Digital Signage for Banks: A Report from the BAI Retail Delivery Show

I spent last week exhibiting at the BAI Retail Delivery Show in Las Vegas. For those of you not familiar with BAI, it is the largest show in the financial industry which is focused entirely on technology designed to improve the customer experience at the retail branch level.

I’ve been to this show before and it is always interesting. You see everything from Check 21 systems to ATM’s and fraud detection systems. But this year, the growth of digital signage at the show was very interesting. The expected names in the industry were on hand but the thing that really grabbed my attention was the attempt by other product vendors to make an effort to consolidate digital signage technology into their products.

This was most visible among coin counting companies like CoinStar and Magner. Both showed up with an approach to digital signage yet each was very different. I had the opportunity to speak with the founder of Magner during the conference and he is making use of an existing software product from AdCue which controls his counting system as well as displays messaging during the wait time associated with counting the coins. I think this has value.

Magner took the path of least resistance. They simply mount a 32” LCD to the top of their coin machine and then AdCue integrates their software with that of Magner. I was not able to confirm if they connect the units to the internet on every installation but I assume that they push for it. AdCue functions much like our product and it is necessary to utilize the internet for media updates.

As for CoinStar, they went to the opposite end of the spectrum from Magner. While I’m not sure what software package they are using or if they wrote their own, what is clear is that they are serious about selling digital signage with their product. CoinStar fully integrated a screen into their coin machine.

Here is where I will admit my ignorance of coin counting machines. I have never even opened up the cabinet of a counter before. With that said, I feel confident that there are plenty of moving parts in there and it probably creates some heat and vibration. Unfortunately heat and vibration are both enemies of digital signage systems. That being the case, I have to assume CoinStar spent some time and money to develop a product that will be stable and reliable and that can’t be cheap. I guess time will tell as to whether they get their money out of the initiative.

Regardless of the true success of this approach, I find it very encouraging to see more and more vendors embracing digital signage as an augmentation to their product portfolio. If you have been reading my blog, you will remember my recent post about vending machine integration. To me this is very similar as it validates the strength of the digital signage within the retail space.

I expect to see many more attempts by myriad manufacturers over the course of 2007 to integrate digital signage software with their offerings in an effort to maximize the retail impact of their products as well as offer additional ROI opportunities.

As always, I will post those findings when I come across them.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Digital Signage: ABA Study Confirms Budget Growth

A recent study published by the ABA (American Banking Association) definitively states that marketing budgets among community banks has been growing for the last few years. According to the study, budgets grew with in banks with less than $100 million in assets by 61.5% from 2003-2005.

As a company we are very involved in the financial industry and I have no problem believing the numbers quoted in the study. Now I need to find some numbers on what percentage of marketing budgets with in the space is being allocated to alternative media and digital signage in particluar. I am hoping the second part to Steve Platt's initial study released last month will give some insight to this. You can be sure I will post the new study (at least what I can) when it is released.

In the meantime, you can find the full ABA study here

Digital Signage: A Framework For A/V Contractors

I came across a good article from Pro AV Magazine this morning which covers many of the issues involved in selling and fulfilling a digital signage project. As the article suggests, digital signage is cretainly a growing wave in the A/V world, but it still remains little understood.

I suppose that any technology in it's beginning stage should expect to have some confusion populated in the marketplace. It is not that we don't have knowledgable professionals working hard to ensure education of the market happens, but the speed with which changes are taking place within the digital signage industry. Our application has had 7 new releases in 2006 and we're expecting 2 more before the end of the year. The challenge of keeping just employees up to date on that type of change is daunting enough. Now take that example and multiply it by the mountain of competitors which exist or are entering the space and it becomes clear that the digital signage industry has it's hands full as we grow.

The good news is we don't have to look too far in the past to see examples of this scenario. I compare it to the telecommunications industry in the late 1990's. Back then, equipment and capabilities changed so quickly, it was possible to quote a solution one way and 3 weeks later have a totally different approach available for the same customer. Then the challenge became to determine which one best suited the requirements of the customer and deciding if the introduction of a new solution would add vvalue or cause confusion on the part of the customer. In the end, some telecommunications providers would suggest the newest solution and others would go with what they knew. It was very possible for an IT professional to face a decision to go with the newest (but unknown) or the standard (but possibly less effective) solution. The problem was, the decision they made also controlled their job stability.

I don't think Digital Signage has quite reached the now ubiquitous critical nature of internet connectivity and dial tone but I'm not sure we are far away from that. As more installations such as the one described in the Pro AV Magazine ( University of Tennessee's Football Hall of Fame) take place we may start to face the same issues on a bigger scale than they exist today.

Click here to find the article written by Mike White of Multimedia Solutions

Digital Signage: Equipment Plays Role In Exposure Growth

An interesting article was published the other day by Automatic Merchandiser regarding the growing interest in digital signage among vending machine companies. To me this is a natural fit and I look forward to seeing it work.

But regardless of this initiative's long term success, the attempt by several manufacturers within the space is an initial validation that digital signage has a place in most any retailing experience.

The full article can be found here