In-Flight Entertainment

People are traveling more than ever these days. We go from taxis to airports, airports to shuttles, shuttles to taxis, taxis to subways, from subways to; yeah, you get the point. Throughout our modes of daily transportation, it's no secret that advertisers are looking to reach us when we are most "captivated". Digital screens have been popping up in taxis, trains, subways, and planes for a while now and won't be going away anytime soon. They try to cross-sell products/services, keep us informed of travel information, build brand recognition by displaying branded content, or even allow their audiences to order in-travel refreshments. Most important, the digital screens help to lower the perceived wait, or travel, time of the trip. But, in my opinion, digital signage does something even more - add to the customer experience!

Let's take a look at your typical airplane trip. You board the plane looking for "Row G Seat 2." You struggle through the other passengers putting the luggage in the overhead compartment, and after a few minutes of "excuse me" you find your seat. After getting your luggage situated you look forward to see a digital screen in the headrest of the seat in front of yours. On the screen you see "Welcome (Enter name here), thanks for flying..." within the airlines branded content. Once everyone is settled, the Captain does a live broadcast from the cockpit and then the in-flight safety information video plays on everyone's screen. Although the video also explains what else this screen will do for you during your 12 hour flight. This touch screen allows you to call flight attendants, order food and beverages, even check whether the bathrooms are occupied - reserve a spot - and alert you when it's your turn.

Not only does the screen serve as your personal flight attendant, but as your in-flight entertainment as well. The screens make every seat a window seat. With the push of a button your screen shows the view from a camera on the outside of the plane. So if your on the right side of the plane and your Captain says "and to your left you will see the Las Vegas strip", you won't have to crawl across anyone to see it. If that's not enough, you can also watch satellite TV, purchase movies, or surf the web. No more watching boring in-flight movies. You chose what it is you watch. You chose how you are entertained.

Passengers aren't the only ones who benefit from the digital screens, but the airlines and in-flight staff do as well. The airlines benefit from the multi-zone content - In one zone you have the movie that a passenger may have purchased (which is revenue for the airline), but in a smaller zone on the right side of the screen are the ads of the airline, Sky Mall, or other paid advertisements. This would add a new and much needed revenue stream for the airlines. Then there's the in-flight staff. Being able to communicate with passengers via the screens would make their lives a lot easier. Attendants could take beverage or food orders, requests for extra pillows or blankets, etc and save themselves the hassle of making two trips. Airlines could then possibly reduce the number of flight attendants on each plane resulting in less overhead.

There's countless benefits for digital signage in transportation, but as I mentioned all these benefits really add up to just one thing - The customer experience! As many transportation companies are already implementing such technologies, I hope they remember to think about and plan around the customer experience. Goals and metrics should be measured by attributes such as perceived wait time - Measure the actual time of trip v.s. the perceived time, Expectations and Performance - Measure what was expected and how the company performed compared to those expectations.

If companies concentrate on the customer experience, I firmly believe that those customers will become fans of the brand and tell the world about their experience with a company. And today, that's what it's all about.