Follow me on twitter: @manolo_almagro or on my tumblr: http://reimagine.tumblr.com/

Good news is: I’m back from Vegas and uploading all of my pics/vids from the show to my tumblr, feel free to browse my gallery at your leisure.

The “internet of things” is heading our way fast and there’s nothing we can do about it…

1. The Korean’s (Samsung, LG) are having a field day making super smart home appliances that talk to each other – and our smartphones. These connected appliances will anticipate our “every need”. Imagine a world; You’re hungry – you ask the fridge what’s for dinner? – and it suggests some recipes; based on what it has (inside) – it picks a meal based on your favorites, and the fact that you have to take the kids to swim practice in 1 hour. (by accessing your mobile calendar) then calculates your travel time (Google Maps) – and tells you that you have 15 minutes to prep. – The fridge then talks to the smart oven to pre-heat.-now, if it only could move the food from the fridge to the smart oven…


Sony's consumer configurable NFC tag system

2. Car makers (Audi, Mercedes, Kia, GM) are pulling out all the stops on making your next car a giant smartphone that you can sit in. You guessed it, app markets for every brand of car. Stuck in traffic? -Use the apps to stream Hulu or Netflix to the multi-screen dashboard or head rest monitor. You can create your own personal station with Pandora or Spotify. You can get a special Facebook app in your Mercedes; that lets you post a status, read your friends status, check in and find out where your friends are. Your car can then talk to your friend’s cars and map out the fastest route to meet up. Just what we all need, more distractions while we drive…
3. Wearable tech brings us closer to becoming cyborgs. Motorola, Microsoft and Vuzix were some of the many companies creating connected snowboard helmets, clothes and glasses that talk with our mobile devices – giving humans super human abilities with richer augmented reality experiences. Health + Wellness wearable devices monitor our workouts, sleep habits or health conditions – providing unique opportunities to ‘hack’ ourselves by understanding how our body works better.

The trends I’ve outlined lead to one inevitable conclusion, the brave new world of smart devices and connected wearables –  will promote a behavior where consumers will only tolerate digital shopping experiences that don’t make them “think” anymore. They will expect intimate, personalized, hyper-targeted conversations with brands and retailers. Shoppers will expect the same convenience and customization options that they get with their Smart fridge, Connected car and augmented reality eyeglasses.

In each of the 3 insights the one connecting thread is: Connected systems will continue to facilitate more “frictionless” sharing of personal preferences and behavioral profiles.  In order for Digital OOH experiences to keep up with the quickly evolving consumer behaviors – solutions need developed that access these profiles and create new opportunities for on-demand, personalized ways to “talk” to shoppers.

Getting people to engage with your brand in-store continues to be the toughest part of a campaign.

Lately however, getting people to use their mobile devices as part of their shopping has become easier BUT is typically limited to mobile search, price comparisons and peer recommendations.

A quick look at the latest engagement tactics for mobile reveal that “new” isn’t really that new – remember when bluetooth was the new, hot, technology heh? Ed

• QR codes Created in Japan in 1994, to help track truck parts. Mobile consumers in Asia have been using them for years. Fast forward to N. America- 2011, QR codes being stamped on everything- regardless of all the controversial reports that show that people aren’t really scanning them, let alone know what they are. To use, you need a QR scanning mobile app, – a steady hand and a data connection.
• NFC Near Field Communications is really a fancy name for RFID. This technology is very similar to what’s inside that employee badge you’ve been hanging round your neck. In 2004, Sony, Phillips and Nokia created the NFC Forum, in 2006, the first Nokia NFC phone was launched. In 2010, Samsung’s Nexus S  is the first Android phone with the technology built-in. In 2011, there have been a few experiments with NFC with ad-based DOOH networks. For NFC engagement to work – the mobile device has to be enabled for NFC, and the in-store receiver/transmitter infrastructure has to be deployed
• Sonic Triggers Sub-audible tones are another old-school concept. Originally used in the broadcast industry, the sub-audible tone was embedded on a separate audio track and used to trigger an automated event by the analog tone sensing equipment.  Fast forward to 2011- SonicNotify‘s platform^† takes this concept to another level. The trick is to set up audio broadcast “beacons” next to in-store merchandise. These units are designed deliver the tones in very discrete proximity. Meanwhile, shoppers need to download the partner app, which is then set to automatically “listen” for the tones.  The magic happens when someone with this mobile app installed, walks near one of the broadcast devices – et voila – the sound triggers an action on their shoppers mobile phone

The power of three? Well, in all cases, someone has to either have the special technology enabled on their phone, or they download something in order to be able to use their mobile device in the specified manner.

Studies show that – shoppers will go to the trouble of downloading/installing/activating an app or feature – mainly because they think it will make their lives easier or they’ll get a deal out of it.

Bearing this statistic in mind, it’s important to note that 80% of all mobile apps downloaded are discarded within 30 days of installation AND 1 in 4 apps are rarely used again after being installed.

This high rate of churn is related to bad user experiences – simply put, if apps are too hard to use, or don’t work as advertised – people stop using them.

^†Special thanks to Raffi Vartian for sending us the link on SonicNotify. Now exactly where did that guy go? Ed

Why three? Well because people comprehend information better in chunks or series of three (or seven, plus or minus two).

Trust me, as attention spans continue to shorten thanks to information overload- you’ll thank me later

• Unless you’ve been living with the Amish over the past month, chances are you’ve already heard that CyberMonday on-line sales did very well – a good 33% over last year. In fact 2011 CyberMonday sales beat Black Friday’s sales by 29%. Even though Android tops Apple’s iOS when it comes to mobile device marketshare – iPad owners reigned supreme when it came to device experiences that converted to a retail purchase. Shoppers used mobile devices more on Black Friday, while they were out shopping in the real-world than on CyberMonday and spent more time shopping well beyond previous peak times and after stores closed. Paypal reported over 500% increase of mobile purchases from 2010. Facebook activity was up 115% from last year with WOM recommendations in the week leading up to CyberMonday.
• GoogleMaps for Android mobile launched a new version that will send a shudder down the spines of companies that make a living selling in-store interactive navigational kiosks. Using wifi signals, Google’s new indoor mapping can provide guidance inside buildings, providing a floor plan and the little blue dot that is your general position at the location. Needless to say, it will make it much easier for your robot masters to find you -or to provide GPS like directions to get around places like the Mall of America, Ikea, Home Depot, Bloomies, Macy and Chicago O’hare – a complete list of available floor maps can be found here.
• Used to be that asian countries copied US innovation – these days the Koreans and Japanese have turned the tables on US retailers by mainstreaming their humble QR codes into the everyday life of the South East Asian mobile consumer. Toys R Us has copied Tesco’s mobile commerce concept; The HomePlus virtual store in the Korean subways, – Toys R Us has set up billboards for LaGuardia, JFK airports and NY/NJ Transit commuters that provide QR code shopping experiences (exactly like HomePlus) QR codes provide a link from off-line to on-line mobile sites, allowing consumers to shop, or get more information about the products on the outdoor ads.

The power of 3? – A relationship between mobile and Digital OOH experiences needs to be more ‘slippery’ than ‘sticky’.

The success of BlackFriday/CyberMonday, shows us that people use their mobile phones to share, search and purchase- existing in a state of constant flux- shifting between online and offline experiences when it comes to shopping.

GoogleMaps for mobile adds a new dimension to location based marketing by allowing a mobile device to guide or direct shoppers inside airports, malls, stores – and maybe even sport arenas. In all cases, shoppers slip between online and offline interaction while leveraging the convenience of in-store ‘GPS’ in their pocket.

As far as QR codes go, this technology is the slipperiest of them all, when implemented correctly it can create the perception of a seamless transition from physical to virtual modes. Although adoption rates are for QR code use are low – it’s a matter of education and ease of use when shoppers learn that scanning a code will offer immediate gratification and convenience.

Bob Michaels - Founding Member DSA.

It’s been a very busy few weeks for the DSA. Bob Michaels and yours truly kicked off a short – two city tour of DOOH conferences, all in the span of 3 days.

13-14 July, Singapore – Palmes Asia/Digital Display Tech Conference at the Marina Bay Sands Conference Center. The DSA sponsored a 1 day seminar to share learnings, strategies and best practices for the emerging digital OOH industry in Singapore and Malaysia. I had the great honor of speaking along side industry advocates, Bob Michaels, the President, Signage Division of DigitalView and the CEO of BrightSign, Jeff Hastings. The DigitalOOH community of Singapore continues to struggle with pinpointing successful business models for existing operators in the market. This city will prove to be one of the most challenging for the local DOOH industry, even with continued government sponsored incentives.

Speaker Line Up for DOOH2 event†

15 July, Manila – the DSA participated in the 2nd Annual Philippine Forum on DigitalOOH Media. I was lucky enough to convince Bob to make a side-trip to Manila since he was already “in the neighborhood” Once again, we were able to share more of our international experiences in DOOH with the fast growing community of DigitalOOH suppliers, OOH agencies. This year’s event was even bigger than last year – illustrating the significant opportunities that DOOH plays in a market with people spend over 60% of their time outside their home.

Additional support for the Filipino DOOH community came from other industries. From Mobile; Christian Belser, one of the founding members of Mobile Mondays, Philippines- an international group dedicated to build advocacy and share ideas within local mobile community- presented examples of how mobile + DOOH can work together to create engaging and interactive digital OOH experiences. Also, one of the largest FMCG brands in the country endorsed DOOH as a viable digital channel, when Nestle’s Digital Executive, Ricky Baizas – presented case studies of their recent DigitalOOH campaigns in the past year.

Our adventure took an interesting turn when Bob and I ended up in an impromtu news conference with the local TV channels, covering the event to solicit comments from the attendees on the recent controversial censorship decisions made by the government, which required advertisers to take down “lewd” ads on outdoor billboards in Manila.  Bob had to field interesting questions like, what do you think about our country’s recent decision to censor outdoor advertisers, how much annual revenue do you think the DigitalOOH industry in the Philippines can generate.

Of the two cities we visited – The Philippines has the most opportunity for significant growth for DOOH in the coming years. I attribute this to its fast growing community, strong support from other digital channels (mobile) and the big brands like Nestle that are willing to make investments and learn from what DigitalOOH can do. Whereas the Singapore industry faces a very skeptical “wait and see” community, from brands, advertisers that are afraid to experiment with the new channel- and potential investors of DOOH properties that remain “undecided” about converting their lucrative traditional OOH networks to digital.

^† Photo: From left to right, Manolo Almagro (DailyDOOH), Bob Michaels- DSA/DigitalView, Ricky Baizas-Nestle, Christian Belser- Globe Telecom, Lloyd Tronco-Philippine Center for OOH Media Research and Sciences, Bing Kimpo-Narra Digital Media + Marketing.

This post should raise a few eyebrows. The Chairman, CEO and founder of rVue reports a surprising trend; it seems (he writes) that advertisers are turning to DOOH as an ‘alternative’ to online + social media.

Why the shift?  He explains that it’s due to rising consumer concerns for the ‘privacy issues‘ inherent in on-line and social media. Ummm.

Perhaps this is another sign of the coming apocalypse foretold for 2012, or could this be the disruptive epiphany that our industry had hoped brands would inevitably experience?

Are there really agencies and brands making strategic decisions that migrate digital campaigns away from online heavy weights such as Facebook, Foursquare and Google AND reassign them to go for the “safer, less controversial” channels of DOOH?

Well the short answer is Nope … nada, no way. In fact despite ALL the privacy concerns, online ad budgets grew a significant amount in 2010.

At the end of last year, digital ad spend increased 13.9% (USD 25.8 Billion) surpassing Newspaper print ads (USD 22.8 Billion)

For 2011, credible media agencies like ZenithOptimedia predict continued growth in global digital (online and social) advertising spend – please note that there are definitely no trend shifts that indicate DOOH cannibalizing social or online budgets, Ed

The big issue that continues to be near and dear to my heart is when will people in our industry ‘see the forest for the trees?‘

I’ve said it before, There’s not a snowflakes chance in hell that DOOH will ever be an alternative to on-line, mobile or social media – remember, it’s not about either/or but rather that DOOH should be part of a fully integrated campaign.

Sadly, The rVue article highlights all the reasons digital OOH continues to struggle in the overall media ecosystem. Now is not the time to think of digital out of home in a silo, it needs to work as a part of the entire customer experience.

Please don’t try to “force fit” DOOH as an “alternative” to social and online for the sake of self-promoting a media planning tool. In fact, a true media planning tool should include all customer touch points, not just digital signage networks.

“The right message, at the right place, at the right time” mantra has long held the number one slot on top 10 hits of buzz phrases. These days, this specific phrase is on my top five statements that make me cringe; along with “the internet isn’t working”, “I’m Facebooking” and “let’s make it viral”

For years, I’ve tried my best to evangelize the concept of “integrated digital campaigns” to an industry that sticks its fingers in its ears while it makes “blah-blah-blah” noises in order to block out any messages that contradicted DOOH’s supremacy. Meanwhile, its was just a matter of time before mobile and social media became the primary way consumers made purchase decisions.

I’d like to bring to everyone’s attention to the recently published consumer behavior study from Mckinsey + Company that was the subject of an article in The Harvard Business Review. I liked it because it validated what I’ve been saying – about how people now make their purchase decisions way before they get to the store. It explains that the time to influence purchase is during the evaluate and advocate phase, rather than the consider and buy phase. You can read all the details in the December 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review Magazine, just look for the article “Branding in the Digital Age, You’re Spending Money in All the Wrong Places” As soon as you can.

I submit to the industry that it’s time to adapt to a more relevant strategy that helps define the role of DOOH in the newly crafted Customer Decision Journey concept. As the McKinsey study indicates – The “Customer Journey” and marketing funnel paradigm are less relevant to the new race of people that use digital channels to build their own insights, do their own product research, find reviews, and community advocacies. It’s these channels that are the most effective in helping people decide what product they want to buy as well as endorse.

So, where does DigitalOOH belong in this new, new world order? Well, it depends on who you ask. The industry has fractured into various “denominations” – where some people have found religion and others have stumbled across something else.

There are die hard industry folks that cling dearly to the belief that digital will never be usurped by other digital media (smartphones or otherwise) – and therefore, they continue to create campaigns that isolate the dynamic digital surface as the primary engagement component of a campaign strategy.

Then there’s the sect that believes the future of digital OOH is to run specialized social media feeds that allow people to use their mobile phones to post shout-outs to their friends – totally disregarding the fact that people don’t want to wait around for their posts or comments to show up in the social media stream running on the screens, as they just don’t have the patience or the time.

There’s a third denomination of industry believers that look to sensors, facial recognition and on-demand artificial intelligence playlist generation as the key to making digital OOH hyper-relevant.

However – none of the above mentioned schools of thought address the newly established consumer behavior of making a purchase decision prior to entering the retail environment, not to mention that it’s highly likely that if a consumer’s bond to a product/service is strong enough then the repurchase decision circumvents any earlier decision journey stages.

As more and more brands and marketing agencies shift their attention to channels that help with advocacy and evaluation, where does that leave in-store digital? Sure – Digital Outdoor has its place in creating awareness – but if the decision for purchase is swaying away from in-store? What role can digital OOH play?

I plan to dedicate a significant amount of time to answer these questions in the coming months as part of my weekly (or monthly) posts on the DailyDOOH. Stay tuned…

Here’s a brief synopsis of what we think are some of the past decade’s most important highlights: -

• By 2000, the DOOH industry is already 7+ years old, with big brands like Walmart/PRN (1992), McDonald’s, USPS (1995) and United Airlines (1996) already experimenting with digital signage networks.
• By 2001, the dot.com crash had come and gone, leaving ad agencies fearful of non-traditional, tech based media platforms – making it an even harder sell for DOOH networks. This is the year Minority Report movie is released – creating a meme for the most ignorant, over-used, cliche for digital retail experiences.
• By 2002, the Web 2.0 mind-shift in consumer behavior begins to take root. As people’s attitudes in toward traditional advertising quickly change, agencies take notice, – and DOOH gets a second look as a viable media. Google’s successful IPO brings with it more confidence and investment in the digital advertising sector
• In 2003, the industry gets a shot in the arm from the infamous Frost + Sullivan report citing N. American digital signage ad revenue at 102.5 Million.  Two innovative companies. Metaio – ‘an augmented reality solution for digital OOH’ and LocaModa, with its ‘placed-based media platform’. Facebook launches in February of this year.
• 2004: Thompson acquires PRN for $285M, US broadband penetration grows to 68% and Google launches a new its open source OS – Android. By this year, there are approximately 50+ digital signage software solutions worldwide.
• 2005 is the year that brings the most significant changes to the industry: The Seesaw network is established, pioneering the aggregation of ads for the ever- fragmenting, disparate digital signage networks across the country. This event, revitalizes the industry – making it easier agencies and brands to understand DOOH, make national media buys and provide rudimentary campaign performance data. In other notable events: the microblogging platform “Twitter” is launched.
• 2006 is a year of big revenue and investment for the industry. Cisco enters the DOOH market, Western EU digital signage ad revenue tops 158M Euros, CBS acquires SignStorey for 71.5 M Also, Seesaw gets a competitor as AdCentricity is launched.
• In 2007, Thompson puts PRN up for sale and PQ Media releases a new report that the N. American Digital Market has grown to 1.4 Billion USD. The iPhone is launched, arguably the key catalyst that changes customer behavior once again – creating new expectations for mobile experiences, ushering in the trend of ‘apps’ mobile ads and multitouch. The era of the iPhone/Smartphone is born. The industry gets two new associations, The DSA a.k.a (Digital ScreenMedia Association) and OVAB (now DPAA) a consortium of agencies and tech players with the dream to bring standardization and credible metrics to the industry. In December of this year, the US Financial crisis begins.
• As 2008 rolls on, the US financial crisis expands globally and some DOOH network expansion plans are postponed. While overall ad sales flatten out, brands aren’t spending a dime. Overall ad budgets get slashed and companies in all segments of the DOOH industry begin their bloodletting. The dark days are ahead and the layoffs ensue.
• In 2009, an IMS Research report cites the worldwide digital signage market is at 3.94 B USD. In comparison, the worldwide mobile ad market almost doubles DOOH at 7.5 B USD. In N. America, it’s reported that 1,080,000 ads are played on over 200 DOOH networks throughout the year – while the mobile phone population has exploded to over 200 M in the U.S, 2 Billion worldwide. The Social network population of Facebook hits 500M – with over 200 M accessing from the mobile web. The arms race for Tablet computing begins. The new mantra for digital OOH changes from ‘content is king’ to ‘shape is king’.
• It’s 2010, the year all hell breaks loose. Apple launches another game changing mobile device – the iPad. Google and Apple go head-to-head with competing mobile ad platforms. Screenvision is acquired by Shamrock Capital; Internet traffic stats show that Facebook may soon threaten Google for Internet supremacy; and people spend more time on the social network than on most brands’ corporate sites. Meanwhile, most DOOH networks continue experimenting with mobile, social media and location-based services – and almost totally ignore how people really use their mobile devices. Sadly, our industry also overlooks the fine details laid out by the leading digital analyst Mary Meeker report about how social media and mobile will dominate in the next five years.

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it” – a decade has passed, the industry still struggles and has the smallest ad spend share of any other digital media.

Why? Because we refuse to change our ways! Rather: innovate – get something, anything – standardized, and fully integrate digital experiences. We are too busy patting ourselves on the back, coming up with a new vocabulary or we chant self-serving affirmations on why mobile isn’t going ‘ever’ to replace DOOH. All the while, we are missing out on what’s happening in the vast digital ecosystem around us.

We all but ignore the how the world’s digitally native population has learned to filter out things that don’t matter to them, how they crave simplicity in communication. Instead, we took the past 10 years and learned how to act like a spoiled child: self-centered and arrogant. We whine when things don’t go our way rather than figure out how to adapt to the changing landscape. Let’s face it, DOOH isn’t known for being an inclusive, collaborative community. We tend to work in a Silo. We treat mobile, social media and on-line engagement as the supporting ‘actors’ – while we try desperately to find ways to force place-based media screens into the ‘starring’ roles. (except for Times Square types of experiences).

Some 2011 New Year’s resolution suggestions from the DailyDOOH:

As an agency veteran, it is obvious to me that our industry has a lot to learn from the big media agencies. There’s good reason why the role of ‘integrated digital producer’ has been created by most forward-thinking agencies. Let’s stop talking and listen to the people that know about holistic communication strategies.

It’s time to stop thinking small as only ‘placed based’ media. Find ways to be part of the bigger universe rather than try to run our own tiny small solar system. Do this by supporting and creating unique experiences (not reformatted) for all digital device screens (tablets, mobile, online and digital OOH).

Digital signage solution providers need to open up and let go. You can’t beat Google’s and Apple’s ad networks. So why not become part of bigger the ecosystems and develop playback apps that will run on Chrome, Android or iOS, and allow for campaign management directly from these external platforms?

The exhibit hall was predominantly populated by the big screen manufacturers like Christie, Samsung, LG and NEC, – even 3M’s Vikuiti distributor had a booth. The only software vendors I noticed were Scala and Harris.  HP made a cameo appearance in the Scala booth – my guess? It was to discuss how they were going to aggressively go after the asian markets with their recently publicized alliance.

A quick survey of the countries in attendance revealed that there was good coverage throughout the region, I had the opportunity to talk with network operators and solution providers from- Australia, Taiwan, India, Philippines, Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The overall outlook was that the industry was active, but still struggling with monetization strategies, profitability and that agencies needed more education of the value of place based media (sound familiar?)

Highlights from the show; Scala’s Tom Nix’s had a session on the future of digital signage- he made a bold claim that by 2020 the world would be populated by “1 billion” screens. (sadly- he didn’t say it like Austin Powers would have done, with his pinky to his mouth) and the formal announcement that yours truly will be leading the charge to bring the Digital Screenmedia Association into the Asia region- Which, as I expected generated a lot of interest at the show.  Starting in Jan 2011- I will be starting at a grass roots level with the creation of local DSA country councils in Australia, China, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

Although I can’t yet speak for some of the other countries – In the Philippines and in Singapore, I’ve already established charter memberships and engagements from government entities, media agencies, network operators, software providers and manufacturers.  Which leads me to believe the creation a regional version of N. America’s DSA into Asia will be a much needed catalyst to move the emerging industry an order of magnitude forward.

The conference offers a balanced mix of regional big media agencies like StarcomMediavest and ZenithOptimedia, some specialty digital agencies like Kinetic, digital signage network operators from all over the region – and even a cameo appearance by some folks making the long haul from the US – Denise MacDonell, the GM for Harris Corp Digital Signage Division, Scala’s newest VP of Oceania – Tom Nix, Bob Michaels CEO Magenta Research and a few other industry heavyweights (oh yes and myself AND all four of us are trying to persuade Adrian to come along as well – as he originally planned when the event was first scheduled for October).

If you have the time and the means- I highly recommend you make the trip. Things are heating up out here and as I’ve said before- the market is right for the taking – very few competitors and hardly any limitations or government restrictions on out of home advertising!

Rumor has it that the Digital ScreenMedia Association (DSA) folks are going to make a big announcement about a new affiliate chapter for Asia filling a much needed role to champion the cause in the region and making DSA the first association in our industry to reach all around the world – well it doesn’t have anything in Europe yet, Ed

You can register here, – then monitor #DSWAsia2010 on twitter for information and late breaking news. If you make it out here – look me up or shoot me an email malmagro@dailydooh.com.

if you do make it to Singapore and come from / via the US please bring me a NYC hotdog – I miss them so much!!