As digital-out-of-home advertising grows at an exponential rate, we must sit back and analyze what we would consider a more favorable DOOH network.  One network that comes to mind is Gas Station TV.

Gas Station TV is one of many networks that does a great job captivating and entertaining their customers by incorporating outside content feed into their digital network. By allowing outside content such as news, sports and weather updates to mix in with ad content, I feel it will produce more favorable results for the advertiser.

One such advertiser that is keen on Gas TV is Toyota. For those that fill up at Arco, you can probably recall, at one time or another, the wonderful Toyota Prius ad. Why do we remember you ask? We remember because it was strategically mixed in the play cycle with streaming outside content. We are less likely to turn our heads away and ignore the ad because we are already engaged in the content playing.

As digital-out-of-home becomes more popular I am confident in making the strong assumption that you will see more advertisers taking advantage of this type of marketing space.

What venues do you feel are the most captivating and why?

-Mike Carlotta

Normal business hours menu:
 

Late night hours menu:

Last weekend, I visited a new eatery called, “Chacho’s.”  From the outside, Chacho’s looked like any other Mexican restaurant.  Once inside though, my eyes were drawn to four large high-definition digital screens that were being used to display the restaurant’s menu; even highlighting certain dishes with various flash animations.

Now for the coolest part - My friends and I happened to arrive pretty late (1am-ish) and before I could decide what to order, I watched the manager in charge instantly update the menus with a press of a remote (like clicking through the next slide of a PowerPoint presentation) to reflect their “late night menu,” which had substantially less items to choose from than their main business hours one.

Take a moment to think about the time and money saved, as well as the future earning potential behind this type of application.

Chacho’s can instantly decide to roll out a new menu item (or nix underperforming ones) grab your attention with special value meal offers displayed by the hour or even eventually provide consumer interaction where the menu can show the % of people who have bought each item for the day–IN REAL TIME!

My friends, this is just the beginning.  I believe every restaurant (Yes, that is correct, I mean Every single one) will eventually ditch their old static menu boards for digital signage version like Chacho’s.

We are already seeing a trend like this taking place at concession stands in movie theaters and sporting arenas.  The Chacho application merely provides us with another glance into our digital signage future.

Have you seen digital signage applications like this in any restaurants where you live?

-Matthew Olivieri

Here is the scenario: You have successfully created your AdSemble account and found a few venues you would like to place an advertisement in for your business.

Now it’s time to create your ad.

Ok, that shouldn’t be too hard-I mean if you or someone on your team is going to make a flash based ad, it probably isn’t too different from making something for the web, right?

Sorry, Wrong.

Digital signage ads are quite different from their internet variety counterparts.  For starters, most people stare directly in front of their computer screen, meaning text can be small and still legible and the ad effective.  When building an ad for a digital signage screen, one must remember that BIGGER is BETTER-especially when it comes to text and Extra especially when it comes to the call to action.

Try this: Build your ad and then stand 50 or so feet away - Can you still make out the images and read the text on the screen?  If not, you are still in Internet ad building mode and need to re-think your design.

Internet ads can also run text and images to the very edges of the canvas space with little or no bleed.  Not true (or rather not a good idea) for your digital signage ads.  We have discovered that even if a DOOH network is reporting a specific screen size, such as 1024 x 768 or 16:9 ratio, those clients who designed their ads to leave a minimum 1″ border of space around all sides to ensure nothing of importance was cut off (such as specific URL or 1-800 number), had more success than those who did not.

Have any suggestions of your own as to what makes for a good digital signage ad?

-Matthew Olivieri