OAAA Report On Out-of-Home and Part One of Selling In the Digital Signage Industry

Outdoor Advertising Expenditures and Selling Digital Signage Advertising Space
January-March 2007

Communications up 20 points per the OAAA, while Insurance and Real Estate realized a 14.7% spike and Local Services relaxed at 11.5%. Communications, I would have never guessed 20%, although with AT&T and thier FCC happenings could explain a few points...then with the overall competition between all carriers and product marketers about 20% of OOH is communications at least in the markets I travel too. Great news for out-of-home and it will continue; as placed based TV, digital signage, mobile marketing, digital billboards, rfid, Bluetooth, and more continue to become available to all advertisers, regardless of budget. For the Full Story visit Media Life Magazine OOH provides the local real estate agent exposure in a local health club or on a mobile billboard, while AT&T can purchase 1/2 of the out-of-home market in the Raleigh-Durham. Oh and by the way AT&T had to agree to offering broadband at $10/month as part of the Bellsouth deal, says the FCC-a win-win for all parties. The most interesting industry to me is "Local" and "Amusements" and now would be a good time to discuss selling spots on digital signage networks. As Josh put it, there will be a group of digital signage reps soon (besides the PRN's and Captivate's), as there are cable, broadcast, print and interactive. These out-of-home outlets continue to exhibit a tech savvyness that other media except the internet and maybe cable (in the early years) do not always display or the growth of tech has stopped or shifted to a new platform-and as we know the internet is the mover and shaker for digital signage-the "transporter" I once thought that broadcast and cable reps would take over the selling over digital signage and they may be forced to....; now I am looking to the interactive teams and of course for now and always a great deal of signage will sit with OOH buyers and it will continue to draw on the 1% OOH budgets-after all it is an OOH media. Creative shops may want to let the clients know that it only cost about $100-$1000 (max) to design an award winning 12-15 second spot on a digital signage network.....Creative shops I think are in a world of trouble and they do not even realize it-it is like having blinders on!

Here proclaims the confusion of media planners and buyers trying to compare digital signage to billboards and the short college degree that could be earned if they had time to read up on this platform. First off the ability to help a national brand in a retail location to boost sales and awarness is the cut and dry of it-that my friends would be a great starting place, POP Digital Signage, there is just more data on the subject and it is so clearly a benefit for most any brand that would consider it-if done well. Once a grasp on POP is gathered lets move to other venues such as taxi cabs, airports, retail venues, malls, the mexican border etc. Grasping the POP concept and understanding the effectivness can help move a planner or buyer into other venues with minimal research-create a smooth progression.

First Lesson: Educate yourself! In my time it appears that many of the smaller and even medium Digital Signage Networks tend to be run by executives with a technology background. This can be a plus for the advertising community as well as a minus; and we hope that it would mean the content is going to be delivered-with no bumbs (well not exactly) The downside, reps selling the networks do not have much media and advertising wisdom to draw from (unless they are from the industry) leaving themselves open for a lot of closed doors when approaching the larger advertisers and even advertisers that buy single markets or smaller. I am stressing education and I need to add networking in there-from these two a good rep (even if new) will be able to place the proper authority in thier sight-unlike broadcast, it is sometimes hard to find the buyer for digital signage..as it is still gaining ground in the industry. With-in the industry groups such as WOW (Mindshare) and Kinetic have been formed to buy OOH; digital signage is \\\\\apparently an outlet they handle and buy-NOT THE CASE! I will give them the benefit of the doubt that the industry is still in the education phase at some level....and it is up to reps to continue and wind down the education phase, gaining ground and dollars-the trick: to educate yourself over and above the prospect in a positive way that allows for ongoing dialouge. This means read news about upfronts, EBay and radio ads, newspapers downsizing and shifting dollars to online etc. Get your hands on research, quality research that supports your venue or the industry as a whole, do case studies for select clients or at least offer in your presentation, learn what demographic your network reaches inside and out! This may seem basic, but not for me, I still sell and I still educate. I have to spill the beans, I spoke with WOW yesterday and the contact was clueless about digital signage and then in another conversation with Mindshare (the emerging side) they are more on top of the game tha+
n I have witnessed in months. It was a higher level executive and perhaps the poor woman has another job that does not involve OOH or she specializes in a particular facet of the industry?? Doubt it!

We will take a look at local selling vs. regional and national and how to decide and/or structure your salesforce to be in the best position 9 months from now-and how do you decide between local and regional or national.......to be continued. So educate, educate and even go back to basic selling techniques that Zig Ziglar teaches to be coupled with your new wealth of knowledge which will turn into wisdom over time.

REMINDER: this is only one aspect of the entire sales process and in no way is to be considered complete. This will be part one of my multi section article on selling in the digital signage/narrowcast industry from young and fresh reps to senior executives and VP's.......keep to basics if coupled with Education and Networkin/p