If you've visited my blog in the past, you've probably come across an article or two about statistics. Statistical data is the key success factor to any form or media. It is what fuels value in the eye of the media buyer both within Fortune 500's and small Mom & Pop stores. Without a benchmark to reference, the successful sale of an advertising or marketing vehicle will be difficult at best.
Thankfully, the Digital Signage industry is now at the point of transitioning out of early adopter technology and into mainstream. With this progression, there have also been a flurry of statistical studies. Over the last 2 months alone it seems like the study of Digital Signage has really ramped up and it is very encouraging. The problem is, the industry can't seem to decide what is mainstream.
Is Digital Sigange an advertising tool which generates revenue from the sale of time on a network of screens? Is it a corporately controlled medium designed to push product at the right time and in the right location? Is it an interactive technology which executes a transaction itself? Is it a combination of all three? The answer is probably a little of each. But more important than coming up with one complete answer as to the targeted use for Digital Signage, I tend to think we need a set of measurements relative to our medium which will help both vendors and consumers to hash out useful applications.
The above soapbox type rant is a product of an article published this morning by Media Post. The article is a basic overview of the recent survey by BIGresearch entitled "Simultaneous Media Usage Survey". The survey is meant to be a representation of 'In-Store Media" and it's influence capability on consumers within a retail environment.
The study itself is very informative but I would be interested to know the metrics used to compare what they call "In-Store TV" as it compares to the other marketing vehicles included in the study which cover everything from "Product Sampling" to "Parking Lot" and Sidewalk Events". As our industry grows and large deployment implementation decision cycles acclerate, we are doing ourselves a disjustice to allow traditional metrics to control our medium's success.
In the end, we must respect the traditional statistics and work to understand how Digital Signage can best augment the reach of a customer message.
The article from Media Post I've referred to in this posting can be found here
