Critical Performance for a New Medium

The sign industry has proudly recognized our medium as the first form of advertising. A sign is a rudimentary vehicle, but an essential starting point for any retail establishment. Other media have developed and evolved, as additions to the basic sign, which has maintained its position as the guidepost to a business.

Programmable, electronic digital signage (EDS), as an advertising vehicle, came along well after mainline media’s evolution. As such, it became the advertising industry’s barely recognized stepchild and was used, predominantly, by guerilla marketers to add on-premise punch to larger, more traditional, advertising campaigns. EDS, for decades, was considered a changeable-message sign rather than a viable advertising medium.

Today, traditional media faces serious challenges from a host of new and viable advertising alternatives, including the new and improved EDS technology. With increased lamp brightness, resolution, color balance and dependability, the changeable message sign has evolved into EDS.

Today, it’s the talk of the greater advertising community. In the last year, dozens of stories have been written in such print media as the Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age. Local media has also covered the EDS evolution. Further, advertising agencies, which hadn’t given the slightest consideration to programmable signage, are adding staff to focus on EDS advertising and its content.

In this new business model, display manufacturers and sellers must acknowledge that limited reliability and performance could limit the medium’s overall growth.

Failsafe methods

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Display technologies suffer occasional technical failures. Each is a complex assortment of interconnected electronic components that can be affected by surrounding environmental conditions. Therefore, accept, anticipate and prepare for the reality of periodic failure.

The financial impact of such failure is directly proportional to the display’s use. For example, if a business-front EDS fails, the firm loses exposure for the products and services that would have been presented during the down time. In the past, that was taken lightly, but it wasn’t an end-of-the-world scenario, either. Today, however, the display industry is more laden with higher performance expectations.

Because EDS technology has evolved from a low-resolution, roadside tool to a powerful, full-color, high-impact, display medium, and because the technology’s latest generation fills a critical need for advertisers that focus on specific, targeted demographics, today’s large-format, digital display allows a marketer to create and present an effective, visual connection to a selected audience. Given the image quality, versatility and overall effect of today’s technology, this visual connection’s value is very high.

As the EDS system’s promotional value increases, so do the operational demands. The once accepted, nature-of-the-beast EDS failures now face a zero-tolerance policy. Today, the issue is the display’s continuous use.

A time/space medium

Today, EDS sellers are presenting a new business model, in which display content may be a purchased as a time/space medium, as with television, radio and print advertising. This scenario precludes advertising, as a viable competitor to television and newspaper, must deliver comparable dependability.

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When an advertising agency contracts for digital-display media (a single board or a network), it’s reselling available display time to its clients. Time is the critical, sellable component; thus, each programmed minute is a unique part of that component. It can’t be replaced. If equipment failure causes a stoppage, the dollar gain for that time segment is lost forever.

This development represents a dramatic paradigm shift for display producers who serve the adver¬tising industry. Zero tolerance hasn’t been in their lexicon. But, when an EDS becomes a time/space purchase, the required performance levels ascend.

Given that all technology occa¬sionally fails, EDS media providers must ensure rapid response to those failures. The ability to quickly and effectively respond becomes the benchmark for success.

A high-quality image is a foregone conclusion. Media buyers’ yardsticks now measure reliability and the absence of down-time.

The new service model

Historically, the typical service/response model looked something like this:

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Joe Customer notices that his sign is exhibiting some abnormality and calls his display provider to report the problem. Within 24 hours, the service technician arrives at the sign, diagnoses the problem and makes necessary repairs. He gets the service ticket signed, and the procedure is complete.

Today, the EDS advertising community has an entirely different set of criteria. The procedure looks like this:

A technician working in the 24-hour service center receives an e-mail notification of a display failure. The notification details the type of failure and the affected display’s location. The technician toggles up a real-time video image (transmitted from an onsite moni¬toring camera) from the affected display. The diagnostic e-mail message, combined with the real-time video inspection, tells the technician if the problem can be resolved from his or her service center. If possible, he or she makes the remote repair.

If not, he calls the local service technician assigned to make the necessary repairs. The work order includes a replacement parts list.

The technician visits the display within a four-hour timeframe, makes the repair and tells the service center the work is completed. The service-center technician inspects the display through the video camera and the diagnostics program, ensuring the display is functioning. He or she then notes the response time and repair details in the system’s electronic-service diary. The service procedure is complete.

The new service model is the only viable option for an EDS provider to offer an advertising agency because the ad buyer must be confident that his message will be delivered with the same dependability as with other media.

Proof of performance

Because the new digital medium is, like television, constantly active, an ad buyer requires proof-of-performance validation – it’s a necessary billing component. Therefore, an EDS system provider must have software that furnishes systematic feedback that validates each advertisement’s exact time and date data, so the advertising agency can provide that validation to its clients.

The advertising industry comprises sophisticated business marketers who represent the tools corporations use to bring their products and services to market. These corporations spend billions of dollars vying for consumer awareness, action and a competitive advantage.

The once lowly electronic message center has emerged as a newly favored tool in the ad-industry arsenal. Those of us who produce this tool must recognize the position we suddenly occupy. We produce a product on which a new and dynamic broadcast medium is being launched. A zero-tolerance failure policy is only appropriate.