Screenmedia Magazine - digital signage, digital out-of-home, convergent media, screenmedia magazine

It is not the screen size that matters, it is what you do with it that counts.

I am often exposed to screens of a variety of sizes in my job as global business development director. Airports, restaurants, shopping malls, high streets and many more locations in many countries that I visit have invested in screens to communicate brand messages and services.

But some of these screens have simply been deployed without a thought for strategy. It seems that as long as it is big then that’s all that matters; “content is king” does not even register on the radar, let alone a strategy. But why are we subjected to badly-positioned screens with many of them showing content which is as relevant as an elephant’s big toe?

Screens should be nurtured, treated with respect, enhanced and allowed to evolve through content and recipient interaction.

One possible route to assist these abusers of DOOH is to provide them with a skill set such as “build a stronger believe”.

This is the power of positive visualisation. Daydreamers are exceptional at this; they can drift off into a world of sandy beaches and enjoy the warmer climates. Others, like us, visualise screen content that works, along with intelligent creative and how it will be enjoyed by the target audience when executed. This is just one positive tool.

We all need to enhance our creativity and work with the intelligence of digital screen broadcasting capabilities. A recent opportunity which was put on my radar (I also consulted on this project) was the holographic use of creative content to enhance a product launch for Engro Foods, which has appointed Red Tape Media Group to roll out an amazing DOOH showcase in malls throughout Asia.

The launch of Engro’s new milk brand Olpers will be seen by hundreds of thousands of potential customers as Red Tape creatively takes the brand in its real-life packaging and allows interaction with the target audience through 3D moving product samples which parade around the stage with astonishing and striking visual content. This is truly an amazing example of how to utilise intelligent creative to interact with the target audience.

Red Tape Media CEO Najeeb Baig has lifted the lid on where we can go with intelligent strategies on behalf of the global brands that we serve on a daily basis. The bar has been raised, and this is a tough act to follow.

I had the pleasure during a business trip to Dubai and Karachi to see a rehearsal of this truly amazing showcase. Please take a look at things to come.

Think creatively and let the screens do what they do best. Don’t be afraid of new ideas, but be very afraid of old ideas because they are old. Ideas represent evolution of your brand. No matter how brilliant, ideas don’t sell themselves; they have to be sold, relentlessly, continually and creatively. An idea is not an idea until it is sold.

Brands are much more than what we eat or drink or brush our teeth with. Brand strategy for the DOOH market is the summation of all communication.

The creative content strategy should jump off the page to you, it should strike the target audience in the head and gut...and if the advertising execution is up there too, the target audience are a long way towards enjoying an intelligent DOOH campaign.

We have a professional duty to this DOOH sector of ours to keep pushing the boundaries of screen deployment via strategy and more importantly, increasing the brands’ retention of message with intelligent, well-thought-out creative content. Remember: creative content is king, and always will be king.