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Role call: creative services and merchandising

In part three of his series on building a successful digital signage team, Bill Gerba offers a list of details that the creative and merchandising team needs to keep in mind.

October 17, 2005

In this series on building your digital signage team, we began by identifying the four core disciplines that need to be mastered (namely Business and Finance, Sales, Creative and Merchandising and Technology and Operations). We then proceeded to take a closer look at the responsibilities of the technology and operations team, noting how their roles play out before, during and after a major digital sign deployment. Today, we'll continue our analysis with an examination of the tasks set aside for the Creative and Merchandising team.

Many digital signage firms lack a background in the traditional Point of Purchase advertising industry, and thus don't fully appreciate the responsibilities of the creative and merchandising staff (I'll call them "creatives" for short). I think that's at least partly due to the nature of the end product: while some of the things that creatives produce are easy to grasp and understand (such as a Flash movie or video clip), others are more complex and less visible. But that doesn't mean they are any less important. In fact, some jobs that creatives are tasked with have as much or even more impact than the number of screens deployed, the number of ads sold, and even the amount of financial wherewithal a digital signage company possesses. Thus, instead of delving into the nuances of content production and the different types of content that get produced for different narrowcast networks, I'm going to focus on some of the creative and merchandising challenges that many firms don't think about until they're already knee-deep in their deployments.

From a functional perspective, perhaps the biggest problem with retail-focused digital signage companies today is that they don't realize that they are in fact an extension of traditional point-of-purchase (POP) display and visual merchandising firms. Consequently, the challenges below will be well known to individuals coming from one of these disciplines. Still, many firms - whether starting from scratch as new digital signage companies or branching out from their existing core markets and competencies - treat digital signage as a special exception that doesn't adhere to the usual visual merchandising rules. Here are a few of the important things that creatives need to think about, especially in the context of digital signage:

Store layout and traffic patterns - There are literally racks full of books on how to manage store traffic and change floor plans to optimize a customer's behavior, and there are an equally large number of conflicting opinions on what constitutes the "ideal" floor layout. However, when it comes to digital signage, there are a few important things that should always be kept in mind. For example, screen height (floor stand vs. end cap / shelf-mount vs. ceiling drop), orientation (horizontal vs. vertical/portrait) and proximity of the screens to the products they advertise are factors that need to be taken into consideration in every deployment. Likewise, physical/logistical considerations like proximity to power and exposure to outdoor elements (if the screens are situated next to doors or opening windows) always need to be accounted for. Finally, even though many chains will use the same physical layout in many locations, traffic patterns and ambient lighting may differ from store to store. When possible, it's usually beneficial to work with directly with the manager at each location to determine the best position for each screen, working within the guidelines provided by the corporate office. To this end, it's helpful to have a preferred and alternate location for each display, in case the first choice is not practical at a given site.

Screen layout and content format - Just as important as the physical location of the screens is the way that the on-screen real estate is used. While most first-generation digital networks simply displayed a full screen video image, new software has made it easy to divide a screen into multiple regions or zones, with different content scheduled to each (think of the typical CNN-style layout with separate areas for video, local information, and the ever-present stock ticker). Yet while dividing a screen into lots of different regions can make for a very impressive demo, it's not always the right thing for a real world deployment. For example, small displays are often best dedicated to showing full-screen content. Similarly, displays that need to be seen from far away often can't take advantage of the flexibility of a multi-zone layout, since the content in each zone needs to be large enough to be seen at distance. And personally, when digital signs are already competing with static POP displays, merchandise packaging and even other shoppers for attention, I don't really know if it's a good idea to further divide that precious screen real estate. However, I'm not aware of any quantitative research on this subject, so creatives might want to conduct some real-world tests to determine the efficacy of multi-zone layouts.

Sound - The use of sound is one of the most divisive topics in the digital signage world. Some people love it, suggesting that sound and video are equal parts of the digital sign's appeal. Others hate it, claiming it damages a store's ambiance while irritating customers and store employees alike. I feel that, like most other things, sound is appropriate sometimes, but not all of the time. We humans do a good job of separating out multiple visual images as we navigate the world, but we have a very hard time doing the same for audio. Juxtapose two static POP displays or digital signs, and they might look a bit cluttered, but you can easily focus your attention on one of them, or turn your attention elsewhere. Listen to two competing audio sources, on the other hand, and it's extremely difficult to tune out the cacophony. Thus, the context where the signs are placed will often determine whether sound is practical at all, and further, whether it should be utilized as part of the merchandising strategy. For those networks utilizing sound, technologies like hypersonic focused speakers and sound domes are worthy of consideration, as these can help limit the audio to the proper areas of the retail floor.

Lighting conditions - A store's ambient lighting can have a significant impact any POP display's appearance, but the effect is harder to predict for digital displays like plasmas and LCDs. Reflections, glare, and color wash-out should be taken into account when selecting the location and positioning of each screen. (Varying store layouts may also require that screens be mounted differently - a main entrance display that works well within mall venues may be far less effective in stand-alone stores that have bright, open entrance areas.) Polarizing filters and anti-glare screens can help, but they can also affect the screen's color warmth and clarity, or even reduce its viewable angle. Creatives will need to take all of this into consideration when authoring any content that will appear on the screens, and should take care to use color, sound and motion in a way that minimizes any adverse conditions caused by the store lighting.

As we've seen, the creative and merchandising staff in a digital signage company is responsible for a variety of tasks, some plainly visible and others taking place behind the scenes. The four areas I have focused on are some of the most important, but often get overlooked until the deployment has already begun and changes become costly. By making these tasks part of the creative team's responsibilities from day 1, you'll be able to make smart merchandising decisions without breaking the budget.

Next week, we'll change gears and focus on the business, strategic and financial decisions that can make or break a digital signage company.

About the author

Bill Gerba is co-founder and CEO of WireSpring Technologies, a provider of software for digital signage and kiosk networks. He is very active in the self-service and narrowcasting industries, and maintains the Dynamic Digital Signage and Interactive Kiosks Journal.