It’s no secret digital signage to this point has been a child amid grown-up media outlets. But a couple of signs have emerged that indicate this new medium may be reaching -if not maturity- at least adolescence. While its boosters have long proselytized the medium as a powerful complement to other in-store promotional techniques and messaging, dynamic signage in the retail environment has remained "well poised," "an emerging voice," and other euphemisms for not mainstream. That’s easy to understand, based on the timing of its arrival on the communications scene. A recent Self Service article reporting on the "Building Your Digital Signage Business" conference in Chicago last month, quotes CAP Ventures analyst Norman McLeod as saying that reasons beyond the control of the digital sign industry have held back its growth. The article, by Bryan Harris, quotes McLeod as saying the 2000 bust of dot com companies sucked venture capital from the market. Then, "we saw the biggest decrease in advertising since they started tracking it," he’s quoted in the article as saying, in 2002. Only in 2005, did the market fully rebound. However, with that rebound have come a couple of signs that in-store and out-of-store dynamic signs may be hitting its stride. In Britain, the Screen Association has published the first-ever directory of UK-based digital signage networks that accept advertising from third parties, according to a report from Clickpress.com. The directory, "The Screen UK Advertising Networks Directory," provides a full index of 62 such networks with details about the networks and contacts at each. Publication of the directory indicates that diffuse digital signage networks -at least in the UK- may be congealing into a definable market that advertisers, advertising agencies and marketing professionals can quantify, measure and ultimately specify in their media plans. That’s a big step for in-store digital media on its path to reaching maturity. In the United States, a similar development indicates dynamic signage may be entering adolescence. Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the leaders in the outdoor advertising market, announced last month that it was expanding its digital signage network with several new installations in Tampa, FL, and Milwaukee, WI. Reporting on the move for MediaPost.com, author Erik Sass quotes company CEO of Clear Channel Outdoors Paul Meyer as saying the move will help Clear Channel attain its 2006 goal of deploying digital signage in four to six markets. As with conventional billboards, the LED signs, which measure 14ft by 48ft, will be positioned near heavily traveled roads. However, use of digital sign technology will allow Clear Channel to "day part" advertising to better meet the advertising needs of its clients and potentially charge a premium. As with news of the UK directory of digital signage networks, the latest announcement from Clear Channel demonstrates the congealing of the digital signage market into a medium advertisers can easily grasp. One can imagine national brand television advertisers supplementing their brand and product commercials on such giant electronic billboards. That opportunity will only grow as Clear Channel Outdoors and others build their inventory of outdoor digital signs across America. What appears to be happening in the digital display market are the first signs of an amalgamation of individual signs and networks into something that more resembles a definable medium than a scattershot straying of public venues and retail shops with unrelated networks and signs. Market researchers frequently set about measuring the strength of the digital signage market in terms of forecasts, such as researcher iSuppli’s recent projection of a $12 billion dollar value by 2010, its true health may better be predicted with the formation of viable advertising markets that exploit these sorts of digital signage networks. While no one would argue that these networks trumpet the arrival of a fully mature medium, such developments indicate digital signage is reaching adolescence.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to spend a day in the yard raking up the last of my fall leaves. Not wanting to lose my belt-clipped cell phone during the process, I removed it, placed it on the counter and did my best to corral the leaves that ultimately would fill 23 yard bags. After completing my chore, I went to retrieve my phone, but instead of finding it on the counter where I had left it, I found it submerged in the dog’s water dish at my feet. It seems that the vibrating ring tone gave my cell phone just enough mobility to walk to the edge of the counter and take the plunge into the drink. Replacing the phone involved a sales procedure I’m sure all marketers would like to mimic, but very few can. It involved me setting an appointment with a sales consultant, who actually understood the various cell phones being offered and the service plans that were available- a 45-minute visit with the sales consultant and me walking out the door not only with a new phone and higher-priced service plan, but also an entirely new commitment to a broadband wireless Internet service via the mobile phone network. Compare my experience to another high-tech consumer shopping experience that will be repeated over and over this holiday season: shoppers seeking an HDTV from Santa. Many walk into an electronics store after seeing an ad in the newspaper or a commercial on television convinced that they want the high-def viewing experience but fuzzy on the details. They engage in a conversation with a sales associate who may be selling HDTVs one day, computer peripherals the next and maybe even a kitchen range the next. Customers ask questions, sales associates do their best to answer, but things get murky -so much so that as many as 30 percent of HDTV owners don’t sign up to receive an HD signal via cable or satellite, according to a recent article in USA Today. Oh how the Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung and other HDTV manufacturers must pine to create a sales experience involving their products like the one I had buying my new cell phone! Consider this: In 2006, total spending on advertising in the United States will exceed $150 billion, according to an article from Metrics 2.0. Yet once an ad runs in a newspaper or magazine or a commercial is played back on television, the amount of control a marketer can exert on messaging, consumer education, and influencing a purchasing decision dissipates rapidly. How many marketers get a little queasy thinking about the money they’ve spent on an ad that motivates a consumer to go to a store to buy their product, only to have those shoppers redirected by a sales associate into buying a competitor’s product? Compare that to my friendly sales associate who educated and influenced my cell phone purchase in an environment that the cellular service provider controlled. While it’s not practical for all the HDTV manufacturers -or those of other products- to offer their products in their own stores where they control the sales process as thoroughly as my cell phone salesman, it is important that marketers begin to see retail stores as a communications medium, according to a recent MediaPost.com article. In "In-Store Media Significant Influence on Purchase Decisions," author Jack Loechner quotes Joe Pilotta, vice president of research for BIGresearch, as saying that "the store is a medium of communications" and "media has relevance and influence on a purchase decision." That’s where digital signage can stand in for a knowledgeable sales consultant like the one I encountered. Digital signage can carry through the marketing message transmitted in newsprint or on TV to the point of purchase, relieving to a large degree, the nausea that strikes marketers who wonder what happens when they’re ads are no longer present to influence events.The Bigresearch study quoted in the article found that in-store TV influenced or greatly influenced 10 percent of adults 18 years old and up in making purchasing decisions. The tie between in-store TV and digital signage is obvious. What might not be as obvious is that digital signage can play a strategic role for marketers and retailers when it comes to shelf coupons and special displays, which influenced or greatly influenced shoppers 39.5 percent and 35.5 percent of shoppers, respectively. Digital signage plays in this space -particularly in terms of shelf coupons- when set up with the right software and hardware to do double duty as an interactive kiosk. What’s needed to pull off this carry though in marketing messages to the store floor is deep sixing old attitudes and concepts about marketing and planning ways to use digital signage strategically to re-enforce and expand upon the print and broadcast ads that currently command the biggest share of the marketing budget. Doing so may soon mean the difference between success and failure.

Chat room operators across the internet are constantly reassuring the public that their chat rooms are monitored and are "safe". However, we often find that the news is filled with predators, stalkers and horror stories, when most of the time instant chat sessions online can be time-saving, useful and productive. For instance, some online chat programs have evolved and become programs that users install onto their computers. Once installed, these programs allow you to add contacts to other people who have the program such as friends, family or colleagues. You are then able to use a number of cool communication features such as voice, text chat or video conferencing with your contacts. You’re safety here is totally guaranteed…no user can actually contact you unless they know you and even if some unsavory person found your contact details, you could ban them with ease. Often, the problems arise in public chat rooms that are not monitored. If personal information is swapped on these sites it could become a possible security hazard. But usually, as with most things, the people who have been caught in situations where their safety is compromised have simply been negligent. Who gives out their personal information online?? I certainly wouldn’t. Especially not to a complete stranger. It always amazes me how people blame the chat systems and not themselves when something goes wrong. Adults who have been scammed/robbed/etc because of chatting in chat rooms are solely responsible for what happened to them. You hear often of how the "big problem" is the particular chat system that the perpetrator used. This is often arid nonsense. Chat rooms are no more dangerous than walking down the street. Would you stop and talk to a complete stranger and give him/her your home address? I seriously doubt it. So why do people do it online? The problem of children accessing chat rooms is another issue, however. Children are not as vigilant as adults and may give this kind of information out without thinking much of it. This is the opinion of many parents and guardians. However, this is certainly not my stand. Children have brains, and have warning sensors much like adults when it comes to possible dangers. The problem comes with parents not teaching and instructing their children about the possible safety problems online. It seems either parents don’t bother with their child’s safety, or worse, stop their kids from participating in these chat rooms altogether. With profanity filters and chat room monitoring nowadays, the only way a child, or an adult, for that matter, can get him/herself into trouble is by acting with total disregard on these chat sites.. It is becoming harder and harder for criminals to operate on the net, and chat rooms are becoming safer and safer. Chat rooms nowadays are so safe that I believe anyone who compromises their safety in chat rooms is entirely at fault. In short – don’t blame the system…it works for 99.9% of folks, and doesn’t for the 0.01% for a reason…