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Zones, frames, whatever it is called. The less you have them in your screen the better. Bloomberg TV made it famous, until they realized that the more information you cram into your screen, the less you actual absorb. Then some websites developers or owners decided that they will also try to cram even more frames to put their or customer banners in each frame. This is acceptable due to the face when you are visiting a website, you are practically less than 10 inches away from the computer  screen. Sadly, some digital signage network operators decided to do the same with their screens. They thought that since their screens are usually 40" or above, they can even have more frames and sell ads in each frame. I once saw screens in a  shopping mall that had no less than 6 frames. Needless to say, the company that owned the network closed down. The first thing that you should remember, that in most cases digital signage networks is mostly outside the home, hence some call it Out of Home TV. But unlike your home TV which when you sit in front of it, you actually sit to watch. But hardly anyone that goes to the mall to watch advertisement on the screens. They are too busy walking and shopping.  So the bigger the message the more likely it is going to be noticed. And you cannot have the  message big when you have divided your screen into 3 frames or more. Advertisers usually do not like when their ad is shared with news ticker that tells them that a bomb in Afghanistan has killed more than 20 children. Fortunately, software like Scala allows any content to gracefully appear full screen without any glitch and once shown, your screen channel can go back to your multiple frames layout.

So here is my advice:

• Avoid frames, 2 is fine, 3 is a bit to much, any more is not recommended
• Make sure that the software you are using allows any message, including a TVC to appear full screen over-riding any other frame in the screen. Make sure that it is done gracefully
• If you are going to have a news ticker, make sure  your font size is no less than 60
• The less words you put the more people would notice. If you try to copy the content of a website, give the URL instead.
• IF you have few words to show, try to make an art of it. Do not just use simple text.

For many years I've come across many people who are eager to jump into the digital advertising business. If you look at the potential of  DSA (Digital Signage Advertising), you will find that there is a huge potential for this business and if you do it right, the returns are big. But starting a digital signage business is not really that easy.There are many factors in building a successful business. I'm not going to dwell into all the factors but the one of the main factor is the no. of sites that you have. If you do not have at least 30 sites with 10-20 screens at each site, you can forget about attracting big advertising agency to consider advertisingon your screen. To have 30 sites, you need to have an initial investment of at least 3-4 millions.

 If you do not have 3-4 million startup capital, there is still hope to make it big and have a share of the pie in this DSA market. 

 For small businesses, you need a way attract advertiser without burning a hole in your pockets. To do so, you need to start networking with other digital signage provider where you are able to sell your ads at their site and vice versa. This type of cross selling can be a highly effective tool for a small business.

 When you cross-sell, you are offering the advertiser  more options on where he can advertise.  For example, you have 2 site with 5 screens on each site. Another DS provider has 3 sites with 5 screen too on each site. If you build a network to cross-sell with other DS providers, you can end up with 5 sites with 5 screens on each site. With this, you are able to attract more advertiser to adverstis.

 The only drawback on this idea of cross-selling is the level of trust you have with the other DS provider and the type of platform or system you are using. If both DS provider uses different system then, you are required to change your content format just to suit the other DS software.

 In Click Grafix, we have been actively pushing the idea of networking our client who are using SCALA  to cross-selling to each other. We truly believe that with rampant competition, DS provider must leverage every possible sites to increase sales. This is where cross-selling can help. Cross-selling targets a company's existing advertiser to sell them other sites where they can advertise.

While cross-selling theoretically has been around since the beginning of business, it has become far more effective since internet access is become more accessible everywhere. Remote updating of content especially using SCALA Content Manager has made cross-selling of content more attractive and affortable to the DS provider.

Since cross-selling is such a classic marketing tool, not to mention easy to execute if you are using SCALA, we were surprised to observe several DS provider either not doing so, or treating it as a rushed after thought.

 Here are few reasons why SCALA can help to promote cross selling:

1) Same format. If you develop your content using SCALA Designer 5, you are sure that it will run on any SCALA Players... whether this players belongs to you or to other DS Provider.

2) Remote Updating. You are able to push your content to other DS Provider Content Manager seamlessly. 

3) SCALA support major file format. You are not required to change your content if the other DS Provider are using SCALA .

4) Easy Updating. You can program in SCALA to extract data from any location (example RSS feed) Therefore if you push your content to another DS Providers SCALA Player, you do not have to worrry on how to update your content. 

 Do give it a thought and if you are interested in this idea of cross-selling, you can contact Click Grafix to help you to network with other DS provider.

 Cheers

Dato Chua

If in business cash is king, in digital signage, content is the king of all kings.  So in this series of articles, I will talk about content for digital signage and all that relates to it. So the first part, is the easy part.  While this topic is more specific to Scala, it is a general guideline to any tool that you use.  Sol let's start.

Scala supports most file formats, but some formats are preferred more than others. Nop,  color or race has nothing to do with this but rather due to factors such as bandwidth and their use within your message. So, here are few tips:

• For backgrounds, stick to JPEG, and try to optimize them, the small in byte-size they are the faster they get transmitted, loaded and shown. I would use JPEG also for photographs where clarity is not crucial, unless you are talking about cameras.
• For foreground, you know, the chairman photo, PiP,  use JPEG, and optimize please. But if your tool supports alpha channel, like Scala does, then use PNG with alpha, it is clearer and cooler to use. The less PowerPoint like your content, the cooler it is.
• For video, use MPEG-II, but only for full screen. Try 6Mbit compression, no need to go higher than that. But if your video is going to be smaller than the full screen, within a frame or part of the screen, then use MPEG-I. It is good enough. The loss of quality is minimal and it is better than  having a larger byte-size MPEG-II file that is not going to appear full screen anyway. Oh stay away from QuickTime.
• Sound, either MP3 or WAV will do. The smaller the better. In fact, if your screens are in public areas, where there is crowd and noise, do not bother spending time perfecting it. 

Well, that is all for the time being, do visit our blog for more.

Since we're on the topic of signs, its interesting to note the type of digital content displayed on some of the digital signage networks in some of the shopping complexes around KL. While many are enthusiastic about hopping onto the bandwagon of new media advertising, equally many remain rather oblivious to the elements of a good digital signage content. What makes good content? MTV videos? Movie trailers? Flash designs? Sophisticated 3D animations or transitions?

As a shopper or a visitor to a mall, what I'd like to see is information that is relevant to my presence there. Content that will help me make purchasing choices. And by that I refer to  details that are short, concise, informative and catchy in BIG easily spotted fonts. I quite often notice a habitual tendency for form over function where graphics are concerned, which results in the viewer squinting hard at tiny pixelated text that is often submerged in a fancy explosion of graphics. Probably nice to look at but definitely unreadable from a certain distance, which defeats the purpose of having digital signage then. I mean, who stands right in front or inches away from a screen anyway. And how many screens are suspended at eye level? 

In digital signage, timing is crucial. Shoppers generally cruise by display screens so the advertisers only have that first 5-10 seconds to capture the attention of the intended audience and generate further action from there. So if I spot MTVs and videos, I guess I'll probably just cruise right by without pausing to wait for the next piece of ad or info. On the contrary if I catch a glimpse of the word SALES / OFFERS / DISCOUNTS / PRICE CUTS, etc in big large fonts with the venues highlighted, hey, chances are I'd probably be heading that direction in no time. And ... I may just stick around the screens a little longer to catch more news and updates at the same time.