All news, all the time? November 3, 2006 by Dave HaynesI have had a bunch of conversations in the last couple of weeks with clients and prospects about what they want to do with their signage program. Just about all of them wanted to put a news headline ticker on the screen, usually running across the bottom. My typical response is to say, “Ok.” And …
Shopcast finally, finally bags Wal-mart Canada October 26, 2006 by Dave HaynesI remember meeting five years ago with a very stressed woman who was clutching a letter of intent to install digital signage screens in Wal-mart Canada. She was trying to pull it all together, pretty much on her own, under the name Shopcast. Five years on, and a whole bunch of changes later, Shopcast has …
Debating the merits of ad-based networks in stores September 27, 2006 by Dave HaynesSelf-Service World magazine has an online piece looking at the merits of ad-based networks in retailers. It’s one of those slighlty suspicious articles in which at least some of the companies quoted just happen to have ads on the same page, but the comments are nonetheless valid. “Most retailers looking at digital signage networks have …
Yet more nonsense June 8, 2006 by Dave HaynesThe guy at Strandvision, a relatively new industry entry, has a special place in my cold heart because he will issue a press release on ANYTHING in the hopes of generating attention. Sometimes the stuff is relevant. Mostly it's just silly, like the one he did on a server upgrade. This latest one pumped out …
Two approaches to shopping malls May 23, 2006 by Dave HaynesI am at the International Council of Shopping Centers trade show in Lost Wages, Nevada, having a look at the industry and getting away from the butt-ugly cold weather around the great lakes and northeast. This is a trade show that is all about building and leasing shopping mall space, and I have never seen …
DRE: Day 2 May 19, 2006 by Dave HaynesHappily, Day 2 at DRE proved far busier than Day 1 – and seemed to flush out more retailers. There were emissaries from some significant retailers rumbling around, seeming to know what they were looking for. Apart from LocaModa (see next post), I did not see much that was new or particularly compelling. Things worth …
DRE: Come on baby, do the LocaModa May 19, 2006 by Dave HaynesIt took a couple of days, but I finally found something at the Digital Retailing Expo that was new and novel. Boston-based LocaModa had a little booth off in the back 40 of the show, and some screens here and there demonstrating the way their software and technology platform marries digital signage and cell phones …
DRE – Day 1 May 17, 2006 by Dave HaynesGood Lord there a lot of companies getting into the digital signage space. I thought I was pretty familiar with most of who is out there, but there's yet more. At some point, there has to be a massive shake-out and culling of the herd because there's too many for them all to succeed, and …
Truthiness in digital signage May 3, 2006 by Dave HaynesI won't go all the way and lump this in with past examples of rampant nonsense, but instead apply the term Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness" — described in Wikipedia as "the quality by which a person purports to know something emotionally or instinctively without regard to evidence or to what the person might …
Good news (and a little nonsense) April 4, 2006 by Dave HaynesCalgary-based Vauntcom Media Corporation has announced a deal that will see about 140 LCDs sprinkled around the concourse, washrooms and elevators of Rogers Centre, the stadium formerly known as the Skydome. The idea is simple – a whole whack of people are in and out of that venue every year seeing Jays and Argos games, …
