Sound & Communications February 2009 Issue

countered pain-point for corporatecustomers. Many companies donot have in-house capability to feedfresh content continuously to displayscreens. Digital signage is hungryfor compelling content that will attractviewers, whether they are in alobby or cafeteria, or in a retail store,mall or theater.Without fresh content, the screensno longer attract attention and viewersrapidly “tune out.” This appliesequally to old entertainment or newson screens in a mall as it does to lastmonth’s video newsletter in a corporatecafeteria. Fulfilling the vital needfor fresh content, with everythingfrom dynamic real-time broadcastsof news and stock quotes to shortanimations and video clips on specifictopics, can provide another greatbusiness opportunity for companiesalready delivering turnkey signagesolutions.At first, it might seem difficult toexpand your business into creatingor licensing content for signage,especially if you don’t have mediaproduction or content acquisitionexpertise in-house. Partnering with aproduction company or other contentprovider, such as an ad agency, canprovide a good, low-overhead way toget started in this area.Increasingly, companies in all sectorsof the DS industry are forgingpartnerships to create opportunities,and responding to RFPs for turnkeyDS that include content creation,content sourcing and onscreenadvertising sales. There are plenty ofpotential partners out there with contentto sell, and one of the objectivesof “Sign Age” is to lead you to newareas where you can network moreproductively in this area.• About You: Talking about advertising,what have you been doingto let the world know about the DSsolutions you offer? Potential customersdo extensive web-based researchfor their signage projects. It’s time todo some marketing on the internet.At a minimum, spice up your websitemetadata with appropriate DS keywords.Keyword sales on Google andother search engines are a relativelyinexpensive, effective way to attractreal prospects. It’s also a good ideato check with your DS suppliers andpartners, which might list authorizedor preferred integrators on theirwebsites in the same way that AVmanufacturers do.The rapidly evolving field of digitalsignage holds great promise for AVintegrators and other vendors thatcan respond quickly to the uniqueneeds of new signage applications.In “Sign Age,” we plan to keepyou abreast of DS industry trends,share tips on reselling new services,delineate criteria for the selectionof solutions and discuss some newbusiness models that might add toyour bottom line. And, of course,we’ll address topics raised by you viaemail. I invite you to send questionsand issues, or just start a dialog ondigital signage.I look forward to hearing from you. n February 2009 17