Once in a while it’s brought home to us what a thrill it is being in the out-of-home space at this time in history. Have a look at this 20 second video and contemplate what it means for shop windows, car windows and iconic buildings:
Not only are we now taking our screens with us in our pockets, we’re seeing the beginnings of new formats in public places. Exciting times.
In the UK, the Digital Economy Act has been passed and the switchover from FM to digital radio is scheduled for 2015. Grant Goddard, quoted here in The Guardian, gives 24 reasons why the switchover will never occur. About 23 of them apply in Australia which has opted for the more contemporary DAB+ standard.
This is all a bit disappointing for the UK radio industry which is estimated to have spent more than £700m on DAB transmission costs and content in the last ten years.
In case you missed our educative post about the impending 28 square metres LED screen in the Murray Street Mall and its resulting advertising opportunities, you can now download a three slide PowerPoint* that fills in the pixels.
We think there are opportunities here for retailers especially, given the ability to hinge advertising messages to highly topical events and synchronise with daily or weekly promotions. “Last hours: world ends soon”.
Research by the Digital Signage Association in 2009 found that over 40% of 1200 industry respondents believed Retail had the most to gain from digital signage.
53% of respondents were expecting to spend more on digital signage.
*PowerPoint is a trademark of Microsoft Inc.
Walgreens (the drugstore) have fired up a fairly iconic piece of outdoor advertising in Times Square. 1.6 million people pass the building each day (that’s a lot) and the TV audience on New Years Eve is estimated at 1 billion (a lot) though there are a few other distractions in that broadcast.
Each hour of programming includes up to 30 minutes of paid advertising plus Walgreens branding and animated filler. The sign matrix is the largest in America, with 12 million LEDs (so they say). Content can jump from one screen to another and in fact can also jump a few blocks to another Walgreens site on 44th Street which is visible from Times Square.
Click the photo for Antonio Neves, the man with the digital hairline, and video of a 17 stories digital sign in action (hint: digital signage looks better on video than on a photo).
BWS FM and BWS Digital Screens are new ad networks set up by TorchMedia within Australia’s largest liquor retailer (2.17 million customers per month). Clients wanting influence at point of purchase can now buy advertising that reaches only the buyer. Plus nobody has to listen to Howard Sattler.
Torch has constructed these ad networks after researching purchase behaviour. For example, three-quarters of buyers spend less than five minutes in-store so ad frequency needs to account for that.
BWS Digital Screens offer 10 second spots (ads run four times in a six minute loop) with 20% of broadcast time allocated to news, sport and weather. (People like that stuff). There are 47 locations in WA; they are LIVE in September. Flash or MPEG; no TVCs.
BWS FM is a fully fledged radio station with 48 minutes of contemporary music per hour. A client can buy six fifteen-second ads in that time. In WA, it’s a 40 store coverage – goes live at the end of December.
Packages make combining radio and screens financially attractive. Overall, the extreme targeting at the pointy end of the sales process makes this (we argue) a very smart alternative to MSM. Call Dave or Mark at the top of the hour and request a song for the one you love. Or more sales information. 9388 7844.
Some excellent work in this year’s AIMIA awards. Hands up who remembers what AIMIA stands for.
The winning viral campaign was Believe in Destiny. That link takes you to the web site that tells you how clever the viral campaign was. Interesting that a campaign generating so many hits lifted sales only 12%. The client, Rare|Wear makes “limited edition” cool clothing. We, at Media Tonic do Limited Edition Media Representation.
Here is the actual Believe in Destiny web site, which asked visitors “should companies make stories and websites like these, or should they stick to normal ads?” Then they published the results.
