Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) Connect has installed liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as digital posters, but primarily for in-store communications, rather than outside advertising at this point. Photos courtesy Dot 2 Dot Communications
Ad management software users can more accurately select appropriate screen locations for ads and then collect proof-of-performance information, intricately broken down on an individual clip basis, rather than simply full-day proof-of-performance. This enables optimal calculations of cost per ad or cost per thousand views.
Inventory management
At the centre of ad management is inventory management. The efficiency with which a network operator uses his/her inventory will define whether or not he/she is successful.
Inventory management represents the ability to manage all facets of the digital signage business model, which means tying together all data captured from a given location, scheduling ads and content, creating contracts in the system, assigning media to specific locations and delivering full campaigns.
The Bay facilitates brands like Dior and Giorgio Armani advertising through their own dedicated digital signage installations.
Client management
Other important facets of ad management include sales, contract management and proposal generation. In these ways, the software dictates how a digital signage network operator interacts with clients. It has a real impact on the ability to provide meaningful contracts and proposals to show customers how a network is meeting their requirements in a timely manner. The goal is to have succinct data available and delivered quickly to clients via e-mail.
The ability to communicate large amounts of pertinent information is, indeed, key to software success. It is not enough to know how many times an ad has played—today’s digital signage network operators must be able to tell their clients much more than that, delving into the demographic profiles of locations where the ad played and how much of that was ‘overplay.’ It may even be possible to pull in relevant retail data to check if an ad had a direct impact on sales of a promoted product.
Business management
Of course, in addition to offering the minutiae of day-to-day operations, ad management software should provide the ‘big picture.’ Users should have a ‘macro’ view of larger facets of their business and an overview of the whole company. It is just as important to know how it is doing overall as it is to know what each specific screen is doing.
Looking at the detailed numbers as a bigger picture can help determine, for example, if one screen location is adequately profitable when all costs are taken into consideration. And if one particular sales approach is making money, then changing the mix elsewhere may increase profitability at a larger scale.
In these ways, digital signage network operators can turn the microscope on their own business and make more meaningful decisions with less guess work.
