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I am constantly being asked the question “what do you mean when you say close proximity interaction with audiences?”.

To be fair, people ask this for multiple reasons – they may simply not know what it means, they may want to challenge the validity of the concept, or they may just be looking for my perspective.

In every case, I answer with excitement as it is abundantly clear to me that the wider audience in the DOOH or screen signage sector still has a way to go before they grasp this understanding, especially when targeting an audience.

In essence, close proximity interaction is a very simple affair. But one of my companies – SA Screen Media, also known as Digiadvans.com – has turned this term into an icon along with another term, iDOOH, which it has trademarked.

Whatever the brand or service, whoever the audience, we must have a strategy in mind on how we are going to communicate the message. Without such a strategy, the campaign is doomed to failure, and this is where close proximity plays an integral role.

You must have interaction with the target audience if your objective is to elongate and stretch the retention of message duration, which is surely what DOOH advertising is about. I want them to remember my product or service and continue purchasing it, right? Absolutely right, and we do this via iDOOH.

Let me give you an example of why interaction with the target audience is essential to retention levels.

If you and I were walking down Regent Street and hypothetically there were 5000 people on the street, and I took you for dinner and asked you to describe one out of those 5000 people, the likelihood is that you could not do it.

However, imagine the same street and same scenario...but this time we bump into John Smith, who drops his case. We help to pick up his paperwork, he apologises profusely and leaves, and then I ask you at dinner that evening to describe one person you seen on the street today.

You would describe John Smith to me definitively. Why? Because we interacted with him.

My point is very simple: in order to increase the retention level of the brand or service, we must interact with the audience.

All screen owners must give prudence to interaction via intelligent routes such as touchscreens, video gaming, Q codes and many more interactive strategies. You just need to stop them in their tracks and engage via the screen.

Why oh why, then, do we see so many screens just playing out rotational content with zero effort to interact and engage with the audience? It’s such a wasted opportunity.

The links below demonstrate some very simple, yet intelligent ways to interact with an audience via screen technology. This is how we make a campaign memorable...

http://www.digiadvans.com/pcr/game/dec-09
http://www.digiadvans.com/pcr/2010/calvin-klein/march

Augmented reality and MagicSymbol are intelligent solutions to communicate interactive messages through screens. I am delighted to see that more and more creatives are coming through with interaction in mind.

We must continue with this theme if the UK is to be measured on its ability to interact and push forward with screen technology. The general population are more media-savvy than we give them credit for.