What does Times Square teach about Digital Signage?

Times Square, that historic and iconic spectacle in New York City, is in a class of its own.  It is digital signage on steroids.  It has a larger-than-life scale that is awe-inspiring.  It has a reputation and historic significance.  It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and possibly the world.  It’s more famous than its namesake newspaper. It has taken over-development and made it into a feature.  And found a way to monetize that over-development with ongoing investment in new equipment and content.  Despite similar spectacles in Tokyo or London, it remains a one of a kind.

So, what can this teach us about digital signage in other environments?  Be awesome, tie into the uniqueness of the space, and be one-of-a-kind. And use those things to build a business model for success.

So, what can it teach us about innovating our businesses?  Be awesome, tie into the uniqueness that is inherent in the space, and be one-of-a-kind. And use those things to build a business model for success.

“I Do Love Fig Newtons”

There is a scene in the movie Talladega Nights, where the race car driver character played by Will Farrell, sells the advertising space on the windshield of his car.  “This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient,” he says. “But I do love Fig Newtons” (the advertiser whose logo was obscuring his views).

What are the Fig Newton ads that you see in the real world?  Ones that cross over the line.  They are everywhere.

Phil Lenger from Show+Tell recently presented at a conference where he showed a picture of advertising gone wild when no one was advocating for the customer or the space in the conversation.  Every single surface of a public market was covered in some kind of messaging or brand language.  How can we ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future?  Is the role of the space owners?  Of government or municipal entities? 

Usually a fan of small government, I think this is an area where governments or public entities need to set and enforce standards based on what the consumers in the community want to experience.  The advertisers don’t have the context to limit themselves.  The space owners have a conflict of interest.  The individual consumers are not powerful enough to set and enforce policy (and the tools that consumers have to use to encourage self-regulation or government intervention, which include organizing rallies, petitions, boycotts, or the like, aren’t very efficient and of marginal effectiveness in a noisy environment with a fickle “news cycle” driven attention span).