Nick Coston is an Out Of Home Consultant and Media Buyer with 20 years experience in the out of home industry. Nick is also contributes to Billboard Insider. Today Nick gives his impressions of the 2017 Digital Signage Expo.
This was my second trip to the Digital Signage Expo, held each March in smokin’ Las Vegas. Each time I’ve had the pleasure of representing my client, AdMobilize, the Miami based computer vision company, whose booth is always one of the busiest. I also get to see all the other booths and displays, cutting edge speakers, speak with a few OOH vendors, and snag lots of great ink pens and related digital signage branding items.
I noticed that this year, way more small to mid-sized OOH companies were walking the floor, wanting to find ways to make their current inventory more visible and efficient. While the bigger companies are heavily invested into mobile technologies to boost revenues, these visiting companies were more interested in vehicle counts, facial detection, changing copy on the fly, and overall better means to leverage their digital signage, both roadside and indoor. Their most important question seemed to be based on how they can make their digital boards increase in value. OOH companies also saw value in new tech for their static units, asking multiple questions of new tech capability. With the dramatic rise in groups such as DPAA (Digital Place Based Advertising Association), more traditional OOH vendors are increasingly becoming involved with tech companies, as the need to improve ROI’s to advertisers grows amidst the competition from online and mobile formats. It’s as if you can read their minds as you watch them view new tech, “how can I make my boards a more valuable piece of real estate than they currently are, without raising the overall CPM & CPP of the buy. What tech can I buy into that is constant, it becomes a part of my sale, that for now, the guy up the road doesn’t provide?”
While traditional OOH conventions seem to move at a snail’s pace from year to year on new tech, DSE comes off as the Star Wars of creativity. Moving light years at a time, each DSE brings in new people, new companies, new tech. For an OOH vet like myself, it’s an amazing three-day journey.
As we all met up at after-hour events, something stood out. Not only was a host of larger OOH companies missing from DSE, but so were most ad agency types. As a buyer, I find this troubling in a time when we are all looking for ways to keep and improve the overall OOH spend. There were, however, a good amount of client level buyer types examining what the next big thing could be. When I asked why they choose to attend, a few commented that their own agencies don’t bother sending associates so we choose to come direct and see for themselves what new tech is available. We are, they said, always looking for ways to justify more digital screen buys, ways to obtain more qualified and data and ensure our ROI is verified. They seemed very focused on details of how things worked, who’s using it now and cost factor. And many were ready to buy, and did.
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