the fastest growing segments, seen everywhere from doctors’ offices and gas stations to taxis and hotels. The aim of the meeting was to investigate digital out of home as a medium – how audiences are measured, the metrics for advertising effectiveness, and whether it can stand up to traditional media in the mix. Sixty advertising professionals, including twenty at the ARF’s New York offices, gathered for presentations on digital out-of-home networks, emerging media in the store and a look ahead to retail in 2015.
The digital out-of-home audience
SeeSaw Networks connects the disparate out-of-home networks and has been described as the “Expedia of the digital signage world”. In the first presentation, Cameron Burnham shared findings from Seesaw Networks’ Digital Signage Awareness Study, which provides an overview of consumers’ attitudes toward and awareness of all types of digital signage in relation to other media. This ongoing research, in conjunction with OTX, also explores various consumer segments, or Life Patterns, and gives a picture of how this medium intersects them in places where they go everyday – examples shown included when college students, mobile millennials, families and business professionals encountered digital signage during a typical day.
Above: An example of how a typical family interacts with digital signage.
The study showed that digital signage has the highest “stopping power” of all media surveyed, 63% reporting that advertising on the media caught their attention, and it was more positively rated than all other media. On average 36% of people (rising to 49% of college students) took action after seeing digital out-of-home media, reflecting the high levels of interest and engagement. It was qualified that this may be because digital signage is relatively new, and so the “novelty value” makes it particularly memorable and engaging. Over the course of a week, people notice digital out of home media at an average of six locations producing an opportunity for repeated brand exposure. The lowest awareness in all segments was for ads on mobile phones, dropping to just 9% for families. In a lively discussion, attendees at the meeting queried how digital signage audience is measured given the variety of out-of-home locations and types of media. It was explained that Seesaw Networks measures audiences in a variety of ways as comprehensively as possible – for example, ticket sales, payments at the pump, traffic counts – and that this is an where Seesaw Networks would welcome further discussion and encourage the industry to develop set metrics.
Know Me, Help Me
Laura Davis-Taylor is an ad agency veteran and expert in digital in-store media. Her company Retail Media Consulting advises brands on how to integrate the retail store as a media channel utilizing emerging technologies. In the second presentation she shared her thoughts on how advertising, particularly in the store, is evolving. There is a growing awareness of the enhanced effectiveness of communicating personally and experientiallyto consumers where they shop. In the past the merchant was in control, operating a system of “Find me/Sell Me” toward the consumer, but now the motivation in the retail environment is “Know Me/Help Me” with shoppers in the driving seat. This is forcing change in organizations that have operated in the same way for a long time, as stores should now aim to be a destination, an experience in itself and a place where consumers can easily find solutions, rather than be targeted by advertising. Davis-Taylor thinks of herself as a “brand planner in the store” and focuses on solving problems that exist in the retail environment. Digital signage can be an effective bridge between the website and the store, while helping tailor information to each individual shopper’s needs and questions. As seen below, the potential interactivity of digital signage in the store can greatly enhance the shopper experience while increasing dwell time and harnessing the “power of proximity”.
To assess how well these new in-store media are working Davis-Taylor briefly introduced some of the new measurement tools such as gaze tracking software, path tracking, POS sales analysis software and GPS or RFID mobile phone identifiers. Finally, she offered six steps to consider for every new retail project:
1. What shopper/viewer problem are we solving?
2. What business problem are we solving?
3. What internal and external barriers exist?
4. What big ideas do we have utilizing this technology?
5. Are any of them quick wins?
6. How will they integrate both inside and outside of the venue?
Brave new world
For the final presentation at the Emerging Media council, Mark Greene of TNS, gave a glimpse of the retail environment in 2015. TNS and PriceWaterhouseCooper collaborated on research concerning the future of retail involving more than 4,600 primary household shoppers in eight countries – Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States (the full report can be downloaded at www.retailforward.com). Key trends that emerged were as follows: personalization rather than mass appeal; the mature Generation Y will be less focused on large conglomerates and chain stores and more interested in entertainment and recreation than Baby Boomers; there will be a greater shift to multi-culturalism; increased focus on purchasing from socially responsible and “greenfriendly” manufacturers and retailers; security of personal purchase data will be a major issue; and an increase in the power of shoppers – such group buying, demands for almost perfect information and product access and more.
The research also asked people what they thought about potential new developments in the shopping environment – which would they use, which did they think would be prevalent by 2015. Innovations that speed up and simplify the shopping process garnered most votes – 25% of respondents gave biometric payment fingerprint as their most preferred innovation, with 18% choosing smart carts (these allow shoppers to scan items on barcode reader on the handle). Preferences differed from country to country, with the most technologically advanced innovations – holographic sales assistance, voice activation/man machine interaction and sales/product information via mobile phone/GPS, only appealing to shoppers in China and Japan. “Likelihood to use” was found to be generally half or less of those who found the innovation appealing, for example although biometric finger payment appealed to 41% of respondents, only 26% stated they would use it. One of the most startling findings concerned US shoppers reactions to receiving sales and product information on a mobile phone – this appealed to just 13%, 5% said they were likely to use, and 77% believed this would be prevalent by 2015.