DailyDOOH

Spotted at Luton Airport…

A rather nice video wall.

We’re looking forward to attending and help sponsor The Preset Group DSE Mixer this year in Lost Wages. It’s developed into a tradition and is a fun way to really launch into a busy few days.

Registration starts Thursday, 11 Eastern US time, 4 PM UK time.

There are 300 spots, a percentage of those already allocated to sponsor invitees, and the balance are available through online registration using EventBrite’s online event engine.

When you hit the dedicated page, there will be some sort of prompt to start registration and you will need to answer a handful of questions before getting a ticket. The questions are mandatory and include name, company, and business category. That data will be used to generate name badges so that people mingling around can easily recognize and meet/avoid/accost people.

Organizer Dave Haynes of Preset is asking that people limit the numbers from their companies. “The idea is to go to this thing and meet new people, not hang out with your workmates. So please be judicious and allow a whole cross-section of companies and people to attend.”

A few reminders. There are tickets, but the event is FREE. Tickets control access and help count numbers and plan budgets.

It starts early (5:30 PM) so you can head over from the education conferences or set-up at the LVCC. There’s no food, as the venue doesn’t cater. It’s downtown at the Nugget, which is actually easier and faster to get to then hotels on the lower end of the Strip.

Preset is working, we’re told, on several new wrinkles this year, including a technology giveaway and lots of social media integration through partners.

This is the dedicated registration page (click here). You can visit now but the ticket registration engine will not be live until the mentioned times tomorrow.

“Our primary goal at Digital Signage Expo is to bring to every attendee something they didn’t know before,” says Chris Gibbs, president and co-founder of Exponation LLC, producer of #dse2012 taking place March 6-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“That means helping the beginner learn, helping the smaller operators reach the next level, and helping the well-established to see what’s new and where the industry is going next.”

DSE in 2011 had 3,614 attendees and 195 exhibitors, and Gibbs is expecting about the same this year. Like most show managers we talk to, he’s reluctant to forecast numbers ahead of time, and with the U.S. economy still in a slow state of recovery and it being an election year – both constraining capital investment in the industry – he’s not about to shout “Yipee!” ahead of time.

Nevertheless, the combination of a more finely tuned group of educational and informational sessions combined with an exhibition area seen as The place to be – witness, for example, the larger spaces taken by such companies as Scala and Planar than in previous years – Gibbs is forecasting a great show.

Gibbs is no rookie at putting together an exhibit. With a background in IT consultancy and recruitment, he co-founded Exponation in 2002 with his wife Danielle, who, as a manager, had been involved in the lighting industry, and Angelo Varrone who, as part of Shore Varrone, had founded GlobalShop (since sold). Their first show was Lightshow West (still in existence) in 2003, and he’s been putting together shows since. He originally handled the sales side of the picture, but as the company grew with the Digital Retailing Expo in 2004 in San Francisco, then in 2005 in Chicago, and then renaming and refocusing the show as Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, it has been a growing and learning experience for him as well. (The company now has 15 employees.)

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I blame the Koreans (well okay, I blame Samsung and LG) for getting into a war of attrition in the display business with the Chinese.

Seemingly, never a day goes by, without more bad news from one or other of the display manufacturers (whether they be Korean, Japanese or other).

It’s been widely reported this past week of course that Panasonic is headed for a record USD 10 billion annual loss (ouch, serves ‘em right for buying Sanyo I hear you say).

Anyway, we guess the question really is whether this war of attrition is good or bad for the digital signage and DOOH industry?

This year 2012 will definitely see a merciless price war on displays. That’s obviously good for digital signage customers (costs lower of course) but it can also be bad for the ‘industry’ as price wars never do any good for the suppliers.

We’ve set up a quick and dirty twtpoll should you wish to have a Yes / No / Don’t care vote.

It’s probably too early tell which way it may swing but watch this space, for many screen manufacturers it’s going to be horrid out there.

Here’s a run down of the #dse2012 March 6 pre-conference program:

Dirk Huelsermann one of the speakers at Digital Signage 360: A Global Perspective:

• NEW – Digital Signage 360: A Global Perspective: Designed to provide technology providers, system integrators network operators and advertising agency executives with an overview of the opportunities, challenges and achievements of digital signage and digital out-of-home networks around the world, this half-day event will cover EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) and take a wider look at industry activity in Latin America and Asia.
  - Sponsored by DailyDOOH
• NEW – Digital Signage In Transportation: The half-day program will identify challenges and offer solutions unique to engaging consumers on the move. Five individual presentations will address: US consumer transit patterns; how to build an effective digital signage network for public transportation systems; key considerations for integrating mobile technologies; digital signage in airport environments; and how sign companies can get a ‘foot in the door’ in this sector.
  - Moderated by Leah Harnack, Editor, Mass Transit Magazine
• NEW – Hands-on Content Workshops: This half-day program includes four individually facilitated tracks designed respectively for content strategists, planners and designers in the retail, restaurant, banking and corporate communications sectors to learn to address the unique challenges inherent in content development strategies, tactics, processes, resources and tools, by learning how to navigate real-world scenarios designed to instruct them on how to plan, strategize, develop and execute a content strategy within a range of venue settings.

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We had a nice email to and fro’ with Hallmark Outdoor after they sent us an email following our story ‘Radio RSS Feeds UK Digital Billboards‘.

We should have added to that story that they (Hallmark Outdoor) have ALREADY been running the digital element of the Absolute Radio campaign. You see, although Hallmark Outdoor run 6m x 4m large format light boxes there is a 46” daylight readable LCD screen displaying Absolute’s playlist feed below it. See the picture to the left here.

Currently there are three of these light boxes (The Highway in Wapping, Borough High Street in The Borough and Commercial Street in Spitalfields) and we understand that there are two more planned prior to the London Olympics.

It’s probably worth mentioning that this ‘format’ (called DUO) was launched back in January 2009 AND whilst Absolute Radio did not use it for this campaign, all the DUO panels also offer a walled gardened Wi-Fi gateway for the benefit of the advertiser on display. The wi-fi was added back in 2010 we are told.

The format seems to be well ‘marketed’ to the OOH market, hence their inclusion on the Absolute roster, but the challenge I am sure that they face is massaging this ‘hybrid’ format into the right buying box – backlights or digital?

Hallmark’s Patrick Lawless told us that “All digital content creation is handled in-house and it’s optimised to accommodate viewing distances associated with the panels as was the Absolute feed which incorporates a unique scaling algorithm”

We actually think it’s quite nice. The screens are Samsung and we have now found a network that uses Samsung digital signage software.

A new M·A·C Cosmetics store in New York’s SoHo shopping and arts neighborhood is the site of NanoLumens’ first fixed retail installation of its NanoSlim large format LED display.

Rick Cope, president and CEO of Norcross, Georgia-based NanoLumens, says that the installation of the company’s revolutionary ‘digital wallpaper’ points the way to the future of compelling retail customer engagement.

“SoHo represents the cutting edge in art, retail, and fashion,” says Cope. “It attracts millions of visitors from all over the world. Retailers looking to make a lasting impression on this very discerning audience know that they have to go beyond the ‘usual’ methods of engaging and holding the attention of consumers. They have to stop them in their tracks and immerse them in a messaging environment that compels them to enter the store. Our first fixed retail installation is designed to do just that.”

The display installed in the SoHo store is expected to stop consumers in their tracks. It measures 4.5’ wide by 9’ tall and is less than 3” deep, allowing the retailer to maximize valuable retail floor space. The display boasts a seamless 4mm pixel pitch with stunning resolution, high brightness and superior off-axis viewing angles to effectively engage consumers from any distance or viewing angle.

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Kinetic, one of the world’s largest planners and buyers of out-of-home media, has made two key senior management promotions in the US, promoting David Krupp as executive vice-president, Kinetic client services, and Tanza Bove as executive vice-president, commercial operations.

Both Krupp and Bove previously held managing director positions at the New York-based agency.

David Payne, CEO, Kinetic Americas said, “David and Tanza have been integral to the recent success of Kinetic here in the US. The US OOH market is at a genuinely exciting cross road, as applied technology platforms begin to deliver increasing levels of consumer engagement and greater accountability. David and Tanza’s strong strategic skills – coupled with their long-standing experience in the media business – will support Kinetic’s continued industry leadership.”

Krupp will lead and manage client delivery across the agency’s network of US offices: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Detroit, and San Francisco. Krupp has been with Kinetic since 2006 when he launched the Chicago office. During his tenure, he has been integral in securing major Agency-of-Record partnerships, as well as overseeing key client relationships across the Kinetic business base.

Bove will supervise all aspects of Kinetic’s operational development, with a particular focus on introducing new products and services to market. As managing director, she was instrumental in launching Kinetic’s West Coast offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2006. Prior to Kinetic, Bove spent more than 12 years working on both the client and agency sides of media and marketing.

The Digital Place-Based Advertising Association has posted on its web site a draft document spelling out the best practices essentials that digital place-based networks need to provide when agencies issue RFPs.

Titled Best Practices: RFP Response to OOH Planners and Buyers, it is labeled a ‘draft’ because the DPAA is soliciting feedback before final publication/distribution in March.

“We’re really anxious to get a reaction from the industry and want to integrate information that should be included before finalizing the document,” says Susan Danaher, DPAA president. “The aim this is to really facilitate the buyer-seller process as a service to the industry.

“Our Out-of-Home committee chaired by Dan Wilkins from N2 worked very hard on this. The committee is composed of agency specialists, network operators and others involved in supporting the buying or selling process, who all worked together to outline these items as important and fundamental to the RFP responses when working with agencies who buy out-of-home media.”

The DPAA would appreciate replies whether by emailing Ryan Pogy at DPAA (ryan.pogy@dp-aa.org) or by posting a comment on DailyDOOH.

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Not quite “NEW at Digital Signage Expo 2012: Intelligent Digital Signage” as Haivision Network Video quote BUT interesting enough as we see yet another digital signage software vendor announce integration with Intel® AIM Suite.

The press release states “Haivision is announcing the integration of its CoolSign™ digital signage solution with the Intel® Audience Impression Metrics Suite (Intel AIM Suite) to deliver groundbreaking new audience-detection technology. The CoolSign solution with Intel AIM Suite uses sensor technology for video analytics to enable intelligent digital signs that deliver highly relevant real-time content to the right users at the right time”

Haivision Network Video will be on Booth 861 at #dse2012