Signs of the Times - January 2012 - (Page 40)

THE MOVING MESSAGE By Bob Klausmeier Bob Klausmeier has been an active member of the moving-message community for 30 years. He currently works in Las Vegas. Selling the Difference Programming and concept planning become great sales tools. or most of us, a visit to a retail center to shop for a new television is not a quest for particular features; more so, it’s a search for value. At least half a dozen manufacturers produce sets with which we would be comfortable, because the home television set has become a commodity, a price-driven item that brings satisfaction. Inter-estingly, today, the large-format, LED-lamped, digital display is rapidly approaching a similar future. I’m not speaking of complex, large-screen video or digital-billboard solutions, but digital displays purchased for daily, commercial applications. Consequently, selling such displays becomes much less about the display product’s features, and more about the way it’s sold, and the company behind the sale. Why? When providing a commodity item, gaining a contract is more about selling the product than offering it for sale. Those who actually sell make it easy for the customer to buy. Those who quote prices lack the compelling reasoning comprised in the act of selling. Wade Swormstedt, ST’s publisher/ F editor, recently alerted me of Signtronix’s LED Sign Studio, a proposed website that offers both a content cache and creation opportunity for Signtronix’s message-display customers. Signtronix says the stock-video cache – comprising ready content for various businesses – will be significant. Customers can also order custom, application-specific content. My point is not to promote Signtronix, but to highlight the supplemental website and its differentiating value in the competitive sales field. Offering access to such a site alerts a client that the sales contract represents the beginning of an ongoing relationship – not just the sale. The moving-message field has matured. Dependability is a given, and buyers can focus on use. Now, it’s about the content, the image programming and the user’s advertising strategy. A display’s effectiveness depends upon what – and how – the content is displayed. To a creative advertiser, the board becomes a highly visible canvas upon which fine art may be created. Or not. photo by Jeff Russ In the future, successful electronicdigital sign sellers are most likely to succeed by offering long-term tools which benefit the display buyer, because digital-sign advertising’s value is contingent upon its effective use. Display-manufacturing companies that project ongoing services for the product’s best use will be winners – they’ll have much more to sell than the display’s features. They’ll also want to educate their customers on the power of continually updated messages, which, in turn, will cause the buyer to question the companies that are short on such offerings. Real-life mistakes I often drive by a full-color, correctly proportioned and proper pixelpitch display that stands at a busy, shopping-center entryway. The intersection stoplight backs up travelers every evening, which, in turn, mandates a 60-second view for drivers. I estimate the passing traffic count as huge. In short, the display is a well-placed, visible testimony for the value of the medium. Unfortunately, it’s also poorly programmed. The shopping center is home to a liquor store, two restaurants, a grocery, a pub, an insurance agency and several other businesses. Each could gain from an effective ad-message/ sign-use strategy. Unfortunately, this sign’s content is generally ill conceived and poorly programmed. I doubt the center owner or tenants understand the lost potential. Frequently, the above-referenced display depicts messages with a travelling effect – in one side and out the other, with a pause in-between – but the travel speed is ponderously slow. Thus, the message always appears incomplete. Because its improperly programmed effects consume more than half of 40 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / JANUARY 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - January 2012

Signs of the Times - January 2012
Contents
ST Update
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Commercial
Lighting Techniques
The Moving Message
Technology Review
Sign Museum News
New Products
A Global Village
Crane Truck Roundtable
Remembering the Struggle
Four Major Elements of the New ADA
ADA Opportunities and Challenges
The Value of Signs
Ramsay Sign Celebrates Centennial
Industry News
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - January 2012