One of the guidelines Mike will cover in his book is what he calls the “5 As of digital content.” He has kindly allowed us to reprint them below:

Appropriate, Attractive, Affordable, Adaptable, Assembled

For digital signage content to be successful it must be appropriate. Customers should see relevant content on the screens — based on the right time, day, place, and location.

Content must be attractive. The brands that are participating want the content to look good, to be pleasing to the eye and ear. Customers have enough visual clutter in their lives.

Digital content should be appealing, not a distraction. Most retailers do not have the resources to create a network with both appropriate AND attractive content. Therefore it must also be affordable.

Retailers are not media companies. They sell products. A digital signage network cannot be a negative drag on their resources. The pressures of the first three A’s compel signage networks to ensure that the creative is adaptable. The content must be flexible enough to be used in a variety of ways and approaches while still being relevant. The only way to do this is by assembling content using technology. Retailers should look for technical solutions that can produce a wealth of sharp-looking, relevant content at a low cost. This is the future of digital signage content.

“According to the FBI’s recently released second quarter Bank Crime statistics, bank robbers are most likely to rob a bank between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Friday…”

Which has us thinking about potential deterrents and wondering whether it would be effective to run digital messaging during this time slot, specifically pointing out the bank’s security apparatus (guards, cameras, alarm systems, etc.)?

The idea would be to unnerve or plant seeds of doubt in the minds of would-be robbers, much as store greeters are used in retail stores to thwart would-be shoplifters.

Of course, hardened professionals might not be swayed, but that’s not who we’re concerned with. According to the U.S. Department of Justice in its guide (PDF) on bank robberies:

“most bank robberies are committed by solitary, unarmed and undisguised offenders (and) can be considered the work of amateurs rather than professionals.”

Creative Commons photo credit: secretlondon123

Read the interview

If you’re new to The Financial Brand, here are some recent articles that give you a sense for the depth of this online publication (I’d call it a blog, but it offers more meat than most blogs):

• Branches refuse to die

• Datahead: Brand more important than rates, products (Some great, presentation-worthy statistics in this post.)

• Notably Quotable: Anger, blame and dynamite

• Women vs. men: Two different perspectives on money

• Caja Navarra: Pioneers in Civic Banking

• Results 2.0: Social media for financial institutions

Take RFID. It’s certainly not a new technology by any stretch, but the practical application of RFID within the context of in-store digital media is still somewhat unproven, or at least far from mainstream. If we drill down even further to the banking vertical (the world John Ryan works it), it becomes even more challenging to imagine how RFID chips can be used to enhance the customer experience or further the dialogue between bankers and their customers. Sure, lots of visions about the “bank of the future” involve RFID, which identifies customers as they enter the branch, etc., etc. But that’s way off, for a host of reasons, including privacy issues and cost.

So, what can be done with RFID that doesn’t require millions of dollars, complete branch overhauls and (gasp) the involvement of IT?

In the spirit of our last post on DIY digital signage technology, I’d like to draw your attention to some strange RFID technology that I found on a gadget blog and that seems to be ripe for integration with digital signage.

Mir:ror is a personal RFID scanner that connects to any PC via USB. When used in conjunction with its accompanying software, Mir:ror is able to trigger different actions on it’s host PC, such as launching software or running macros. The Mir:ror costs around €50.

Violet, the company behind Mir:ror also sells colorful RFID tags (cost: €20 per dozen), which users can affix to any object, such as file folders, coffee mugs, etc. The tags themselves can be assigned attributes, so that once you’ve tagged an item (say, your car keys), you can drop it on the scanner and it reads the RFID tag and then prompts an action (e.g., email your loved ones that you’ve arrived home safely).

So, back to the question of using RFID in a digital signage context: it seems that a product like Mir:ror opens up all sorts of possibilities for letting users (customers or employees) interact with on-screen content. For instance:

• Sales staff with RFID tags on their badges could interrupt regular programming to launch guided sales content.
• Staff or customers could wave brochures or objects representing different products in order to launch specific content about that product.
• Sales staff, identified by their own RFID tags, could launch guided sales content that is tailored to the products that rep is licensed to sell.
• Customers could interact with content by waving different tagged items in front of the Mir:ror scanner. For example, in response to a survey question, such as “Where do you live?,” a customer could wave a card with the Union Jack printed on it to register their answer as England.

With this form of interactivity, it would be possible to turn any monitor into an interactive monitor (good news, if your budget doesn’t allow for touch screens). That is, if your digital signage platform allows for interactive content.

What’s more, by having users move objects to interact with the screen, we introduce a kinetic element to the UI — a dimension that is lacking in many interactive experiences.

What would you do with cheap RFID scanners and tags? Please let us know in the comments section!

According to the Shifted Librarian blog, the DOK Library Concept Center in Delft, Holland has pioneered its own form of digital signage:

Amazingly, the information system is a Wii channel, and every one of these navigation TVs spread throughout the building has its own Wii attached to display the channel! the administrative backend can be accessed by staff via a web browser for easy updates from anywhere.

Photo credit:

We’re definitely in a moment of transition. A moment where an old media system is dying and a new media system is being born. An era when spectatorial culture is giving way to a participatory culture.

So begins this video thoughtpiece by Henry Jenkins, director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program:

Although Jenkins describes the political and educational implications of this media shift, the thrust of his message should not be lost upon us marketers. If you develop content for digital signage, you need to realize that the rules are changing. Visual language is changing. What people find interesting and credible is also changing. And quite possibly, peoples’ desire to influence and affect the content they see in malls, train stations and banks is going to change as well.

Questions abound:

• As participatory culture continues to grow online (and in the increasingly interrelated realm of mobile), how will it begin affect the content we produce for our clients?
• How will user-generated content become part of — or even drive — commercial content?
• How will our content-creation tools need to change?
• How does this fit with the trend toward individualized (i.e., Minority Report) digital signage content?

Please tell us your thoughts! This could be a whole conference unto itself (or at least a meaty panel discussion).

• En español

• English – A4 format
  

• English – Letter format

Slides

Below are the slides presented by Bob Steele, vice chairman of John Ryan, as well as a transcript of his presentation.

Transcript

[1] Thank you for attending “Digital Signage in Retail Financial Services.” I’m Don and I’ll be working behind the scenes to keep the webinar running smoothly. Please know that you can use the Webinar software to submit questions for our panelists. Now I’d like to introduce Bob Steele, Vice Chairman of John Ryan.

[2] Hi, I’m Bob Steele and I’d like to thank you for attending today’s webinar.  I’d also like to introduce our two special guests:

• Paco Underhill, Envirosell founder and CEO, and best-selling author of “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping”
• Mike Hiatt, Former Director of In-Store Media Networks at Wal-Mart

[3] Today we’ll begin by summarizing the results of John Ryan’s international survey, which highlights recent developments in the use of digital signage in banking. Then, after some intial thoughts from Paco and Mike, we hope to provide you with some valuable ideas to help you champion and implement digital signage in your bank.

[4] John Ryan recently conducted an in-depth survey of marketing and retail executives, asking them detailed questions on range of subjects, including:

• How are you using P.O.S. techniques today?
• What’s the role of digital marketing in your bank?
• What’s working for you?
• What’s not working?

[5] We cast a wide net, covering leading banks throughout Europe and South Africa. Together, these banks represent over 44,000 branches across 23 countries.

[6] If your bank is still evaluating its digital signage options, you have an opportunity to learn from the early adopters in our survey, who provided insights regarding:

• Adoption rates
• Content creation, and
• Management tools

[7] The survey showed that digital signage is skyrocketing, with 90% of the banks interviewed having already deployed or planning to deploy soon. 80% of the respondents told us that they believe the use of digital signage will continue to grow rapidly over the next 3-5 years throughout the banking industry.

In fact, 50% described digital signage as a “utility” rather than a differentiator – a response that seems to indicate that digital signage is already considered a basic component of in-branch communications. No surprise then, that nearly 90% of the banks surveyed have already tested some form of digital signage. Of those, two-thirds expect to rollout a full digital signage program.

[8] The banks interviewed are using digital signage to fulfill many communications needs, with a third already taking advantage of its unique ability to “localize”—or show locally relevant messages in different branches. In addition, more than 10 percent of the banks are using digital signage for  “staff-directed communications.”

[9] Moreover, every indication is that even more banks would be using digital signage to fine-tune messaging if they could find an easy way to do so.  Almost two-thirds of our survey respondents told us that keeping content fresh with relevant and local messaging constituted their greatest management challenge.

[10] Why is localization so challenging?  In part, respondents blame lack of appropriate content management tools.  In other cases, respondents were frustrated by the fact that management systems were not web-accessible.

Other challenges include an inability to produce sufficient volumes of content affordably, a lack of internal work-flow systems, and a general lack of awareness about how to manage this new medium.

[11] In summary, early adopters are facing real challenges in creating, localizing, and managing content. Realizing the enormous promise of this new medium – which is the ability to target messages to specific branches and screens – has turned out to be far more laborious than anyone expected.

[12] So, what can a bank do to meet the digital signage challenge?

We suggest that you consider three factors, or as we call them, the Three Cs:

• Confidence
• Context, and
• Content

[13] First, confidence. We encourage you to have confidence.  After all, digital signage is simply a turbo-charged form of the P.O.S. marketing discipline you have already mastered.

Its value lies less in technology than in its power to vary messages by branch, time of day, or day of week….giving you the opportunity to put your marketing analytics to work in the branch for the first time.

[14] At Caja Mediterraneo, no two branches play the same content.

Messages are displayed in any one of 8 different languages, depending on branch location. A roster of neighborhood, provincial, regional and national sponsorships forms part of an “electronic” bulletin board. Real estate portfolio announcements show details about properties in the catchment area of each branch, and product-focused messaging is based on each individual branch’s sales results for the prior week.

Believe it or not, there are literally millions and millions of playlist permutations at work under the management of less than one fulltime employee. And most importantly, narrowcasting has its revenue rewards: At a press conference last month, the bank announced that the 500 branches with the digital signage system have experienced average sales increases of 14%.

[15] Context. As revolutionary as digital signage, is, it should be seen basically as another tool to implement your established strategy. Start with your core objectives, and then determine if the unique power of digital signage can help.

[16] This Malaysian Bank, for example, needed to address exceptionally long queue lengths in excess of 1 hour.  The solution: a combination of staff efficiency and incentives to migrate customers to self-service.

The result? On the left, a “queuing tree” is used as a user-friendly way to measure and show queue length for both the staff and customers.  As more customers take a queue number, the tree populates with leaves.  The longer the wait, the redder the leaf becomes. The branch manager and staff keep an eye on the tree, and “it’s all hands on deck” when queue lengths reaches a certain length.

Screens in other parts of the branch help, too, by shifting content to more entertainment-oriented messaging in deference to clients’ long wait.  To encourage migration, the bank pledges to give a percentage of its savings on transaction costs to charity when customers use self service. The digital thermometer shows the mounting contribution and an interactive kiosk at right lets customers vote for the charity they would like to see the proceeds go to.

[17] Content. Content is king…but only when it’s relevant That means putting in place the right tools to author, target, and assemble messages affordably.

[18] In this unique example at Toyota Financial Services’ flagship in Japan, targeted female shoppers are encouraged to use the red “listening posts” to provide their views on family finances.  Results of surveys are dynamically posted on the large 12-screen media wall behind.  Thus, the site’s content is automatically generated by users.

[19] Other ways to automatically generate content:

• Link to the web so that updates to the web automatically update screens, as in the picture shown here
• Develop a “hopper” of product campaigns and use weekly sales results to automatically determine which appear at specific slots in the messaging in each branch location
• Provide portals for segment managers to use to populate templates related to their segments.  Let centrally determined business rules establish which segment messages can be played at which branches—and when.
• Use external news sources, such as market information and weather—but be sure to visually render these in your brand format.

[20] I’d now like to turn to Mike Hiatt for some of his thoughts on the survey.

[Please see webinar highlights]

[21] Thank you, Mike. Let’s now turn to Paco.

[Please see webinar highlights]

[22] I’d like to thank you for attending today’s webinar.

[23] That concludes our webinar. I’d like to thank everyone again for attending and want to note that we’ll be providing everyone with a link to a recording of the webinar in the near future.

If you have additional questions or comments about today’s webinar, please feel free to contact us directly…or to leave us a comment at www.johnryanblog.com.

Apple Insider: Apple developing “active packaging” for iPods and iPhones
“…Apple Inc. is now apparently working on an in-the-box concept that could provide power to iPods, iPhones and other electronics devices still inside their retail packaging, allowing them to display demo videos and receive firmware updates while hanging unopened on a shelf in a retail store.”

Hmm…could smart, networked iPod-like devices be the future of digital signage player?

Gizmodo: Tokyo’s E-Paper Disaster Signs Help You Escape Earthquakes, Godzillas
“The multi-part displays, measuring at 1m x 3.2m and supporting a 240×768 resolution have been placed alongside a few main thoroughfares in the city, and are intended to give pedestrians disaster response instructions. E-paper is perfect for application like this…” How long before marketers will be able to cover store interiors in relatively cheap, low-power E-paper?

Harvard Business Blogs: Four Customer Experience Lessons from Target’s ClearRx
“…Introduced 4 years ago, (Target’s ClearRx pharmacy system” provided a radical departure from the standard design of pill bottles, setting Target apart from their competition. ClearRx sports an excellent design, with clear typography, smart color coding, and flat surfaces for easier reading.”

McKinsey Quarterly: The consumer decision journey
“Consumers are moving outside the purchasing funnel—changing the way they research and buy your products. If your marketing hasn’t changed in response, it should.”

Be sure to check out the interactive audio piece that accompanies the article.

Honda: “Dream the Impossible” video series
“Honda is a company founded by a dreamer. And we are a company that believes in the Power of Dreams. In this spirit, we have created a series of short documentary films celebrating those who have the courage to turn failure into success, and to forge dreams into a better future.”

Watch:

• “Failure, the Secret to Success”
• “Dreams vs. Nightmares”
• “Kick Out the Ladder”
• “Mobility 2088″

Fireworks photo credit: mr.bmonroe

Yesterday, we hosted the webinar, “Digital Signage in Retail Financial Services: What John Ryan’s European Survey Means for Your Bank.” Hosted by Bob Steele, John Ryan’s Vice Chariman, the webinar featured retail luminary Paco Underhill and Mike Hiatt, the former director of WalMart’s “smart” digital signage network.

So, all in all, we had some serious firepower in the house, which drew attendees from across Europe, North America and South America.

Bob kicked off the event with a 15-minute recap of John Ryan’s survey of European and South African banks on their plans and aspirations for digital signage. Bob, Mike and Paco then each offered their thoughts on the implications of the survey and how bank marketers should approach the task of planning for and implementing a digital signage network.

The remainder of the event was a panel discussion, in which our “gurus” fielded questions from the audience, including:

• What lessons did Wal-Mart learn from setting up their digital signage network?
• How will digital signage integrate with mobile?
• Who’s doing digital signage well?
• How did Wal-Mart measure the success of their “Smart Network?”
• What are your thoughts on cameras, eye-tracking and other viewership measurement technology?
• How do you get employees on the floor engaged in supporting digital signage?
• Is digital signage cheaper in the long run over paper-based signage?

The questions kicked off a rich conversation and provided attendees with great information and advice — informed by decades of international experience in retail and financial services. In our internal post-webinar debrief, Bob Steele quipped, “That had to be one of the most sophisticated conversations about digital signage I have ever heard.”

Of course, we couldn’t get to every question. So, we’ll be following up with Paco, Mike and Bob to get answers to the outstanding questions, which we’ll make available here.

A document with highlights from the webinar will be available in the next day or two. If you were registered for the webinar (even if you couldn’t attend), we’ll send you a link to download the report. If you’d like to be notified when the report become available, please let us know and we’ll be happy to do so.

Thank you to everyone who took time out of their schedules to attend. Apologies to those who told who were victims of time-zone confusion. Next time, we’ll be sure to communicate the start time more clearly!

A big thanks to Paco Underhill and Mike Hiatt for letting us tap their high-caliber expertise.

And finally a special thanks to sandsss for livetweeting the event.

A number of bloggers and tweeters gave high marks for Paco Underhill’s keynote address at the 2009 Digital Signage Expo on Feb. 26. He also gave DSE an exclusive interview on the subject of retail marketing and the role of digital signage. Below are some highlights:

“Part of what is interesting for us is recognizing that in 2009 almost all purchasing decisions can be influenced if not made at the point of sale.”

“…our visual language is evolving faster than our spoken or written word, meaning that the way we process visually has gone through a revolution thanks to the Internet and television. On the other hand, our eyes have never been more tired, and never been more bombarded.”

“And this is what the poignancy of digital signage is, which is that correctly applied, it is a remarkable medium. But if somebody hasn’t approached it with a plan, then it doesn’t work.”

“…it isn’t the hardware, it’s often the software that’s absolutely critical.”

Upcoming webinar featuring Paco Underhill

Paco Underhill will be one of the guest panelists (along with former Wal-Mart digital media director Mike Hiatt) at the upcoming webinar: “Digital Signage in Retail Financial Services: What John Ryan’s European Survey Means for Your Bank.”

Monday, June 29, 2009
10 a.m. to 11 a.m. (EST)

• Find out more
• Registration

Update: Bill Yackey at Digital Signage Today posted a great recap of Paco’s keynote address.

Photo credit: The Retail Marketing Society