Mobility Devices - The Tail That Wags The Dog Of Digital Signage

Traditional Digital Signage - Image Credit: Digital Signage Expo (formerly Digital Retailing Expo) - ExpoNation LLC

Mobility Devices - The Tail That Wags The Dog Of Digital Signage

People who make their living in the arena of visual communications are just now beginning to grapple with the power of the very small screen platform. This realization was not made any clearer than what transpired in a recent discussion panel held at this week’s Digital Retailing Expo - May 16 & 17, 2007 at the Navy Pier Exhibition Center in Chicago, IL.

Notably missing were discussions about the appropriate use of “BlueCasting” (Blue-Jacking … Bluetooth Delivered Messaging) and Physical World Connection concepts through which one might deliver a digital message to the mobility device screen.

Truth is that the tail-that-wags-the-dog of large digital displays will soon be the delivery of digital content to cell radio, WiFi radio, and Bluetooth enabled devices with little screens … not handheld devices with little screens used to influence big screen displays as the discussion suggests.

Digital retailing on a handheld is just now on the radar of ALL of the industry experts.

Excerpts from Marketing At Retail (POPAI) -

Mobile Phone as Key to Digital Retail
Editorial: David Keene - Marketing At Retail - 5/18/2007, 5:12:01 PM

The Digital Retailing Expo changed its name this year to the Digital Signage Expo, to take advantage of the growing concern for anything digital signage in retail, transportation, education, and corporate environments. But in Chicago this week, the city that arguably gave rise to the modern retail industry, the Digital Signage Expo kicked off under its new moniker with perhaps more buzz about things retail than any other vertical market.
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On Wednesday [May 16, 2007], one of the most compelling panels was "Going Mobile". Moderator/Presenter Stephen Randall, CEO of LocaModa, led a discussion with Matt Lindley, SVP and executive creative director at Arnold One (an ad agency); Brian Ardinger, SVP and marketing officer at Nanonation; and Mike Brown of Artisan Live to explore how mobile phone technologies are enabling "the next wave" in digital signage interactivity and place-based communications at retail particularly.

Randall (whose white paper on the topic was recently featured in the pages of Marketing At Retail) started the panel with a firm admonition that mobile as a robust, at-retail advertising vehicle on par with the other three screens, is not here yet. He cited the double-opt in limitations to mobile–under the "Can-spam" act: any mobile phone user must opt-in, and re-confirm the opt-in, before they can be targeted with mobile coupons, SMS messages etc. And Randall emphasized that with mobile, "seven guys control it." In other words, the major mobile carriers (Cingular, Sprint, etc) have what Randall called "monopolistic DNA" that is limiting the market from developing freely.

But Randall, after throwing out a variety of caveats, did acknowledge "the mobile phone is a link to digital signage". He cited several case studies where the mobile phone was used as a "remote control" for interactive signage systems in retail. And he observed that the key to the success of mobile as a catalyst for digital signage would be a tie to the web–interactive signage systems, linked to mobile phone users, that extend the interactive features of the web to at-retail.

Agency veteran Matt Lindley, SVP and executive creative director at Arnold One, shared his many experiences where his clients are requesting a mobile component to ad campaigns. Lindley also drew parallels to the web, saying that mobile campaigns can mimic web campaigns, but acknowledged that the money is not coming as rapidly into this channel as many agencies (with fond memories of the dotcom train) expected.

All the panelists agreed that the adoption of mobile phone as a key component to interactive digital signage was inevitable, that it was happening now, and that the initial successes are more "on-demand" than push as all the players including consumers tip-toe around privacy and legal issues surrounding the most personal of electronic devices on which marketers have now set their sites.
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