What\’s the next thing you didn\’t know you couldn\’t do without?

1. Looking ahead 2012:
What's the next thing you didn't know you couldn't do without?
I almost never talk on the telephone with my Generation Y, (millennial) children anymore and this is even
true with some of my “with it” boomer buddies. Instead, I text, I email, I instant message them.
As recently as a couple of years ago, I never — and I mean never — texted or IMed with people; I either
called them or emailed them.
A few years ago, if I wanted to go to a part of town with which I was unfamiliar, I looked up the address
online, maybe printed out directions, or I just used my Mapsco book to find it and map out my course.
Now, when I want to go somewhere I don't know how to get, I put the address in my phone and the in-
phone GPS tells me — literally, it talks to me — where to go.
That's been the genius of companies like Apple with the iPhone and the wireless carriers with SMS
messaging and the Android smartphone manufacturers with their handsets: They've found the things we
can't imagine living without, that we lived without just fine not that long ago.
As my 2011 chapter draws to a close, I'd say digital signage has gotten either very close to that point or
maybe even to that point for advertisers and brands. But what's next?
For brands and advertisers, if you can show a shopper tailored video messages at the point of decision
that will help them envision themselves using your product — or if you can change the messaging,
instantly, based on the weather outside or the gender of the person in front of the screen — why in the
world would you still be using static displays? You might as well be asking people not to buy your
products.
To some extent, I'd say digital signage and digital out-of-home is even getting to that place for consumers.
When I go to a mall, static images are just visual noise to me, but digital signage — while that may have
something to do with the fact that I'm in the industry — jumps out at me as noticeable. If the content is
creative and engaging, I actually enjoy that format of advertising. It's entertaining. And how can you do
without it, now that it's here?
Any time I walk up to a screen, the first thing I do is touch it to see if it's touch interactive — and pretty
nearly every time I see anyone under the age of 20 approach a screen they do the same thing — so if you
believe the children are our future, non-interactive screens are already close to out-of-date, with some
obvious exceptions. You gotta keep up.
But, again, what comes next? What is the next development in digital signage or digital out-of-home that
will be the next thing we the people didn't realize we couldn't do without?
QR codes and apps that tag images or sounds from a display are a good start, but to my mind they're still
too clunky and too early-stage development. (Admittedly, I could be too old and curmudgeonly to pick up
on these, but it seems to me that teens aren't going to bother with something so labor intensive, and
besides, there are too many people who still can't or won't pay for smartphone data plans, so you're
automatically weeding out a significant portion of your audience that way.) Maybe when more handsets
and screens are NFC enabled or in some other way tied into a mobile payments/mobile interaction
system, when I can just tap my phone on the screen or wave it at it? Maybe it'll be something else entirely

2. that most of us can't see coming? (That actually seems the most likely thing to me, to be honest.) Maybe
it'll be something we already do but learn to use in a new way? I don't know……yet.
Luckily for me, as a commercial retail professional and a child of the Pepsi Generation, I'm working with a
host of young techy geeks that live and breathe this stuff every moment of every day. They’ll bring it to
you and me with your help and your influence. Come and join us in the fun today and take part in the
future of communication.
NOViCAST® transcends the barriers of traditional digital signage by offering an interactive, powerful
platform that engages customers with all the content the Internet has to offer.
Good luck in 2012. I can't wait to see what happens.
Brian P. Finnegan, VP and GM
NOViCAST
http://novicast.com/home.php