Digital Signage, Need to Know: 'Tis The Season To Maximize Your LED Sign's Effectiveness.

The end of year Holiday Season is a prime time to maximize sales for retailers. While the future of the US economy may not hinge on every dime collected, as the media promotes, December does boast at least a 25% increase over the average monthly retail volume. And for some small businesses, strong December sales can be the difference between “ongoing” and “defunct”. Effective use of an on-premise LED sign by the business owner can add that extra boost that everyone is hoping for.

For churches too, the Holiday Season is prime time for LED sign usage- events, information, and spiritual messaging! This is their time to put that LED sign to work and recoup their investment by great communication and information sharing. Churches have different parameters for success than a retail operation but new worshipers, smiling board members, and a spike in Holiday giving makes everyone happy.

Here are five quick suggestions to maximize LED sign effectiveness during the Holidays, or really on any day:

• Show- Don’t Tell.   Drivers have seconds to view your message, that is a very short exposure time.  Advertising is imagery and drivers may have the time to read words and translate them to your intended image. Or maybe they won’t have the time or focus. Just display an image. Attention spans are also short at 45 mile-per-hour, so be efficient and shoot your best shot. I always recommend professionally produced content.

• Color Is Better. The impact of a full-color LED sign is 300 percent that of a single-color display with grayscale shading variations. With the price of full-color LED signs approaching the cost of a single-color display the extra cost is more than worth it. Go color, color is much more effective.

• Brevity- Keep It Simple. In keeping with bullet point "Show- don’t tell", if you are using a text-oriented display message, “less is more”.  If you’re selling hot dogs (for example), leave your creative writing skills at home and opt for “Delicious Hot Dogs .99” instead of “Come on in and sample our delicious hot dogs, only .99”. Like the Geico commercial, everybody knows this, but why do so many LED signs require messages that scroll on and on and on?

• Be Community Friendly. So many LED signs are blinding at night and that can be a nuisance to drivers trying to drive safely. With all the normal Holiday distraction, being momentarily blinded by your LED sign is not the way to attract new customers. I know several LED signs around town like this and why the owners insist on annoying every night-time passerby is anyone’s guess. Also, why waste money when there is no traffic or minimal traffic- turn the sign on and off via your scheduling software.  Use that software also to turn down the LED sign brightness at night. Remote network control is a plus- you no longer need to be at the office computer!

• Political Correctness. And finally- relegate your political opinion, religious beliefs and humor to your online blog, church, or man cave. At best you’ll alienate ½ your customers with your political opinion. Watch your attempts at humor, as well, because you may not really be as funny as you might think and people are easily offended. Everyone already knows what the true meaning of Christmas is supposed to be so if you need to remind them, do it gently unless you are, of course, a church! Your goal is to increase sales and you need all of your customers to do that.

So, if you are using an LED sign to boost your sales or promote your organization- the Holiday Season is a perfect time. Be smart, and follow a few common sense ideas to make it work for you. Remember Santa is “making a list and checking it twice…” and he knows if you’ve been LED sign “naughty or nice”.

This blog post represents my personal perspective and does not reflect the opinion of Vantage LED, Inc. or SignVine, Inc. or any other person or organization. Thank you to Vantage LED for allowing me to pen a guest blog every 3 weeks. If you have constructive feedback please email me at michael@signvine.org.  - Mike Prongue 

Digital Signage Need to Know: Why simple software is better with DS.

-Deacon Wardlow

Simple is better. Look at all the things which have taken off in popularity because of simplification:

Point-n-Click cameras: (as opposed to complicated cameras which required a careful study of light, timing, range, etcetera)

Computers: say what you will about Apple, but the Lisa was in a ton of schools because it gave children an intro to the world of computing which was easy and familiar and now even toddlers can operate a tablet (before they can even speak)

Web Browsers: no dialup, no need to know a BBS (Bulletin Board System) phone number or access address and log information. Browsing information from another system is as simple as a search or entering a web address.

Web Design: one of my first jobs coding was developing a web site, the interview was a blank piece of paper where I had to write the code (on paper, completely from memory) to make a website look like a printed out page in front of me. Now web development is as simple as drag-and-drop

Digital Signage (DS): hold up here you say? DS is getting simpler and the leaders in the industry understand change is necessary.

Taking Apple's new iOS 7 platform for example. The system has a tremendous number of back-end changes which most end-users won't appreciate. While I don't like the flat colors and simple look, I understand what Apple is going for. They want the interface to change, but remain intuitive. Apple opted to go back to their roots of "simple is better" and make that happen both in the way the iOS device works and looks. 

It's important for DS to be simple. DS systems are made to convey content to the public. Sometimes the purpose is for financial gain, other times the goal is more outreach and objective oriented rather than income-driven. With DS, the common saying is, "Content is King." The problem with content is it needs to update dynamically, it needs to change frequently, and it needs to be timely and informative to the public. The difficulty most end-users have with DS systems is the control solution almost requires a computer science degree for some systems while others make the end-user jump through a ton of hoops just to schedule a simple piece. Want dynamic conditional messaging? I hope you're well versed in SQL-based systems and java scripting. 

Change is happening and it's out there. When reviewing LED Sign and other DS systems, take a test drive or ask for a video/example of the control suite for the system. Can the software be learned quickly? Is it easy to use? The easier something is to use, the more frequently it'll be utilized and with DS the more frequently it's updated and maintained, the better. Find out how frequently updates are made with the system. Can the manufacturer customize the solution (while keeping it simple) for specific end-user requests? Is the software capable of being used anywhere and anytime? Can someone access the system from a mobile device or are they locked-in to a single use instance (one installation on a PC in an office or a requirement to pay for additional installations?). 

The easier something is, the greater the appeal. Droid and Apple are demonstrating that with the smartphones in the market, even Microsoft is moving to the cloud to give users better access to systems. Is your manufacturer forward thinking or falling behind the times? If the system your promoting isn't simple to use, the easy answer for the client is go elsewhere for their needs. If the system your promoting isn't simple to use, the easy answer for the client is go elsewhere for their needs.

*Please comment here and/or email me directly with requests, questions, or follow-up at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically noted.

How does a Programmable LED Sign help business?

-Deacon Wardlow

Years ago, the SBA (Small Business Administration) released a document demonstrating how LED Signage can help increase business. Some of their numbers were (I feel) a bit overboard, but the overall premise is sound and the returns are definitely there. If you’d like a copy of the SBA report, drop me a line and I’d be happy to provide it (you can still find it various places online). The question remains, how does an LED Sign help business?

When looking at Digital Signage, there are several factors driving businesses to Digital. Newspaper readership is in decline. People watch TV shows off Hulu and Netflix, even radio stations have been taken over by the satellite movement. Traditional advertising dollars are swapping around tremendously and now (more than ever) on-premise advertising is crucial for success..

LED Signage allows businesses to push specials to the public and improve their P/L (profit/loss) statements. When a restaurant isn’t selling as many prime rib specials that night, drop a message on the display to emphasize a prime rib special and the sales will likely increase. Communicating business events and opportunities through and LED Sign gives the business an opportunity to directly communicate with the customers who go by every day. Customers are often looking for something to draw them in, and LED Signage drives people towards business. While specials and promotions are one large component, LED signage gives business more than a place to advertise. LED Signage can also be a form of community outreach.

A lot of people focus hard on the ROI (return on investment) but overlook the ROO (return on objective). LED signage allows businesses to communicate with the public directly. With LED signage you can be an active member in the community through your sign, publishing local notices, community events, PSAs (Public Service Announcements), and more. An LED Display is a big investment for business owners and it’s important they use the system to the fullest to reap the largest return. In order to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by LED Signage, the software has to be easy-to-use.

LED Signage software is getting simpler and the top manufacturers work closely with both dealers and end-users to ensure the software meets the needs of business owners. If you can’t make a great message in under 5 minutes (and send it to the system), the software has already failed you; the easier software is to use, the more the system gets utilized and the more vibrant/alive the content is.

How can a Programmable LED Sign help business? Community outreach, on-premise advertising, direct market push to the customers in your area and the ability to not only promote your Unique Selling Point to customers but also demonstrate your connection to local events/information... this is all achieved with LED Signage where other forms of advertising can’t perform to the same level. WIth the right partner in place, LED Signage can really make the difference between survival and success.

*Please comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), check out the site periodically as we’re constantly adding new material.

**Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically stated.

What's under the hood? Controllers for LED signs.

-Deacon Wardlow

End-users are growing more technically savvy and are looking for systems that deliver more power, more content management controls, more software options, reportable information from the LED Message Center, ease-of-integration in their computer networks, and advanced feature sets. As a result control systems have evolved from the simple embedded control systems to industrial-grade controllers.

ARM: Single Color/Greyscale LED Signs - Simple Direct Tasks
The ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) embedded control series has been around since the late 80s and is used in more places than you’re likely aware (smartphones, vehicle engine controls and netbooks). Early simple monochrome/greyscale LED message centers relied on ARM control systems as a means to push the message to a display simply, quickly and efficiently; the embedded control systems were great for these purposes. ARM controllers excel at managing simple direct tasks.

While ARM-based controllers for LED Message centers have evolved tremendously, the controllers are not customizable, you can’t easily add software on them to manage remote access and they are not built to handle CPU-heavy task loads. The inflexibility of customization options with ARM-based controllers is the biggest drawback.

IPC: Advanced Systems - Color Images and Video - Robust - Flexible
With greater complexity comes a greater requirement. Enter the IPC (industrial PC), a customizable high-grade industrial computer/controller solution. Advanced sign systems require advanced controls, the IPC runs more complex calculations, heavier workloads (animations, multi-tasking, video handling, etc.) all with the versatility of remote management and monitoring and the ability to deliver strong content to systems both small and large. The IPC is a more robust solution for a complex market and is used by the top manufacturers to allow for expanded software options, increased information reportables and to allow customers a more flexible product to integrate in an ever-growing complex technological environment.

The choice for manufacturers has become simple, IPCs give the end-user more power, more options, more flexibility and the overall capacity for high-end computing required in advanced RGB (and greyscale) solutions whereas ARM embedded controllers are falling by the wayside because they can’t keep up and don’t perform at the same level. When you’re sourcing a high-quality LED message center, be sure to check under the hood and make sure the engine is strong enough to give you the power you’re looking for and expect.



*Always feel free to comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Advertisements/promotion for your business and inappropriate comments will be deleted.. Thank you!

**Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically stated.

How much does an LED Sign or Digital Signage cost?

- Deacon Wardlow

Many people ask how much a Digital Signage solution (LED Sign, interior or exterior LCD/Plasma/etc.) costs. While they mean well, many points are overlooked or not addressed up-front. The sweet smell of a low price is replaced by the lasting bitter taste of a system which underperforms and potentially costs both the dealer and the end user money and reputation. Let’s take a quick look at the basics of what you need to know when looking at the “cost” of a digital signage system.

Objective:
What does the end-user want from the system? Are they looking for a direct ROI (Return On Investment) or ROO (Return On Objective) or perhaps a blend of both? You need to know where you want to end up before you start the process.

Location:
Where is the system being placed? Is there appropriate power? Can communication be setup quickly or are there special site requirements (i.e. an outdoor LED Message Center requiring a hard-wired connection where there are currently no feeds available which will require trenching, a remote connection or wireless integration)?

Content Creation/Management:
Who is creating and managing the content? A Digital Signage solution (LED message Center, interior, etc.) is only as good as the content running on it. Digital signage which remains the same day-in and day-out for weeks on end will quickly lose any appeal for customers and badly created/managed content can negatively brand the business. Over-repetition of “THIS MONTH ONLY!” specials, poor color contrast choices (i.e. blue text on a red background which not only hurts the eyes but is difficult to read), and other poor content creation/management judgement can do more harm than good. Remember, customers are not sitting at that screen for a long time. You have (at most) 5-10 seconds to make an impression. Make it BIG, make it fast and keep it simple.

The Equipment:
These are professional commercial-grade systems. You can’t just go to a store and pick something off the shelf and expect it to perform for you. Just as businesses buy commercial-grade computers (servers) meant to run systems 24/7/365, your Digital Signage solution needs to be commercial grade. While there are many manufacturers who offer a cost-conscious model to meet end-user demand remember the caveat, you get what you pay for.

A ‘source’ vs a ‘RESOURCE’:
Make sure the source you purchase your digital signage from is also a resource (not just someone selling you a system, but actively working with you to ensure you have the right system to meet the site need, end-user requirements and has everything it will require to function properly before and AFTER the sale). While there are many people/businesses out there who will sell you a system to meet your basic needs, where will they be when/if there’s a problem? Will they be there to walk you through issues on setup/installation and if the system fails?

Overall, there are a lot of components to be aware of when figuring the cost of a system. To be truly successful, you need a partnership between the resource/manufacturer, the integrator/dealer and the end-user. Great achievements are rarely made by a single individual, there’s usually a team of people behind that achievement. When pricing a system, don’t go it alone. Work with an experienced dealer/manufacturer so when you get the price, neither you nor the end-user are surprised by the real costs down the road.




*Always feel free to comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Advertisements/promotion for your business and inappropriate comments will be deleted.. Thank you!

**Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically stated.

The Rugby Scrum - Ideal partnerships push Digital Signage forward

-Deacon Wardlow

Rugby is one of the most brutal, bloody and beautiful sports I’ve experienced. The sport reminds me of what I imagine American Football must’ve been like when it first started out. A bunch of men out in the field with with almost nothing protecting them but their fellow teammates. If you’re unfamiliar with “the scrum” (scrummage) or Rugby, you should checkout the description here. While not necessary to follow this thread, it’s a cool concept overall.

Basically, a scrum is where a group of people (6-8 players) interlink to form a stable force to push forward and take possession of the ball away from the opposing ‘scrum.’ The stronger the scrum, the more stable they are and the more likely they are to achieve their goal. What does this have to do with the ideal partnership? A lot.

Just as the ideal scrum is comprised of various people coming together to form a solid core; your business needs the seemingly disparate elements (product, support, partnership) to come together to be fully supported.

Everywhere you look these days, someone is trying to get your business. This has held true for quite sometime, but with LED message centers (and digital signage overall), where there used to be a few big players and some cheaper options, there are several “big players” and a flood of cheap options and sometimes it’s hard to tell one from the other.

When I first started learning about Digital Signage Solutions, it was all really confusing. I found it difficult to get a straight answer from anyone and of course everyone I spoke to had ‘the solution’ which would best suit ALL my needs. The truth is there is no single solution. In many cases no single vendor will be able to help you on every job out there (sometimes you’ll have to get a special mount or some weird control system from a custom specialist).

It didn’t take long to realize I needed RESOURCES, not just sources for digital signage. I needed partners who would listen to my needs and help me find a solution (sometimes that solution wasn’t their product, but they helped me nonetheless and that’s made a HUGE difference). The scrum is your team of support. It’s the business partner(s) who help you succeed. Sometimes you get the trifecta (great support, awesome product, excellent partner/resource) and sometimes you have to put that mix together yourself.

When looking around at what you need, make sure the business(es) you’ve chosen meets your needs.

I love Digital Signage because it’s constantly shifting, changing, evolving and bringing new opportunities for innovation to the forefront. I would find it really difficult to succeed if it weren’t for the key relationships I’ve chosen through the years which help me find solutions. In the end, the company who sells a cheap product has a place, but it’s not with me. Too many times what I’ve saved in price, I’ve paid for with headaches, troubleshooting and after-service issues with little/no support on the product. I’ve found the ones who are worth it, are the ones who actively work towards the success of their clients.  Ask yourself this one question when looking at your potential options, “What is missing from my scrum?”

*Always feel free to comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Advertisements/promotion for your business and inappropriate comments will be deleted.. Thank you!

**Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically stated.

Why Digital Display systems fail: 'Creatives' and Content

-Deacon Wardlow

Digital Display systems have immense potential. People point to movies like ‘Minority Report’ and other distopian future films as examples of the potential nightmare of over-pervasive/intrusive advertising, but often fail to look at the benefits of well managed digital display systems. Advertising doesn’t need to be an annoyance; done well a 'creative' can amuse, entertain, educate and develop the brand all at the same time. Unfortunately, there are definite obstacles in the way of conveying your message effectively and these are a few of the many signs of a bad Digital Display system:

An advertising campaign can turn against you:
As Giselle Abramovich of Digiday.com points out on his tumblr account, advertising (print, digital, other) can seriously miss the mark. A bad ad can just as strongly enforce negative branding as much as it was meant to help grow/sell/educate a brand/product.

Get it right the first time:

Aside from spelling errors and misplaced pictures, make sure your content is properly uploaded and (if using templates) make sure the template is filled-in and previewed prior-to pushing it to your display. As you can see from the Fox News example (taken from a live feed), even “big businesses” slip up from time-to-time.

Does the message get to the point or miss it entirely?
I came across a great article on Entrepreur.com which very effectively explains some common mistakes people make with advertising. While getting eyes on the sign is important (using a witty quip/joke) you need to ensure the bigger point (drawing clients to your door) is not missed. Keep the focus on two things: what you’re selling and whom you’re selling to.

Keep track of what works and drop what doesn’t:
While most of us don’t have all the expensive toys/tools to check the success/failure of our advertising, there are some simple steps which can help you track the effectiveness of on-premise advertising. Your exterior LED message center can be used to track message effectiveness by dayparting messages. Dayparting means to push certain messages at certain times during the day. As Jim Meskauskas points out on imediaconnection.com, be sure the message has relevance to the time if you’re partitioning messages by dayparting.

In the morning, push out an ad for a timed special with a requirement the first 20 people to mention the ad get ‘X’ (discounts, a prize, etc.). This draws people in and allows you to track effectiveness of a certain campaign. Please keep in mind, your audience is mobile so you want to keep the message simple and straightforward and don’t have them TEXT/take a picture/or do anything which takes away from their attention to forward movement (walking/driving/cycling). That would be bad, very very bad.

Get the most from your medium:
Use the medium to the max. As some Japanese engineers have shown in Osaka, simple water can be presented in amazing ways to draw interest. A digital display (LED message center, LCD/Plasma/Smartphone/tablet/laptop/other) is limited only by your imagination. There are people doing amazing things with displays. Unleash the creativity, but be sure what’s presented achieves your goals.

Have fun, it’ll shine through:
Overall, engage your customers/clients/focus group in fun and entertaining ways when possible. Emotion is a HUGE driving force in advertising. Harness emotion where you can. Think of the overall impression you want to make with the digital signage and what goal you have in mind. See the system in your mind’s eye, go through how you want someone to view the system, what you want them to experience/feel and what you want to achieve; examples: more clients coming in the door, people calling that phone number, customers sending SMS texts to the display and interacting with your business using the display as the medium. What you can visualize can be actualized.

Keep your objective in mind:
Often too many people focus on the ROI (return on investment) and fail to focus on the ROO (return on objective). ROI gives you financial gain (a good thing) and ROO gives you a gain (i.e. educating your customer base as to why they should use you over the competition) which may not have a direct measurable monetary effect, but will get you farther towards building a relationship with your customer base. The trick is fitting it all into a spot which may only receive 5-10 seconds of attention.

Don't hesitate to reach out for advice if you're feeling stuck. There are loads of people (myself included) who are happy to point you to excellent resources if they can't help you directly. Don't be afraid to stumble a bit on the path to success, but avoid the big mistakes where possible!

*Always feel free to comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Advertisements/promotion for your business and inappropriate comments will be deleted.. Thank you!

**Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically stated.