Archive for October, 2008

The Plan, The Buy & Everything in Between

Recently I had the opportunity to contribute to a recent Digital Signage Universe article titled, “If You’re Not on the Plan, You’re Not in the Buy.” The piece discusses the rapid growth of digital video advertising networks (VANs) and the obstacles these companies are facing as they try to build an advertising revenue stream for their emerging medium. I won’t regurgitate the complete article here…instead I encourage you to take a few minutes to read the original. However, I will say that the challenges I hear discussed specific to this channel are reminiscent of those raised in the early days of Internet marketing…how do we measure it, which budget does it fall under, can we achieve enough scale with one or two providers, etc., etc., etc. Of course, we all know how that one worked itself out — with online advertising, in all its various iterations, becoming a part of almost every advertiser’s arsenal. It will be interesting to see what the next 3-5 years hold in store for this fledgling, multi-sensory, place-based customer communication channel.