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Digital Grow

Digital Signage: Retaking Control of Advertising Really Matters

A report published in late August by media industry analysis Screen Digest forecasts digital out-of-home revenue will quadruple in Western Europe over the next five years and by 2012 will account for 10 percent of all out-of-home revenue.

The report “Digital Signage in Europe: opportunities for digital out-of-home advertising,” points out that net revenue generated from digital out-of-home advertising in Western Europe on digital signage networks in airports, train stations, supermarkets, hotels and other public spaces will grow from about $200 million in 2007 to more than $781 million in 2012, or a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent. In fact, the report foresees that the out-of-home advertising sector, driven by the migration to digital technologies, will be the only traditional advertising media to experience real revenue growth over the next five years in Western Europe.

While the report is confined to forecasts for Western Europe, it is noteworthy because it illustrates the increasing prominence of digital signage networks as a legitimate advertising medium –good news for marketers grappling to understand how best to take advantage of changing media usage patterns among consumers.

As technologies like DVRs encroach on traditional television viewing patterns, more and more newspaper readers let their subscriptions lapse, and the public turns in ever greater numbers to the Web for news and entertainment, tried-and-true media strategies are becoming less effective. Marketers are being confronted with how best to reach potential buyers in a media environment that’s rapidly developing into something that’s far more active than passive, more user-centric and friendly than media-centered.

Digital out-of-home advertising on digital signage networks gives marketers the opportunity to reach potential customers at or very near the point they make their actual buying decisions without giving the shopper the opportunity to zap past their messaging or browse to something of their own liking. To the degree shoppers in a retail store are inclined to linger near racks or shelves of merchandise, for example, they become a captive audience –without a remote. To the degree commuters stand on a platform waiting for their subway train to arrive, they’re a captive audience –without a remote. To the degree those waiting for their cars to be repaired sit in a waiting room, they’re a captive audience –once again without a remote.

Not to belabor the point, but it should be clear that one of the key elements digital out-of-home advertising reintroduces into the marketer-audience equation is a significant amount of control. Certainly, it’s akin to the level of control over messaging in the traditional TV viewing experience. No marketer could force a viewer to watch an ad, but it took a little bit of effort on the part of a viewer to escape it.

Without question, digital out-of-home advertising on digital signage networks offer a number of other benefits, such as the ability to organize messaging around a desired or known demographic, the ability to quantify audiences and develop a cost-per-thousand or cost-per-million type of rate structure, the ability to daypart messaging and many others. But the fundamental advantage this form of advertising brings to marketers is an element of control and a degree of confidence that the viewers of their messaging won’t simply zap or browse away from their advertising.

About the Author

David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing for Keywest Technology in Lenexa, KS, a software development company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling, management and playback. For further digital signage insight from Keywest Technology, download our Six Basic Digital Signage Applications white paper and case studies. Or, visit our website for many helpful tips and examples on how digital signage can benefit your business.

Panel -- How to Grow your own Audience: Alternative Methods of Distribution

Grow Exotic Flowers

Using indoor artificial light allows the home gardener to extend the gardening zone to a much higher one than might be possible in their particular outdoor growing situation. There has been a big trend in gardening circles to push the envelope of gardening zones by introducing tropical plants into outdoor gardening situations. It is also easy to grow exotic flowers indoors, when you have the help of great lighting that is available through the use of grow lights using a hydroponic digital ballast.

One type of exotic flower that is readily available for purchase is the orchid. This is a plant that loves the warm weather that is typically found in its native Philippines, India and southeast Asia. Orchids do not like direct sun, but instead prefer bright and indirect lighting. It performs well under fluorescent light. Consistent watering and appropriate air circulation, along with proper lighting, is needed to succeed with indoor orchids.

Another beautiful tropical plant you might wish to try growing indoors is the tropical hibiscus. This plant will get fairly tall, around five feet, and will have lovely three to six-inch diameter blooms. However, the only way this plant is going to thrive indoors is with a proper grow light. The light should be placed at five feet above the floor, and then you set your plants underneath. Fluorescent grow lamps work very well and provide the correct light spectrums required by indoor hibiscus.

Ginger is a super plant to try growing indoors. If given good lighting and protection from the cold it will thrive very nicely indoors. The spiky, vibrant flowers come in pink and red.

A Hawaiian plant that is lovely when grown indoors in a container is the Zebra Costus. The zebra' name comes from the striped black and white two to four-foot canes that the plant produces, and it has a beautiful orange-hued flower.

You might want to try a flowering vine indoors. A Passion Flower could be just the plant you were looking for. It likes indoor temperatures ranging from the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties, and it enjoys a good quantity of indirect light. It also needs good air circulation to thrive indoors. The flowers are a purple/blue shade, and the vine also produces edible fruit after it flowers.

If you are looking for a bright spot of floral color indoors, then you might enjoy growing a bromeliad. Because they do not have an extensive root system, they can thrive in a fairly small pot, and prefer plenty of water but good drainage so the roots don't sit in water.

All of these plants require appropriate lighting, such as would be found with HID lights used with either electronic ballasts or digital ballasts of the galaxy digital ballast variety .

About the Author

Alison Agnock is an expert in indoor hydroponic gardening methods that use grow light digital ballasts, hydroponic grow lights, and full spectrum grow lights.

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