Apple sprayed confetti across the Internet - in the form of animated leaderboard and banner ads on the home pages of major web publishers - to celebrate the one billionth iPhone application download. If you have seen Apple's recent television commercials for the iPhone, you know there are applications for reading MRIs, scanning credit cards, finding apartments, fixing a wobbly bookshelf, editing photos, etc.
Where are the applications that allow iPhone users to interact with digital signage? "There Should Be an App for That."
Nate Nead of DigitalSignage.com wrote an article recently on the dearth of smartphone applications that relate to digital signage. Given the creativity and level of innovation that has been seen across the iPhone and Android app stores to date (excluding the novelty apps), you would think that developers would jump on the opportunity to create unique connections between smartphones and digital signage. The GPS functionality of the iPhone and other smartphones make them ripe for integration with place-based digital signage networks.
The iPhone 3.0 software update opens the door to even greater opportunities to connect the device to digital signage. The software update offers device interoperability which could be leveraged to increase the targeting power of digital signage. With the new SDK, developers will have the tools to enable in-app purchases — like subscriptions, additional game levels, and new content. They can also create apps that connect peer to peer via Bluetooth, communicate with hardware accessories, and use the Apple Push Notification service to provide alerts.
Imagine an application sponsored by a major digital signage network, or aggregator, that uses a smartphone's internal GPS to identify when an individual is near a digital screen; and, use this information to deliver uber targeted content. The application could tag content within a person's phone, index his recent web history (such as a Times article the user just read), and draw on the user's social network connections to deliver "smart" digital signage content.
When multiple people are in the direct vicinity of a digital sign, the application could aggregate behavioral data across the group. It would communicate with the back-end digital signage system to deliver intuitive content that draws from the combined traits of every person within range of the sign.
A user would download the application under the knowledge that it would pull behavioral data, etc. in order to deliver enhanced content on digital signage that he encounters. The software program could even be an embedded feature within a broader location-based application. This is but one potential application that could be developed to foster connectivity between smartphones and digital signage.
If I were part of the executive team at TouchTunes or ECast, I would focus significant energy on developing smartphone applications that enable communication between a user's phone and a digital jukebox. Giving a user the ability to purchase songs on a digital jukebox via his smartphone would lead to an easier, faster, and more efficient purchase process. With the 3.0 iPhone software update, a person with the TouchTunes application on his phone could purchase additional jukebox credits from within the application itself. This could have a major impact on the company's revenue.
I also see a key opportunity area in the development of applications for smartphones and portable media devices that solve the problem of integrating sound into digital signage. In some transit networks people tap into a digital sign’s audio feed by navigating to an FM radio channel on their music players. In my opinion, there is no way this could ever be a viable, long-term solution. The irony is that outdated technology is being used to facilitate audio on an emerging media platform.
The creation of applications linking a person’s smartphone, iPod, etc. to a digital sign’s audio feed could solve the sound problem for a number of networks. NBC, for example, could create an application for its new PATH Transit network that would allow users to access the channel's audio feed. Those who download the application to their portable devices could watch programming with the accompanying sound ported to their phone or iPod. This way other passengers wouldn't be confronted with audio that they perceive to negatively impact their environment.
What I have mentioned are just a few ideas for smartphone applications that can improve or enhance one's experience with digital signage. There are many other ways in which a smartphone could connect with digital out-of-home media. Applications relating to digital signage could be developed around location-based services, content transmission, remote operation, social gaming systems, and a plethora of other verticals.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Digital Signage and Smartphones: There Should Be an App for That
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2 comments:
Good musings... nice read. I guess the big question is how do you convince a consumer to add yet another app onto their phone? The app needs to have enough value for them to want to do this. So DS networks need to provide entertainment, coupons, exclusive content, or similar benefits that tie into the signs themselves.
Currently, the best tie in with digital signage is the SMS short code. This requires the customer to text a keyword to a particular number to enter to win, or get a coupon or receive other content. This is currently the best tracking and measurement of the effectiveness of the signs.
There are also bluetooth push technologies, but I belive most consumers don't want push technology invading their space.
So it really comes down to what's the killer app? Why should the consumer care? The signs are just one component to a larger business model.
This analysis on the Digital Signage Insights blog is spot on.
Now (May 2, 2009) I know of a couple of companies -- both of which are not going public now -- that are working on exactly the types of applications described here. This technology will emerge probably sooner than many of us would have imagined just six months ago.
For several years, I think many of us in the Digital Signage industry have known that the concept currently known as "Digital Signage" will soon start to morph into being a subset of the larger world of out-of-home digital media.
Just as some people include radio as an out-of-home medium, I think that DIGITAL media that leans on the technological base of Smart mobile phones and GPS will some day be included in the popular consciousness as being part of OOH Digital.
When that occurs, if you as a consumer choose to "opt in" to this new digital OOH media universe, you'll be able to go to the shopping mall and know if your social-networking "friends" are there (if they also "opt in") just by looking at the LCD screen on your phone. As you drive into the parking lot of this shopping mall (again, if you "opt in" to this digital scene), a retail chain whose Smart Phone app you have downloaded onto your phone will be able to start communicating with you before you walk in the mall, sending messages that (hopefully) will be appropriate for you in that location.
Then -- and here's the part that relates to Digital Signage -- when you walk into that store, some of the Digital Signage screens will communicate useful messages to you, as an individual, because the store "knows" what you normally like to buy in that venue. They may even know your shoe size, just like the shoe salesmen used to know when I was a child.
For those of us who make a living in this business, one of the most exciting things in this scenario is that these Smart Phone apps can be provided FREE by retailers or other public-facing businesses that use them. This investment by those business will, in effect, "close the loop" with the Digital Signage screens in those venues to make retail transactions possible.
In effect, these types of investments in Smart Phone apps by retailers and other public-facing businesses will make it less likely that Digital Signage networks will be sunk by the idea that Digital Signage is an island that stands alone from the digital-media universe. In (media) unity, there IS strength (and money!). ; - )
In the end, I think these powerful new software applications that are being deployed on Smart Phones will be a "market maker" for the Digital Signage industry just as significant as the steep drop in prices for large LCD screens was for our industry in the 2003-2005 period.
Hooray for the iPhone and Smart phones. This is no longer your father's Digital Signage industry!
Best regards,
Bill Collins
DecisionPoint Media Insights
bill@decisionpointmedia.com
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