Interaction with a screen. Could beacons make it smarter?

Screens are all over the place. Indoor and outdoor. Out of home, they invade retail stores, subways, restaurants, malls, universities, museums, stadiums, train stations... For the time being, communication goes mostly one-way: from an organization, an advertiser, an administration to a passer-by, a prospect, a client. Advertisers use them for branding, to build and increase awareness. Of course, we would like these screens to be smart. Above all, we would like them to be able to gather data, smart data, and by so doing, become smarter. Data, only data, will make a screen smart. How?
How to make a screen, a shelf, street furniture, smart ? Adding Wi-fi, NFC, Bluetooth, QR...The screens used for Digital Out Of Home (DOOH), outdoor and indoors, are part of the Internet of Things. They can be monitored to save energy, manage content and advertising, measure audience (reach, demos, dwell time, frequency capping, etc.).

But, since communication with a screen takes place in a public situation, there are nevertheless some obvious limitations to interaction. Even if a message can be somehow personalized for a given passer-by according to gender, age (face recognition), or according to what she or he did just before or where (a precedent location), there remains a serious question of privacy and discretion.  There could also be a risk with crowds and security: no store, no transport facility wants too many people lining up in front of a screen.

Then come the Beacons for communication and location awareness. First Apple's iBeacon, and now Google's Eddystone. A beacon, as a wireless sensor, uses a battery to broadcast a signal around the beacon (via built-in antenna) ; that signal can be identified (Universal Unique IDentifier) and received by any device entering the range. The beacon leverages Bluetooth Low Energy to estimate the user proximity (distance between the responding app and the beacon). The beacons are therefore perfect for retail environments. The interaction is personal, intimate: the passer-by's device receives a notification and does or does not do what is suggested: looks at a product, purchases an article, shares information with a friend, etc.
You need an app designed to communicate with the beacon. You can configure apps to trigger events once you enter or leave the beacon's range (opt-in /opt-out). With beacons, advertisers can also broadcast the URL of their website (pushed in iOS Notification Center). In a retail store, when a customer picks up a product with a beacon or a sticker attached, the screen nearby shows a commercial about the product in question...

Beacons are bringing proximity and context to mobile, in a way that is simple and cheap. It works like geolocalization, allowing location-based actions. The beacon can trigger actions on the screen: suggest a coupon, show transit information, schedules, weather, traffic, nearby stores (maps), maps (path finding)... For instance, someone close to a screen, watching movie trailers may receive a coupon to visit the theater next door... Screens become smart.

Physical Web is on its way

N.B. Screens can also communicate with smartphones using Aware, a new Wi-fi standard that enables communication between Wi-Fi devices.

Programmatic ad buying for all video advertising markets

What is programmatic ad buying ? 
Instead of manual insertion orders, mails, RFPs, face-to-face human negotiations and lots of discussion, programmatic is mostly a world of data and automation, auctions, rules and market places. With traditional advertising, humans talk to humans (buyers to sales people) ; with programmatic advertising, machines talk to machines.
It all started with media buying for the Web (display ads). Programmatic takes over because it lowers transaction costs (information, bargaining, policing): less middle players are involved (but with new skills), meaning less friction, fewer mistakes, less waste. Only data-driven marketing can shorten the sales process, improve targeting efficiency and personalize ads (according to context, behavior, etc.). Programmatic ad buying will represent 42% of display ad buying in 2014 in the U.S.A. (source : Magna Global, September 2014).
What the Web started will soon affect TV planning and buying as well as Digital Out Of Home (DOOH). For the time being, the most current and well-known form of programmatic is Real Time Bidding (RTB), but there is also data-driven creative, real-time analytics (with GRPs), real time optimization, digital in-stream video ads, deals (Twixt, AppNexus)...

Programmatic for TV
In the USA, many TV networks are considering programmatic buying. ABC (national network owned by Disney) along with ABC Family will launch a trial this summer with FreeWheel, a company specialized in the monetization of video. FreeWheel was bought in March 2014 by Comcast. FreeWheel was originally started by ABC (through Steamboat Ventures, affiliate of Disney), DirecTV and TBS.
The trial will use FourFronts Programmatic, a software solution to connect SSP (ad sellers, supply) and DSP (ad buyers, demand). FreeWheel will provide inventory management and adserving. No linear inventory will be included, yet.
TV will slowly go programmatic, starting with cable or satellite channels, local stations or VOD before finally reaching the prime time upfront market (programmatic guaranteed). Cox Cable will use Clypd to sell commercials the programmatic way.
Note that in order to align with digital video, TV must first take viewability into account (selling only viewable impressions).
What needs to be tested first is the impact of automation on advertising value: even if the TV inventory is limited, TV networks fear a decline of advertising price as seen with Web programmatic.

Programmatic for Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) / Digital place-based media
To go programmatic, DOOH needs measurement techniques able to produce data to drive targeting. Data must include demos and geolocation (indoor positioning for subway or rail stations, malls or supermarkets) as well as "real world" context (aisles in store, etc.) to deliver relevant ads. In September, PumpTV (Australia) started automatically trading advertising (RTB) using a platform powered by Videology.
In-store analytics come with smartphones and sensors (iBeacon, Estimote, OnyxBeacon, nomi, IndoorAtlas, etc.). Note that Apple iOS 8 keeps Wi-Fi from identifying iPhones (MAC address randomization).
There is also face recognition: with Eikeo or Quividi, as well as with NEC FieldAnalyst or with myAudience, advertisers can describe and target audiences according to gender, age group.
Many companies are already implementing programmatic in DOOH:  Xaxis Places, Vistar Media, SN: Xchange (Kinetic), PlaceIQ, Vukunet, etc.
But, first, OOH needs accredited measurements (MRC, CESP) and reassuring privacy enforcement.

All video media are equal under programmatic
With data, all video media will embrace programmatic work flow. Digital video ad convergence means video ad campaigns (and GRPs) across all viewing platforms and devices.

Exemple : sociomantic (racheté par Tesco).

Digital Signage, the latest of the new media

According to the Digital Place-based Advertising Association, revenues from Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) has grown faster than most other American media during the first semester of 2012. DOOH was measured by Miller, Kaplan, Arase while the other media revenues were measured by Kantar Media. See below (first semester 2012 vs first semester 2011. %)

Sources: DPAA, Miller, Kaplan, Arase (DOOH), Kantar Media. First semester 2012

Definition
DOOH covers all the screens which air advertising out-of-home: shopping malls, elevators, supermarkets, transportation (airports, subways, train stations, etc.), gas stations, doctors' waiting rooms, sports stadiums, convenience stores, urban furniture, cinemas, universities, you name it. This media is obviously growing strongly. And, in fact, it is a very new media, at the very beginning of its lifecycle: it is not simply TV sets hanging from the ceiling as was the case of Wal-Mart TV in 1990.
It is Out-Of-Home but it is not Outdoor. It is mostly out-of-home and indoor (the classification needs to be fixed) where it replaces posters. On-premise, In-Door-Out-Of-Home; it is also a social media where people meet and exchange.

Ad networks
Digital screens are all over the place and advertising networks sell local and national advertising time to advertisers.
Soon an ecosystem is bound to develop around digital signage like the one for Web display advertising including AdExchanges (DSP / SSP), Real Time Bidding, etc. for a programmatic marketplace. First, the problem of standard analytics have to be solved. The solution is probably to be found in apps on smartphones, thanks to wi-fi; such analytics will include indoor mapping and precise localization.
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Local-Based Services: LBS = O2O + Maps

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LBS stands for Local-Based Services. It covers all that is related to local marketing and mobile. More than a trend, it is the logical consequence, a synthesis of the evolution in the digital industry: social, mobile, real-time, hyperlocal and search converge in LBS. Two components illustrate this emerging marketing culture: the maps and the strong bonds between on- and off-line.

The battle for maps is going on. Between Apple and Google of course but not only. In China alone, a dozen map companies fight for market share: among them, Baidu Maps develops many LBS. Maps are at the center of many services : local listings, street view, traffic, indoor location, public transportation schedules, etc.
Checking in, introduced first by social networks (Facebook, Foursquare, etc.), is now a sign of the times. Location is by default with smartphones ("xyz would like to use your current location") and most of the apps ask à la Facebook "where are you? (often you sign in for these apps with Facebook, your location is shared on your timeline).
All analytics produced by smartphones include geographic data, leaving most traditional off-line media in the dark, without precise geomarketing. To say "a store or a theater near you" is no longer enough.

Online to Offline (O2O) redimensions the hyperlocal and enriches it with mobile marketing using local discounts, vouchers, indoor maps, daily deals, mobile payment, group buying, loyalty cards... and drive. Recent examples:

• From app to an event for which the app sells tickets or distributes coupons (cf. IUV.NY)
• From crowdsourcing to mobile social networks (Weibo) to recommendations for restaurants (a new startup, HaoYouMeiShi in Beijing). 
• With recently launched Evzdrop - what a name! - a place goes social ("listening to places through people"), targeting people who are in a store or who have already been there (retargeting).
• The Tencent group is launching a new mobile platform in China which will incorporate maps, street views (SoSO, 搜搜), messaging (Weixin, 微信), mobile payment, LBS and mobile advertising.

Vitrines : le premier des mobiliers urbains

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Toute vitrine est un média.
Pour les points de vente, elle relève des dépenses de communication. Que sait-on de son efficacité communicationnelle, de son audience ? Pas grand chose. Interrogés, des commerçants (prêt à porter) qui changent leur vitrine tous les mois estiment qu'elle leur apporte 20% de leur clientèle. La vitrine constitue un élément de la visibilité et de la notoriété d'un point de vente dans la ville. Dans quelle mesure ?

Fenêtres ouvertes sur le point de vente (window, Schaufenster), liaisons naturelles entre PLV placée à l'intérieur et publicité extérieure, les vitrines devraient regarder de plus près les passants qui les regardent, certains très attentivement, comme en témoigne le vocabulaire : "lèche-vitrines", "window shopping", "Schaufensterbummel". Qui est devant la devanture ? Couverture, répétition ?

Les vitrines sont lisibles à des distances variables, de près par les piétons (détail des produits, revendication des marques, prix), de plus loin par les automobilistes, les passagers des bus et des trams (slogans, promotions, soldes, etc.).
La vitrine doit "afficher" mais doit aussi être transparente ("vitre"), laisser entrevoir l'intérieur du magasin. Subtils arbitrages.


Alors que l'affichage en centre ville est encadré par divers dispositifs législatifs et réglementaires, la valeur publicitaire des vitrines devrait s'accroître et leur place s'affirmer plus nettement dans la stratégie des entreprises.
Les vitrines ne sont pas intrusives, leurs emplacements sont naturels, elles animent et éclairent la ville (voir toutefois le décret à venir sur leur extinction la nuit, dont la publication est prévue pour la fin de l'année 2012, début 2013, pour réduire les dépenses d'énergie). Par nombre de leurs aspects (coût, flexibilité, emplacement), les vitrines se comparent avantageusement au mobilier urbain. De nombreux annonceurs ont à leur disposition des réseaux urbains de vitrines, denses (banques, agences de voyage, services publics, etc.) ; or ces networks qui entre-tissent finement micro-local et national sont sous-utilisés et rarement pris en compte dans la stratégie média, encore moins dans les plans média et l'achat d'espace.

Une vitrine doit retenir l'attention, capter le regard, interpeller le passant, inviter ; selon les jours, afficher les promotions, faire rêver, donner à voir, envie. Les moyens sont multiples : mise en scène, adhésif dépoli ou en impression numérique, etc. Depuis quelque temps, beaucoup de magasins placent des écrans numériques en vitrine, sans trop savoir si la création est adaptée, si elle accroche le regard, si elle s'articule favorablement avec l'intérieur de la boutique, si elle reste lisible en plein soleil. L'avantage escompté de ces écrans est de faire vivre la vitrine, d'y introduire du mouvement.
Pour attirer les passants, les retenir, on teste des dispositifs interactifs (cf. Vitrines interactives), des vitrines audioactives, etc. Tout cela appelle une mesure de l'usure mémorielle de la vitrine, une estimation de son bêta pour optimiser le rythme des renouvellements.

L'avenir média des vitrines passe par l'évaluation de leurs effets, de leur perception assurée par des technologies numériques non intrusives. Cette mesure assurera aux vitrines une place dans la stratégie média et le planning de la communication des enseignes et des points de vente. A terme, l'association de ces données avec celles de la cartographie (cf. Streetview, de Google ; lecture / reconnaissance des éléments de la rue), avec celles du indoor location et les applis des appareils mobiles intégrera la vitrine encore plus profondément dans des dispositifs publicitaires globaux.

Photos prises dans le même quartier d'une ville de banlieue parisienne (juillet - septembre 2009).