For a business that is fundamentally about serving its end users, we often forget that the most important part of media is the human element. I think that's especially true when it comes to digital media. We get so caught up in the technology, the data streams, the ability to dynamically serve content and advertising, that we sometimes lose sight of the very people those media are created to serve. Without them, we are nothing more than a bunch of media servers. So I think it fitting to end the year with a column focusing on how digital out-of-home media ...» 0 Comments
You know the drill: you get to your gate with time to spare, you're hungry, but you're traveling alone. You can either pick up all your stuff and go in search of a dining establishment where there's probably nowhere to sit, with one ear cocked for news of a gate change or flight cancellation; ask someone to watch your stuff, hoping they'll persuade the ever-vigilant TSA not to detonate it in your absence; or just give up, looking forward to $2 peanuts on the plane. Enter JetBlue, which has installed interactive video screens at the gates of its new terminal ...» 0 Comments
I can't believe we're winding down our first calendar year of the Digital Outsider (officially begun in May), and I'm pretty happy with the stories we've uncovered so far on the digital transformation of the outdoor media business. So beginning today, and over the next few columns, I'd like to spend some time thinking about where digital out-of-home may be going next.» 0 Comments
Are you ready to have your own digital billboard? Ready or not, you can, with a new digital projector the size of a cell phone. As yet untested for advertising applications, it's still food for thought for digital out-of-home futurists.» 0 Comments
A lot has been written about the supposed synergies across the "three" video screens: TV, online-connected PCs and mobile, hand-held devices. This week, I'd like to talk about an interesting connection with a fourth: digital, out-of-home screens. Actually, in this case, I'm really talking about a multitude of screens: screens on airplanes, screens in supermarkets, and even screens on gas station pumps. What do they all have in common? Well, they're all screen-based affiliates of CBS Outernet, the digital out-of-home division of CBS Corp. What else do they have in common? They're all teaming up to help with a potentially ...» 0 Comments
No one told cinema advertisers about the economic downturn, it seems, as the two main companies, Screenvision and National CineMedia, continued to release a stream of good news over the last several weeks. Their solid performance bodes well for the future of not just cinema advertising but the digital out-of-home medium in general.» 0 Comments
It's been a long time since I've looked upon Times Square as a destination for drugs, but that will change tonight, at 8 p.m., when the heart of Times Square becomes the Mecca of pharmaceuticals, albeit legal ones. That's when Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, will throw the switch illuminating its new flagship location, occupying the first three levels of One Times Square, and launches the largest digital, out-of-home video advertising medium ever to be affiliated with a drugstore, and possibly any retail location in the world: a massive, digital "super sign" soaring 341 feet above the street and ...» 0 Comments
t's been a long time since I've looked upon Times Square as a destination for drugs, but that will change tonight, at 8 p.m., when the heart of Times Square becomes the Mecca of pharmaceuticals, albeit legal ones. That's when Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, will throw the switch illuminating its new flagship location, occupying the first three levels of One Times Square, and launches the largest digital, out-of-home video ad ever to be affiliated with a drugstore, and possibly any retail location in the world: a massive, digital "super sign" soaring 341 feet above the street.» 0 Comments
Digital out-of-home is still, by common agreement, one of the most promising new media, enviably poised for long-term growth. But that doesn't mean things are going to be pretty in the near term; in fact, given the unprecedented and unpredictable economic situation, how could they be? The current financial crisis has already laid low one big DO network, halted the roll-out plans of a second, and claimed a promising DO research initiative to boot.» 0 Comments
Casting VoltsPosted by Joe Mandese on Nov 6, 3:30 PM
Campaign '08 rewrote the history books for most major media, including one with the least amount of history: digital out-of-home. Much has been made about the use of the Web, social media, email, and the big story Wednesday morning was how major market newspapers were selling out their newsstand issues. But in a small, but significant way, digital out-of-home played a unique role as the election returns took on an unusually public nature Tuesday night. Due partly to unseasonably warm weather in northern states, as well as to a groundswell of public participation, election-related digital signage was visible to pedestrians ...» 0 Comments
