Bloomberg And STRATACACHE
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
It may take the industry sector a while to digest this, or in fact, in typical heads in sand style it may not understand or seek to understand this deal at all but make no bones about it this is a big, big deal for STRATACACHE as we see news and content giant Bloomberg enter the digital out of home space.
We have written several stories on what was going to happen, what was to be announced and what was announced but here is the full press release from Bloomberg themselves…
BLOOMBERG DELIVERS CUSTOMIZED TV CONTENT TO RETAIL BANKS, BROKERS
“Bloomberg on DisplayTM” digital marketing service engages customers, strengthens brands
New York, September 29th – The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® network has launched Bloomberg on Display™, an out-of-home news content and digital advertising service for retail financial locations. The customizable in-branch marketing tool allows banks and brokerages to reinforce their brand messages and communicate with customers while providing BLOOMBERG TELEVISION news, expert analysis, high profile interviews and personal finance segments.
Bloomberg on Display™ advanced digital media technology is easy to manage and customize, offering a digital signage solution that allows users to create and distribute content in a user-friendly multimedia system.
Unlike traditional television, Bloomberg on Display keeps competitors’ advertising messages out of retail locations, allowing users to insert their own advertising and customer messages. Bloomberg on Display retailers can choose from live BLOOMBERG TELEVISION broadcasts or a loop of segmented short form video, framed by their own graphics, promotional messages and branding. Custom stock tickers and news headlines can feature companies or industries of local interest.
“Retail financial service providers need engaging digital signage content that is appropriate to their venues. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION unbiased coverage and direct, factual reporting style is ideal for retail financial locations. The ability to customize messaging without displaying competitors’ advertisements provides a compelling solution for marketers,” said Anita Tobias, head of North America Content Syndication for the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network.
Bloomberg on Display is powered by STRATAMedia’s award-winning digital signage application for a highly optimized hosted solution for powerful digital marketing.
“Branch marketers are seeking to differentiate and elevate their brands,” says Chris Riegel, STRATAMedia CEO. “Bloomberg’s award-winning programming as anchor content with the ability to wrap product and brand promotions within the media palette presents a tremendous value proposition. Relevancy is king and this is a unique platform to shape customer visits and drive wallet share.
Bloomberg Media Services
Bloomberg’s media services cover the world with more than 2,200 news professionals at 145 bureaus in 68 countries. BLOOMBERG NEWS® content is integrated onto the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service and is distributed to more than 400 subscribing news publications. The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® 24-hour network reaches more than 200 million homes around the world. BLOOMBERG RADIO® services broadcast via XM, Sirius and WorldSpace satellite radio globally and on WBBR 1130AM in New York. The award-winning monthly BLOOMBERG MARKETS® magazine, the BLOOMBERG.COM® financial news and information Web site and BLOOMBERG PRESS® books provide news and insight to investors.
We’d expect this service to win several hundred thousand screens over the next couple of years.
October 1st, 2009 at 14:22 @640
Adrian,
Is this a response to my comment to your last post? What does Stratacache intend to do differently that Bloomberg and its last partner–who delivered an almost identical content solution–failed to do?
October 1st, 2009 at 23:50 @035
The product has been ‘dramatically’ enhanced to use Bloomberg content in concert with the customers messaging, relevant topics in finance for the region, custom data as well as Audience Measurement to see what viewers react to in branch, what is successful and what is not.
We can all see things that need improvement in ‘in branch’ marketing to consumers….the new Bloomberg On Display has moved from a pure broadcast to a custom content channel to target the different types of consumers in different banking, investment and financial service areas.
It also won’t hurt that there are 2,000+ Bloomberg salespeople, STRATAMedia inside and outside and our global partner network taking this to market also.
October 2nd, 2009 at 13:45 @615
Chris,
thank you for your response. Having seen the previous Bloomberg product close-up an considering what I hav heard of your product, I have no doubt you have improved dramatically the distribution and scheduling capabilities. My one or cents, for what they’re worth:
1. Not knowing what they’ve represented to you, I can say as a fact that the previous product was sold by Bloomberg salespeople as well. When I saw it demo’d with a potential client, we were taken to Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York, treated to a tour and lunch in the Wintergarden, and presented to and subsequently followed up on by a Bloomberg account manager. I have no idea how committed Bloomberg’s 2,000+ were, but at least one of them took a full afternoon with us.
2. While the scheduling and regional customization capabilities you describe sound excellent, the fact remains that in a test I helped structure for one of the largest US banks, it was found that the average branch visitor–most of whom possess less than $50,000 in financial assets–had comparatively little interest in market updates, corporate earnings announcements, and the other items that dominate Bloomberg news, a fact which is perhaps not surprising whn you look at the Nielson ratings of Bloomberg TV
3. One other somewhat interesting finding from the study–limiting ads to the sidebars during programming (the other sysytem showed full screen commercials during breaks as well, albeit primatively), actually delivered lower message recall than the print-based elements in the same branches, and substantially less than the cohort of loctions which received a more typical, ads-only digital media solution, and deomnstrated only a small bump in customer satisfcation and wait-time reduction–much less than the branches which got to keep their CNN cable TV feeds
All that said, it’s certainly possible that the events of the last 18 months have made customers more interested in financial news–although like attitudes during and following most recessions, I expect that will fade relatively quickly as things stabilize. The educational content you describe also sounds quite promising. Delivering advice and financial education to the mass market has long been a struggle for banks, and it sounds as if your solution could be helpful in that regard.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:45 @573
Thanks for the feedback.
I think many of your points are certainly valid to what you would consider the ‘legacy’ view of Bloomberg – ie, Bloomberg news in the past was certainly targeting the ‘high end’ of the financial services audience, but Bloomberg is in the process of changing that significantly today across all of their media outlets, from re-formating the screen presentation in the broadcast from multiple symbol tickers to the new, simple ‘Dashboard’ view that is much better for the average consumer, to breaking out long form, consumer focused content as part of this offer.
Within the new offer, Bloomberg on Display can provide either the live channel feed, and/or ‘Private Channel’ which is segmented news, sector news, and ‘average consumer’ targeted financial information on hundreds of topics from Buying a Home to Investing in a 401k to Identity Theft to Improving your credit rating. You don’t have to be a Hedge Fund guy or a PhD in economics to find the information valuable.
We are excited about the partnership because it is clear to us that Bloomberg has a more evolved approach towards the market now, understanding that the ‘one size fits all’ approach from before needs to be changed to help our financial customers tailor their messages better to their target audience.
As always, time will tell, but the quality of their news gathering, the rational fact based presentation of the information (no Jim Cramer sound effects here) and the ability for financial customers to program the content as they see fit for their audience is a big change from before.