Jeff Hastings
Jeff Hastings joined BrightSign as CEO in August 2009. He brings a wealth of experience in digital media and technology. Prior to BrightSign, he served as Corel’s president and general manager of digital media, responsible for developing and implementing all aspects of the company’s digital media strategy. Prior to joining Corel, he served as general manager at Pinnacle Systems, the consumer division of Avid, where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s global operations. Prior to joining Pinnacle, Jeff Hastings was COO of M-Audio, another Avid company. He was responsible for taking M-Audio’s highly regarded tools for computer-centric musicians and professionals and expanding their reach into the consumer market. Before this, he served as president of Rio, the company that pioneered the MP3 space by introducing the industry’s first MP3 player. Jeff Hastings holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Purdue University and holds eight U.S. patents.
Website URL: http://www.brightsign.biz
The end of the PC player?
I attended a conference recently in which one of the attendees mentioned to me that one in twenty of his PC-based digital signage players will fail every month. My comment back to him was that if our product had that kind of failure rate, we would be out of business.
The company involved runs a network of several thousand players. Therefore he is seeing a hundred or so players go down every month, which means lost playtime and the embarrassment of presenting a blank screen where his advertising should be. Each time, a support engineer needs to log in and figure out what went wrong. If he or she can’t reboot the player remotely a field visit will be required.
Customers simply can’t afford this failure rate, and we are seeing some large customers move from PC to solid state signage controllers simply due to the cost of maintenance. The ROI, if not immediate, is typically only a year or so.
Today, solid state players can offer 90 percent of the functionality that PC-based players do. They can be networked, remotely managed over the Internet, deliver live content, stream video, offer interactivity, and so much more.
It is true that a few customers have requirements on their lists that today solid state players can’t meet. I have yet to come across any such requirement, though, that cannot in principle be built into a solid state unit.
If you doubt what I’m saying about the reliability of solid state players consider this: reliability has to be built into a low-cost product. Nothing is more expensive than having a player fail. Our base unit costs less than $300. If I sell one player for that money, we make a profit. If I have to replace it we take a loss. That’s why it’s imperative for my company to ensure that your first player serves you well.
PC-based digital signage is now a high-end niche technology. For most applications, the economics are stacked against it. It won’t be long, I believe, before the remaining functions are integrated into solid state platforms, and that niche disappears altogether.
The power of live content
Looped advertising in reception gets little more than a cursory glance these days, but add a live element that is relevant to the viewers, and you’ve got them hooked. People have become accustomed to the live help and live chats that are available online. Their expectation of digital signage is no different.
Advertisers can easily meet this challenge today. Staff in a doctor’s office can tweet a welcome message to those in reception, and update them on the wait time with a live feed from the appointment system. In a restaurant, a hostess can promote specials of the day and flag dishes that are off. A financial adviser can provide up-to-date market information. A trade show could even welcome me personally (“Good morning, Mr. Hastings, you are our 357th visitor today”) and suggest exhibitors to visit based on what they know about me.
In the past, digital signage content development packages primarily focused on adding tools to the visual-based interface that made it very easy for anyone to create eye-catching presentations. Now, we’re expanding the capabilities to integrate digital signage with both public and private live data systems. We’re giving users the tools they need to create and update automated displays that are relevant, targeted, dynamic and up-to-date. The ability to connect to public and private live data sources now enables businesses to incorporate relevant, real-time data within their signage.
Display screens and solid-state players are more affordable than ever before; and, when the players come network-enabled, integration time and the associated costs are dramatically reduced. Wizard-driven software allows the addition of live message content, and as a result even small businesses can deploy digital signage with engaging, interesting content that is personal and relevant to visitors.
Incorporating this element of “live” will not only win you additional sales, but also improve customers’ perception of your service.
For European retailers, digital signage means business
With even Tesco posting a disappointing December, European retailers are engaged in a dog-eat-dog struggle for sales.
In a static or declining market those sales can only come from one place: the competition. Customers are hungry for value, and price promotions are popular, but they need to be promoted.
Out of all the available point-of-sale techniques, only digital signage has the proven power to move the viewer from engagement to action at the key moment when wallet is in hand.
A grocery chain saw a 3-5x sales lift from an end-cap digital signage installation on its freezers, compared with a conventional freezer. A clothing retailer had three times as many shoppers sign up for discounts on a daily basis when SMS texting was used on the in-store digital signage.
In the current climate, a customer will spend money with you or with the competition. Make a sale today, and boost your market share. Fail, and a competitor will benefit. Digital signage can make that difference: you decide what that is worth to you.