The (European) Industry Deserves Better
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Either you folks don’t enter Awards like these (even when entry is free) or the judges don’t look hard enough when putting together the list of finalists?
Perhaps it says something about our coverage of the industry because during the year we actually covered 3 of the 4 ‘Most InAVative Digital Signage Project‘ finalists BUT let’s get one thing clear from the start, the four deployments listed below are NOT representative of the best digital signage rolled out in Europe during 2008 (not by a long way)…
- Screen NT – Audi Forum (Ingolstadt), Germany
- Manovra – Stadium Impact, The Netherlands
- Signs 4U – Jackpot Data Display / Casino de Madeira, Portugal
- MCon solutions – Information Screen Deutsche Bank, Germany
We reached out to the organisers of this event in plenty of time last year so it’s actually doubly disappointing in what a poor job has been done. None of the four listed above are particularly bad but we don’t feel that they represent the innovations that have gone on in 2008 particularly well NOR show the industry off to best affect.
Some of the best deployments last year were surely in branded fixtures (think signagelive’s Estee Lauder install), gesture recognition, big retail windows, the innovative use of 3D (what about Cityscape Media’s Virtual Shop) and just think about some of the great shopping mall installs we have had with digital 6-sheets etc.
To be fair though, in the awards’ current format the judges can only judge what is put in front of them and there were, we believe, only 100 submissions for all 8 award categories, so probably at most no more than a dozen ‘digital signage’ installations from which to choose?
At this point though, our suggestion was that the judges should have actively encouraged some of the better projects (that we all know of) to enter.
The industry deserves better than this but at the end of the day, in its current ‘enter-and-you-shall-be-considered-format’ this is YOUR fault for not entering!!!
Anyway, good luck to all of the finalsts, our pick to win is the SCREEN New Technologies GmbH Audi Forum installation which was also one of the finalists in last year’s Viscom Franfurt’s Best Practice Awards
Winners of awards will be announced at the InAVation Awards gala dinner on Monday 2nd February, Hotel Okura, The Netherlands.
January 27th, 2009 at 01:20 @097
Fair points about the reflection of the industry. Either companies in the industry are:
a. too busy to care about such awards
b. Not active enough in terms of general PR / Marketing and thus making the life of these award providers much harder – they should not have to search the globe for the best projects…particularly not a magazine of that stature. The digital signage companies of the world should actively engage with the media.
However, there appears to be a distinct feeling that arises from this blog, that no awards will ever be justified or good enough unless DailyDooh is involved in / or active in choosing who wins, and controls the reasons why they should win – or is it just me?
I find it strange how the ISE conference for example is being much lauded on this blog,when the entire banner of the site is blended into ISE’s own brand in a manner which does not distinguish the two. I wonder who in the world may be speaking at this particular conference?
But on the bright side at least there is a chance to actually find up to date news and actual projects on this site – definitely give you the thumbs up on that front.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:33 @481
Eric, thanks for taking the time to comment. We have been happy with some of the awards but not all and you are right, maybe we won’t be happy until DailyDOOH is involved (more) in them. We pretty much think we have a handle on a lot of what happens globally so think we are in a good position to highlight projects of interest – even if folks then rate them rather than us!
It is as you say the ‘flagging up’ of them that seems an issue.
In terms of ISE: –
ISE itself is our title sponsor, has been for a few months now (hence the colour change) and pays us for the privilege of that.
We also run a banner advertisement in the RECTANGLE for the ISE DOOH Business conference which we are involved in and YES you are right it is ‘much lauded’ on this site NOT cos’ we are speaking but because we believe it will be a good conference and be a good start to the year.
We do try wherever possible to divorce editorial from sponsorship and advertisement – we are probably more open than most in that regard and it’s plain to see who sponsors us and who advertises with us at any given time.
End of next week the sponsor will change as we turn our focus on the next major European event – Screen Media Expo Europe in London in April.
January 27th, 2009 at 14:13 @634
It’s easy to stick a DS category into an awards to maximise the opportunity to sell tables, it’s not so easy to judge a category you know sweet F.A. about. Sooner or later someone will take you up on your offer to assist in judging to give one of these awards some credibility.