A Marriage Made In Technology Heaven By Julie Ritzer Ross
Digital signage and kiosks have been making their mark within various verticals for quite some time. However, the current new trend within this application centers on a convergence of these two technologies.
In converged digital signage/kiosk scenarios, kiosk hardware and applications (for instance, retail price checking or product location) are integrated with a digital signage platform. Once such integration occurs, kiosks turn from "self-service only" devices into marketing and advertising vehicles that can be used to influence consumer behavior. For example, under terms of a recent partnership, Charlotte, N.C.-based hardware manufacturer Source Technologies', interactive kiosk and price-checking applications are being integrated with NEOCAST, a digital signage platform from Sarasota, Fla.-based Real Digital Media. The kiosks feature an open, Windows Embedded operating system, allowing for multiple applications, explains Ken Goldberg, Real Digital Media's CEO.
Meanwhile, Mayfield Heights, Ohio-based systems integrator Agilysys and St. Clair Interactive Communications of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have created an interfaced digital signage network and kiosk solution for supermarket retailer Giant Foods. Using St. Clair's network infrastructure solution, managers at Giant Foods centrally control, manage and distribute store promotion information to in-store kiosks, making changes at different points during the day whenever warranted. This could be anything from highlighting a bakery promotion each morning, or encouraging loyalty card program members to take advantage of special pricing available during a short time frame.
Melding Technologies The convergence of digital signage and kiosks offers VARs myriad of benefits that would be unattainable were they to sell either technology independently of the other. Notably, it permits them to sell a platform with more bang for the investment buck.
"Retail media networks ultimately are headed for convergence and interactive, personalized experiences in stores," says Nikki Baird, managing partner of Retail Systems Research, a Miami-based research company run by retailers for the retail industry. "Interactive media will become an important component if only to help boost the ability to measure response rates to in-store media. Not every ad or promotion will need to be interactive, but as other technologies are deployed in-store, a convergence between the roles different types of screens play will mean that companies looking at in-store media today will need to consider the role that interactivity may play in the future. For example, a kiosk may not be a kiosk 100 percent of the time, but may very well become part of the retail media network when the kiosk is not in use."
Goldberg corroborates Baird's comments, noting that in a retail environment, for example, studies show that kiosks are in use for traditional purposes -- such as checking prices, placing an order at the deli counter, or looking for recipes and specific merchandise locations -- only 25 percent of the time. However, "when digital signage is incorporated to take advantage of that downtime, whether to convey messages about ongoing specials, or to promote customer loyalty programs, measurable ROI increases many-fold."
The latter holds especially true, sources say, if the flexibility of digital signage networks is leveraged to present targeted messages to kiosk/signage "bundles" in different areas of a store and/or at different times of the day. Going one step further, VARs can emphasize to potential end users the additional ROI that can be generated by selling advertising time on converged units to manufacturers, asserts John Ochoa, director of business development, DT Research.
The ability for VARs to offer such an enhanced value proposition via converged technology extends beyond the retail vertical. "Combining messaging, content and applications across the kiosk and dynamic digital signage platforms allows resellers to provide value in a variety of environments, from banks, where the technology can be used to convey messages about services and products as well as to sell them, to entertainment and cultural venues, where they can be employed to enrich patrons' experience," asserts Max Engel, an analyst with research firm Frost & Sullivan.
In a movie theater lobby, Engel notes, kiosks might be used to present visitors with a selection of several movie previews. Once a preview is chosen, it might be displayed on many screens throughout the lobby, alternating with digital messages and images promoting available refreshments. In a museum, a combination of kiosks and digital displays could be utilized to allow visitors to access additional information on topics covered in special exhibits.
Just as significantly, capitalizing on digital signage/kiosk convergence yields industry players a chance to perform a broad range of services to customers in all verticals, at the inception of the technology and on an ongoing basis. "Selling hardware and software needed to run converged solutions is only half the equation," says Andy Teoh, digital signage product manager, DT Research. VARs will also be called upon to create and configure content distribution applications and provide network support. Offering ongoing managed services and, quite often, assisting in the formulation of creative content rank among other critical profit-generating functions.
"Right now we're just at the beginning of the convergence road," says Real Digital Media's Goldberg. "The next few years will bring considerable experimentation with different screen size and application combinations. It's a new world out there."
