Attention Is Currency by Hans Ketterings

Large companies invest big money into their digital signage network when it comes to hardware and infrastructure. But when it comes to the essence of using it, the message is lacking both content and style. Seldom have I seen persuasive play-out sequences. Sometimes I look at beautiful schedules but cannot find a clear message.

Often I am confronted with irrelevance and unclearity. Since I have been active in this market often digital signage failed to deliver, due poor content or wrong usage of good content. Time for a change.

Today all argumentation seems technical, as you can see in most DS publications. But often it is not relevant for our customers to have flat screen type 'blablabla' with function 'xyz' that is integrated with 'abc' in enhanced 'top gear mode'. They should focus on putting a clear and properly formatted message across suitable locations, which truly affects the hearts and minds of their audience. If you make technology and quick sales leading, you'd better buy a nice painting to put on the wall. It's cheaper, does not depreciate and saves you a lot of installation time.

If we as digital signage suppliers want to survive, we should contribute to the proper use of our products. Instead of leaving the customers behind confused and (sooner or later) utterly unsatisfied, we should assist them in putting their message across.

We should try to convey the key advantages of digital signage and help the market to mature, rather than simply discuss the latest hardware and try to sell as much products as possible. This involves taking the lead by example: making sure your customers understand how to reach their audience, advise them on how to approach digital signage and being honest about the relevancy of digital signage on certain locations. Only then customers will truly benefit of the advantages digital signage has to offer.

Most of the time a simple scheme -as shown below- could make all the difference between getting a message across and unfortunate misuse of the solutions our industry has to offer.

Don't get me wrong: not all digital signage I have seen has failed to deliver. On the contrary: there's a lot of good signage out there! But we should always take advantage of possibilities to improve our industry. This improvement can be realized through little effort.

One of the easiest ways of sharing valuable knowledge is during training. Newbie's to digital signage, faced with the possibilities of digital signage, often want to show as much as possible at once. Ultimately the display is filled with approximately 10 different pieces of content. All of them screaming for attention. If you consider the short term memory consists out of maximum 6 items, you understand the user asks way too much from his audience. His audience won't be able to conceive the message, ultimately losing out on important information.

Making the customer aware of these simple facts by providing them training or handing out simple tips & tricks will tackle this problem. A small effort, with great results.

Another initiative I greatly encourage is establishing partnerships with communication agencies. By simply referring to knowledgeable experts as these, your customer can gain further services and knowledge. Companies who are engaged in collaborations as these acknowledge the need for delivering true value to their customers.

Everywhere you can read about 'Content being King'. But nonetheless we keep on focusing on hardware partners, instead of partners who can provide services we are currently lacking.

We sell communication aids to enable your customers creating awareness and understanding on the spot! Helping you to achieve this, is what makes you valuable and what makes all of us survive in the next decade. Remember all mobile devices and simple PC's can soon do signage as well. In this evolving market, we have little time to migrate. From nerd to consultant, from hardware to service and from enabler to creator.

About the author
Hans Ketterings is director of Adtraxion Systems. After graduating Webster University, Hans Ketterings successfully grew IT companies starting in 1990. CatLogic Group was one of the fastest growing IT companies in the Netherlands, awarded in the Fast50 index in 2003.

His commercial and technical interest comes together in his investment company CatVentures, which helps IT companies to create more value to the market. Since 2009 he became involved as major shareholder in Adtraxion, which concentrates its efforts and investments towards development, product management, marketing and sales of a dedicated range of high performance digital signage products and solutions. To contact Hans please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Publication: DS Europe, Volume III, Issue 4, Winter 2010