A Dozen Big Ideas from the Idea Conference
What’s the big idea, blogging about an article that isn’t directly related to digital signage? It’s that exactly– big ideas that can help any project, from rock band to business. Here are some good ones, taken from a recent article in AdvertisingAge (look below for links).
In a recent AdvertisingAge article video clips of 12 Big Ideas from the industry’s most dynamic minds are showcased along with a brief summary. As the marketing director of a digital signage/software marketing company , I really enjoyed listening to these clips. As I listened and read their ideas, I imagined seeing my clients nodding their heads as they relate to the thoughts of these speakers.
Here is a summary of their main points:
- Limitations and small budgets are inspiring “I can be at my most creative when I have constraints,” said Anne Saunders, senior VP-global brand strategy and communications, Starbucks. The coffee behemoth started out humbly as a small Seattle chain. “When I have a lack of time or money,that causes me to think differently. We don’t spend a lot of money on traditional advertising.” Less than 2% of Starbucks’ operating budget is spent on advertising. Instead, word of mouth and the physical presence of each location have been its best tools.
- Trust your gut — not research Pointing out that Steve Jobs didn’t create great ideas by doing market research, multilingual ad man David Jones, global CEO of Euro RSCG, exhorted ad execs to stop asking permission. Drawing on British comedian Vic Reeves’ assertion that “96.2% of all statistics are made up,” Mr. Jones argued that the best ads aren’t based on research. He cited P&G’s brilliant viral effort for Charmin toilet tissue created by Euro rival Publicis, which riffs off the many euphemisms for elimination and, as Mr. Jones said, did plenty to put the brand in pole position.
- Think like a band “What does a band actually do? They create music and they don’t know whether it’s going to sell,” said Chris Stephenson, general manager-global marketing for Microsoft’s entertainment business, which launches its much-anticipated MP3-and-video player, Zune, on Nov. 16. “They’ll tour — they’re not sitting in an ivory tower behind their desk. It’s a very do-it-yourself culture, but ideal. This idea of thinking in a really open-minded, expressive way like an artist is really important.”
- Approach your consumer from a ‘molecular level’ The first thing Steven J. Heyer, CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, asks himself when it comes to designing a new hotel is: “What do we want our guest to feel?” He and David Rockwell, founder and CEO of the Rockwell Group, discussed the innovations they’ve made to the luxury-hotel industry by designing experiences that appeal to the traveler who hates traveling but loves being there — think mountain views, health spas and expanded bars.
- Digitize everything Not just your ads, but also your store, your product and even your employees. Here to help you is Linden Labs CEO Philip Rosedale, creator of the virtual world Second Life. What was once the futurist domain of “Tron” is now something anybody with a broadband connection — and potentially an ailing first life — can tap into. Think you can’t make an emotional connection in the digital world? Then you should have seen the star of a heart-tugging video Mr. Rosedale screened, a woman who found a husband and a career in Second Life.
- Nostalgia is death Quoting Bob Dylan, Paul Budnitz, founder of Kidrobot, took aim at the marketing world’s tendency to slavishly ape bygone pop culture. (That means you, VH1 and Hello Kitty.) Mr. Budnitz said there’s no creativity behind thinking derivatively –l ike, for example, when marketers create toy spinoffs of blockbuster films. He offered the notion that real creativity is about making something that is “entirely new and in the moment.” He did, however, distinguish nostalgia (bad) from appropriation (good), in which familiar themes serve as a jumping-off point for the creation of a completely fresh idea, as evident in the twisted work of Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami.
- Let consumers inside For the Barenaked Ladies’ first independent release on the Nettwerk record label, co-founder Terry McBride wanted them to be able to work outside the 12-song-per-album box. Their recording sessions yielded 29 songs, from which Mr. McBride pulled 250 tracks for fans to mix into their own versions. The mixes will be submitted for a forthcoming fans’ EP. “It’s not about control, but the fact that the fan owns the brand,” Mr. McBride said during the Corbis “Who Owns Your Brand?” breakout session. “Fans do all the marketing for us.”
- Drugs won’t supply your ‘Aha!’ moment They no longer fuel the creativity of Alex Bogusky, chief creative officer at Crispin Porter & Bogusky. “There was a time where I’d be working on something where I’d need to drink,” Mr. Bogusky said. “The problem is, the longer you do it, the smaller that window for creativity gets. And then you’re trashed.” He also pointed out that getting to that eureka time requires hard graft and is often about ripping up lots of OK ideas and starting over. (And you thought it was just brilliance and the occasional bong!)
- Flatten management structure “We don’t have enough managers, and we intended it to be that way,” said Google’s chief engineer, Craig Neville-Manning, who credited that lack of bureaucracy as a big reason for the search giant’s success in bringing new products to market.
- Prototype early That way, said Paul Bennett, chief creative at IDEO, you won’t end up with “dinosaur babies” (a product “so ugly only its mother could love it”). Creative teams can sometimes get so wrapped up in a project they can’t let go or realize it’s not going to work the way they initially intended. Making prototypes early on in the creative process helps with troubleshooting and allows for feedback on the more complicated areas of the product. “The notion of prototyping is, if it’s bad, you can let it go.”
- Market to the interested In analyzing a recent Iams campaign, David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas, found that 40% of the American population owns a dog. “When I run an ad on TV, 60% of the people watching have no interest in it. It’s bad for the client because they don’t want to advertise for people who aren’t interested. And it’s certainly bad for the delivery system, putting ads in front of people that are boring them.”
Go for a brand back rub Eric Plaskonos, director-brand communications at Philips Electronics North America, introduced the concept of “brand chiropractics” to the crowd in his closing statement, citing Philips’ recent innovative spreads in Gourmet and its sponsorship of commercial-free football games. “It’s slightly unorthodox and [hands-on], but when it works it makes you feel really good.”
Digital Sign of the Times
Even though this article from August’s VARBusiness has mostly information and specs about monitors, there’s also some good info about the direction digital signage is headed. More and more small and mid-sized businesses are turning to digital signage as a worthwhile and even crucial marketing initiative, while thousand-screen deployments for multi-million dollar companies remain rare. The key is to find a solid provider, install a few screens in high-traffic areas, and begin to measure your ROI. That seems to be the big debate: Will spending all of this money be worth it to my company in the long run? Research shows that customers respond favorably to in-store digital media, and that such POP advertising can increase sales of advertised products by alarming amounts. And, ss Chris Drynan mentions below, they’re irreplacable for getting the attention of your already captive audience, such as the guests waiting in your office entryway. This gives you an early first impression; a chance to get them interested in your products or services before they’ve even heard your sales pitch. But the real question remains: Will I make back what I spend on this massive installment? The longer your signage system stays in place, the more likely you are to earn a positive ROI. With constantly changing content, it’s easy to see how quickly you could save money on printing, shipping, and hanging traditional in-store signage as opposed to the instantaneous deployment of digital ad campaigns. DigiSignage’s ROI calculator claims an ROI of over 2,000% for a large signage system that remains intact for 5 years and is continually updated with new marketing material. While pilot rollouts and smaller systems shouldn’t anticipate that level of return, they can almost guarantee that they’ll still have an eye-catching display that will keep their customers’ interest piqued. And with the cost of monitors, displays, and screens hitting all-time lows, especially those made specifically for digital signage use (no speakers, hi-def video), it’s easier than ever to get involved inexpensively.
Excerpt, “Digital Sign of the Times”, VARBusiness, Aug 18 2006
By Shelley Solheim
“I think digital signage is more integrated into business processes than it used to be. A lot of our reps see value in selling it more than they used to,” says Chris Drynan, director of business development and marketing at En Pointe Technologies, a solution provider based in El Segundo, Calif. “We’ve seen a good spike in sales over the past six to 12 months, and we see more opportunities in the pipeline. “We see [these displays] all the time in client hallways, where we didn’t see them 18 months ago,” Drynan adds. “We’ve even started to use them internally, and we’re seeing the benefits of internal messaging for our sales reps. We also plan to put [digital signage] in our entryway in the future, so when people are sitting out there, they can get a feel for what we’re doing and what’s new that they might not have known about.”
Small and midsize businesses are warming to digital signage as display prices continue to fall, and major distributors such as Ingram Micro and CDW are starting to offer digital-signage-in-a-box solutions targeted specifically at SMBs. Just last month, D&H Distributing signed a deal with American Industrial Systems to resell all-in-one digital-signage displays to small and midsize companies.
“Historically, in enterprise deployments, you’re mixing hardware with proprietary software, then tying it to standalone PCs or to a network,” says Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H in Harrisburg, Pa. “This is much easier.”
In the future, the distributor will also offer MediaView and SmartView products for wireless capabilities and an integrated PC that allows video, pictures and text to run simultaneously.
Schwab points to what he considers an ideal application for an all-in-one display offering: a real-estate office that simultaneously offers a slide show of available houses, lists the phone numbers of local contacts and provides information about regional events such as open houses.
Industries such as health care, government and education are among other verticals that offer new areas of growth for digital signage.
“Everyone’s looking to get huge multi-thousand unit installations, but those are going to be hard, and few and far between,” says Hans Baumann, senior product manager at NEC Display Solutions. “There are a lot of smaller opportunities at universities and hospitals.”
You can read the fuill article here: http://varbusiness.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=191902339
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