I spent last week exhibiting at the BAI Retail Delivery Show in Las Vegas. For those of you not familiar with BAI, it is the largest show in the financial industry which is focused entirely on technology designed to improve the customer experience at the retail branch level.
I’ve been to this show before and it is always interesting. You see everything from Check 21 systems to ATM’s and fraud detection systems. But this year, the growth of digital signage at the show was very interesting. The expected names in the industry were on hand but the thing that really grabbed my attention was the attempt by other product vendors to make an effort to consolidate digital signage technology into their products.
This was most visible among coin counting companies like CoinStar and Magner. Both showed up with an approach to digital signage yet each was very different. I had the opportunity to speak with the founder of Magner during the conference and he is making use of an existing software product from AdCue which controls his counting system as well as displays messaging during the wait time associated with counting the coins. I think this has value.
Magner took the path of least resistance. They simply mount a 32” LCD to the top of their coin machine and then AdCue integrates their software with that of Magner. I was not able to confirm if they connect the units to the internet on every installation but I assume that they push for it. AdCue functions much like our product and it is necessary to utilize the internet for media updates.
As for CoinStar, they went to the opposite end of the spectrum from Magner. While I’m not sure what software package they are using or if they wrote their own, what is clear is that they are serious about selling digital signage with their product. CoinStar fully integrated a screen into their coin machine.
Here is where I will admit my ignorance of coin counting machines. I have never even opened up the cabinet of a counter before. With that said, I feel confident that there are plenty of moving parts in there and it probably creates some heat and vibration. Unfortunately heat and vibration are both enemies of digital signage systems. That being the case, I have to assume CoinStar spent some time and money to develop a product that will be stable and reliable and that can’t be cheap. I guess time will tell as to whether they get their money out of the initiative.
Regardless of the true success of this approach, I find it very encouraging to see more and more vendors embracing digital signage as an augmentation to their product portfolio. If you have been reading my blog, you will remember my recent post about vending machine integration. To me this is very similar as it validates the strength of the digital signage within the retail space.
I expect to see many more attempts by myriad manufacturers over the course of 2007 to integrate digital signage software with their offerings in an effort to maximize the retail impact of their products as well as offer additional ROI opportunities.
As always, I will post those findings when I come across them.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
