DailyDOOH

From June 1 onwards, all 1,250 Belgian Barco employees will be working at a new purpose built campus in Kortrijk.

Today saw the ribbon cutting with the arrival of Belgian royalty.

Located at the Beneluxpark in Kortrijk, the 230,000 m2 ‘One Campus’ is an all-glass, circular building surrounded by green spaces and connected to three other state-of-the-art Barco facilities.

The campus will not only be the new home to Barco’s 1,250 Belgian employees but will also serve as an open house for customers, partners, foreign colleagues and other stakeholders.

One Campus is designed to mark also a new way of working, centered around dialogue, collaboration and, consequently, innovation. Barco is convinced that its new operating base will be of great support in the future evolution of the company.

One Campus = One Barco

The new One Campus, which replaces Barco’s older premises in Kuurne and Kortrijk, includes 48,000m2 of general facilities, surrounded by a pond and grass. Standing proudly, at the heart of the campus, is The Circle, which is connected to the Lab (the R&D and test-unit), the Pulse and The Engine (the production facility), by a footbridge, to stress the campus feeling. The Circle comprises airy, flexible office areas, R&D offices and test areas, a multipurpose auditorium (170 seats), a training center, a three-tier meeting deck and an atrium that features a first-class company restaurant. The showpiece of The Circle, however, is the Barco Experience Center, which is equipped with Barco’s most advanced visualization solutions. Here, customers, business partners and other visitors will discover the connected world of Barco.

Encouraging dialogue and collaboration

One Campus is, more than just a new building, a completely new way of working. Barco strongly believes that people perform to their best and feel inspired when they can easily get together and have the flexibility to work where and how they want. So it set up an open-plan building with various working ‘scenes’, like social hubs, home and interaction zones, ‘bubbles’, etc. By combining this smart, flexible workplace with some great campus facilities like a good restaurant and coffee bar, delivery of online shopping orders, green areas, etc., Barco hopes to retain and attract the talents that can help it move forward for a successful future.

Reflecting company values

CEO Eric Van Zele said “Barco has worked hard, over the past few years, to evolve into a global technology leader. Our seven corporate values serve as a guide to help us achieve our objectives. One Campus breathes each and every one of these core values: teamwork, openness, trust, innovation, etc. I’m really delighted about this exciting, new home for the Barco family and will be so proud to welcome all of our colleagues from abroad, customers, business partners and other stakeholders here,”

Royal visit + Ring the Bell

Barco celebrates the official inauguration of its One Campus today, May 27, 2016 in the presence of King Philippe of Belgium. After the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, King Philippe visited the Barco Experience Center and had a round-table discussion with a delegation of Flemish industry representatives.

We note also that a delegation of Barco employees opened the Euronext market with the opening bell-ceremony this morning at 09:00h at the new campus.

Formetco Sports has announced the addition of Blake Bearden as Sports and Video Systems Sales Manager.

Bearden will be responsible for leading sales efforts and accelerating Formetco Sports’ and LED Video Screen growth nationwide.

Todd Heller, Vice President Digital Products told us “Blake’s passion for sports, together with his extensive industry experience and proven track record of building customer relationships, make him a perfect fit for Formetco Sports. We are happy to welcome him to our team,”

Bearden brings nearly 20 years of digital sales experience to Formetco Sports, working with product manufacturers as well as professional, collegiate and high school athletic organizations. He has held Regional and National Sales Manager positions for several major electronics corporations, where he developed and implemented digital projects for major league sports facilities, minor league baseball stadiums and collegiate sports venues.

About Formetco Sports

Atlanta-based Formetco Sports specializes in large LED video screens for entertainment and multi-sports scoring applications. A division of Formetco, Inc., the world’s largest full-service outdoor advertising supplier, Formetco Sports builds a custom LED video screen from the design concept to construction and installation. All video screens are designed for reliability and efficiency and ongoing support is provided.

STRATACACHE, a leading provider of scalable, high-performance digital signage, media distribution and enterprise video acceleration technologies, announced this week the addition of Jeff Griffin, as EVP of Retail Media Networks, to the STRATACACHE Team.

Griffin brings more than 25 years of experience in brand and sales management at both Fortune 50 CPG and emerging-media companies. In this newly created position, Griffin will focus exclusively on business development within the managed network services area. Building momentum in winning large scale, commercial media networks will be a key priority.

Chris Riegel STRATACACHE CEO told us “Jeff will be a great addition to the team and will have a substantial impact on helping drive new wins and further STRATACACHE growth. With extensive merchandising experience from his time at Kellogg’s, Nabisco, Nestle and P&G, Jeff brings key insights to the STRATACACHE team on the merchant point of view in the retail space as well as recent mobile and beacon experience from his time at InMarket.”

Prior to joining STRATACACHE, Griffin led the creation of inMarket – one the world’s largest digital place-based media networks with over 150mm weekly viewers across two continents and the world’s largest mobile proximity network at retail reaching an audience of 2mm+ daily shoppers. He was also a co-creator of the original shopper insights behind Google’s ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ for IPG Shopper Sciences.

Jeff holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Media & Journalism from the University of North Carolina and an MBA from Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Concept Sign and Display Group has reported a record-breaking GBP 4 million turnover for the first quarter of 2016, and tells us that it is now on track to surpass an ambitious five year growth plan – to increase turnover to GBP 15m.

Left to Right David Neale, director for Concept Sign and Display Group and Sean Morrough, managing director for Concept Sign and Display Group

The Birmingham-based company, which was established in 1998, has seen a surge in sales from new and existing clients for its traditional signage and innovative large format LED digital displays. As such, it has completed 30 major builds in the first three months of the year – another record for the company.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week JCDecaux Airport UK launched their year long study, Tech in Transit, to the market.

The technology sector is a key category for JCDecaux Airport UK and given its fast moving nature, they told us that there was a clear need to expand their knowledge on this dynamic and exciting industry.

For this study, several bespoke quantitative studies were commissioned. These included:

• Passively monitoring passengers’ app usage throughout their airport journey.
• Partnering with Conde Nast to gain insights from Ars Technica and Wired readers – technology sector experts.
• Collecting online panel data on JCDecaux Airport UK audience’s relationship with technology.

Many of the findings uncovered in Tech in Transit are extremely revealing. The research showed that Ars Technica or Wired readers who had flown through a JCDecaux Airport UK concession were more likely to be tech savvy, invest more in technology and have higher levels of ownership and app usage that those Ars Technica or Wired readers that hadn’t.

Sebastien Anthony, Senior Editor Ars Technica UK told us “Ars Technica has the most discerning tech consumers and decision makers of any publication out there, so it’s always fascinating to learn more about how they use technology and what drives their purchasing habits.”

Some other keys findings include; estimated personal tech collection of Ars Technica or Wired readers is £6,900, +47% higher than non JCDecaux Airport UK traveller Ars Technica or Wired readers readers; passengers spent £76m on technology products at Heathrow in 2015; and 93% of Ars Technica or Wired readers passengers use their phone/tablet to research products they are considering buying.

Steve Cox, Marketing Director JCDecaux Airport UK said: “The airport offers unique communications benefits for tech brands. It’s an environment full of early-adopting tech-literate passengers. Plus, of course, it’s a location built on the latest, most cutting-edge technology – a natural synergy”.

For more information on this research project, please contact adam.garrity@jcdecaux.com.

We don’t make ludicrous claims as to numbers of people who attend events during London Digital Signage Week – err, we leave that to other event organisers, Ed.

We’ve always known that we get a couple of thousand people at events during the week, what works is lots of events, some free, some paid for, basically helps get people into the City.

We do however like to keep careful count and so here then for the records, is London Digital Signage Week by the numbers…

Websites (new) 1, see http://london2016.digitalsignageweek.com

Goodie Bags Delivered, 200

Private Speaker’s Dinner, 18

The DailyDOOH Media Summit, 160

DailyDOOH / Samsung / VisioSign VIP Reception, 82

8th NEC Showcase, 1,552

RISE OF B2B HARDWARE STARTUPS IN IOT, 150

Banner Communications / RMG Networks Open House, 48

Did you know that the origin of the phrase ‘by the numbers’ goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. In the book, each diagram was numbered.

Nope, neither did we

During London Digital Signage Week (May 16-20, 2016), the DailyDOOH team, and about 40-50 others, attended RMG Networks and Banner Managed Communication evening seminar entitled, ‘Communication Evolution: How Digital Signage became Intelligent Communication’ at RMG Networks UK’s spiffy offices in Tower 42 in the heart of the city.

Along with meeting the RMG staff there, headed by Martyn Barnett, managing director for EMEA (shown above), we were privileged to listen to Barry McPhillips, multichannel solutions director, Banner Managed Communication (an RMG client), and Cathy Brown, executive director, Engage for Success (who regular readers will know, we’ve met and used before at a number of employee / corporate communications events of our own).

McPhillips took us through the reasons for an new digital communications system deployed by Merlin Entertainments at its theme park, with details from strategy right through to the final results.

Queues are almost always a challenge at theme parks, and McPhillips explained how digital technology and human behaviour intelligence transformed the guest experiences and queue management system.

“It’s not the technology; it’s how you use it,” said McPhillips, adding that the guest satisfaction rate at the park has now increased by 36% and revenue has increased significantly since 12 new digital signage installs – with 30 more planned.

Brown (shown above), a superb presenter whom we heard speak two years ago at our own Employee Communications Thought Leadership Summit, spoke on how the evolution of technology, people and society are creating shifts in the way we work, communicate and engage.

With between 40-50 people there – the majority of them being end users and customers of both of the organisers, great drinks – did we say that the organisers provided their own mixologist to make cocktails for the guests, Ed?, good food and as the last formal event of a busy week, this event provided a relaxed, informative and incredibly enjoyable finish to London Digital Signage Week.

“Digital has improved the quality of out-of-home media, but you need to focus on what counts when selling and attracting new brands,” Sarah Parkes, managing director of Airport Media, told the audience at The DailyDOOH Media Summit, held May 17, 2016 during London Digital Signage Week.

“Growth is driven by how we use the medium plus technology,” says Parkes, who knows the airport sector well, having also previously held the role of managing director of Eye Airports and, earlier, became well versed in client service with CDS Global.

Parkes illustrated her talk with the example of how a campaign with a smaller budget was planned to reach visitors coming from the UAE – a four-hour window daily – at London Gatwick Airport.

“We had to look at what we could do with digital out-of-home,” she said. “We had to consider data measurement. We had to look at that fact that a million different people were constantly passing through, always changing. And we knew that it was important to identify the moment when people were predisposed to accept a message., as well as what factors would affect the message.

“We also wanted to be sure that the message would be where the targeted groups would take the time read. In addition, the environment could create different mind sets so the targeted group could be affected by the time of day, the location and other environmental issues.”

These, Parkes said, are the types of issues that Airport Media must look at so that advertisers’ messages engage the targeted audience and that the advertisers would get their ROI.

Parkes mentioned various campaigns that used Airport Media successfully, each getting a sizable sales lift. The successful recipe, she said, involves Content (static/video, dynamic, interactive) + Context (time, environment, geography) + Audience (behaviour, demographics, mindset).

Airport Media also must focus on such factors as traffic, measurement statistics, consumer behaviour, passenger numbers, and profile data to reach total insights data.

It’s a lot to focus on, but it counts if you want your message to reach and engage with your target audience.

“DOOH must embrace and show that it can build brands,” said Parkes.

When I heard the inimitable Phil Lenger, president of Show+Tell, New York, speak at The DailyDOOH Media Summit, May 17, 2016 held during London Digital Signage Week, he showed a slide that said, “I like coming here to watch the displays … said no one”, I was reminded of a small company that I wrote about a few years ago: it was an article about the first digital sign in a small town, and actually was drawing crowds that wanted to see it and watch the content it was showing.

Would that all digital signage content draw a crowd, but, as Lenger said, “People see screens but few may actually be watching. That’s why measurement is so important.”

Lenger, who is always a great speaker on content, knows that world well. Since founding Show+Tell, an environmental digital agency and digital out-of-home media production company in 1989, the mutiple award winner has counted among his clients such firms as: H&M, NBC, M&Ms, BC, JPMorgan Chase, Toys ‘R’ Us. LG and Siemens.

He works with agencies, architects, environmental designers, transit authorities and more, so having him as a speaker always adds a little magic to a program.

“Some people see our industry as loud and obnoxious, so the key to drawing them in is to have better content,” said Lenger. “Too often, the business is seen as one that is interested in adding more screens and players. You have to think bigger than that. Too little time is spent thinking of what you can DO for your audience.

“You have to make friends with your audience. The law of DOOH is that ‘Interesting always wins’. To make it valuable, you have to think bigger. Develop the ecosystem. Curate your audience.”

In a bold statement, Lenger said, “Don’t rely on advertisers to shape the medium.”

He spoke about the need for engagement with consumers, and said, “While there must be investment from both sides, we must think of ourselves as creators of content. Get and use an audience advocate, if necessary, because if you lose an advertiser, you’ll get another, but if you lose audience, you’ll lose both.”

Lenger also spoke of the need for the industry to make friends with communities, mentioning that a consortium from various industry interests in the US is working on a ‘Community Friendly Public Video Guide’.

Lenger concluded his talk with three points to help increase the value of DOOH:

• “Think bigger: Develop the Ecosystem;
• “Develop your product: Audiences first;
• “Get communities on our side.”

Timed to launch Wednesday, National Missing Children’s Day (May 25), the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Texas Center for the Missing and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, New York-based subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc., have launched a new digital billboard campaign calling attention to the ongoing searches for local missing children.

Some families of missing children, along with local law enforcement working these unsolved cases, spoke at press events throughout the state today and urged the public to share any information they have regarding the disappearance or whereabouts of these children by calling 1.800.THE.LOST (1.800.843.5678).

Running through through June, CCOA will display images of missing children from Austin, Greenville, El Paso, and Spring, Texas, on the company’s digital billboards across the state.

This builds on last year’s highly visible ’Summer of Hope’ initiative, a national digital out of-home campaign, that called attention to the plight of missing children and their families and reminded everyone you ‘don’t have to wait 24 hours to report a missing kid.’ The US is in the midst of a persistent missing and exploited children crisis nationwide, with the National Crime Information Center reporting over 460,500 entries for missing children in 2015, on par with reports of missing children made to law enforcement in 2014. Specifically, the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse received 57,810 missing person reports in 2015, of whom 46,121 were juveniles.

“Public safety, and child safety in particular, remains a core tenet of our corporate social responsibility efforts,” says Michelle Costa, regional president, CCOA-Southern. “Our digital billboards have the ability to reach passersby in high-traffic areas as they are out and about. We hope our efforts can play a role in reuniting these children with their families.”

According to NCMEC, photos are one of the most vital tools for law enforcement when searching for a missing child, and have the power to produce leads that can help law enforcement give families’ answers and help safely recover children. The new billboard campaign enables NCMEC and TCM to reach a broad audience across Texas by distributing photos of missing children in targeted areas that can aid law enforcement with a search.

“National Missing Children’s day is an important day that signifies hope in finding our nations missing children.” says Nancy Rodill, acting executive director, Texas Regional Office. “We know that photos bring missing children home and we rely on our partners like Clear Channel Outdoor Americas to help us in our mission. We are grateful to them for the continued support to find missing children and helping to reunite them with their families.”