Making social DOOH media work across different networks – each with different caching policies, content management systems and player configurations – is the stuff that LocaModans wrestle with every day. That’s challenging in and of itself, but we added the complexity of ensuring that future cross platform/cross channel apps are also easier to develop – without having to be a brain surgeon. So I’m happy that the big brained engineers at LocaModa have been busying themselves for a major release. Here are some details…

Key features:

· Messaging: Flexible and extensible message classification system – makes it easy for developers to add message types and/or message sources.

· Moderation: Enhanced moderation and filtering/curation options of content based on tags, words, phrases, profanity and users/accounts.

· Local Caching Support: Like the Energizer Bunny, we keep going and going! LocaModa apps now support both Network Outage Mode (Network/Internet failure while SWF is playing) and Offline Mode (No network/internet connection prior to/up to SWF launch time). LocaModa apps now have Network/Venue options for configuring offline storage of device info, configuration info, messages, and assets using a pragmatic approach with a garbage collection system to ensure minimal device overhead. Due to the different caching policies of every DOOH network, this feature has been pretty challenging – hats off to the team who have persevered to make this work across multiple networks, OSs and CMSs. This is a big deal in my humble opinion.

· Enhanced Application Configuration: Again, regardless of a network’s CMS, OS and their screen specs, networks and/or venues can configure LocaModa apps and aspects of their appearance easily. For example, we include a configurable banner component that allows the network or venue to determine: the banner location, background, and transparency, the text font and color, and the rotation schedule. The banner and text autosize to the screen. Networks and venues can also configure the font, color and hang time of brand and user generated messages. No big deal for any competent CMS these days, but offering this flexibility for an application running on top of multiple proprietary CMSs makes a huge difference for venue owners or agencies that don’t want to have to learn about multiple DS systems just to change their messaging.

· Standardized Ad Units: We’ve been running standardized ad units across multiple networks for some time now, but now there’s more magic to the “write once run anyway” manner in which the same ad unit can resize in LocaModa applications regardless of network/screen configurations. We’re also introducing new sponsored ad units in response to great feedback from our Community Board application that enhances advertising opportunities and engages the audience. All apps and ad units now have an enhanced suite of analytics (Proof of play anyone?) and remote debugging tools.

· And not to mention a LocaModa SDK! (I said not to mention that!)

Some of these features have already begun rolling out on our latest campaigns. Stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks.

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A client just sent us their creative for a call to action on a forthcoming LocaModa campaign. Without giving away any names or clues, their call to action was something like “Text AYT9Q31628ZB for a chance to win…” To make matters worse – this CTA is to be displayed for 8 seconds.

Coincidently, at the same time as people here were pulling their hair out and trying to jump off ledges, I was reading this line in a blog post “Anybody who has looked at their customer acquisition funnel knows how even minor usability problems can drive away vast swaths of people.”

Sometimes I want to shoot myself in the head. It usually happens around the time a client is shooting themselves in the foot.

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Following a fantastically successful orientation day at West Virginia University (WVU) with over 4,500 students engaging with digital signage (we wrote about it here), WVU installed a small network running LocaModa place-based social media on X20 in their Student Union last December.

The WVU network runs three LocaModa place-based social media applications – LocaModa Foursquare, LocaModa Wiffiti (which displays a combination of filtered and moderated Twitter messages, photos, and SMS) and LocaModa Twitter Flow (displaying messages tagged West Virginia).

Since the LocaModa screens went live in Dec 2010, the number of checkins grew 250%.

The organic growth of checkins across the campus was 1-15% except in the Student Union, where the increase in check-ins was 49%. Guess where the LocaModa screens are? That’s right – the Student Union!

For more details, read the post on Mobile in Higher Ed by Dave Olsen and the reply by Goerge Cicci.

Nice job WVU!

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Here are a couple more slides and notes from my recent presentations for ScreenMediaExpo in London (you can get the full presentation here) and NgageWithUs in Sidney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Fig.1. DISCOVERY IS INTENT OR CONTEXT. (Click to enlarge)

PRIVATE SCREENS: DISCOVERY VIA INTENT

Private screens (e.g. a user’s desktop or laptop) are best targeted by advertisers via an “Intent” model. i.e. a user’s intent is exposed via a search query (e.g. pizza near Natick, MA) or social media pages (e.g. Fan of Joe’s Pizza, Natick, MA). This is an eminently monetizable opportunity and advertisers can measure the effectiveness of what can then become a two-way link between the user and advertiser (shown as the 2-way red dotted line to/from advertisers in Fig.1.).

We know that the value of Intent via private screens is huge (just ask Google), but the value of “context” is still largely untapped on these screens.

If we now look at public screens, the oppose it true.

PUBLIC SCREENS: DISCOVERY VIA CONTEXT.

Unlike private screens, an advertiser can effectively get on to public screens just by paying for that privilege. In theory, they choose to do so based on the desirability of the target audience around those screens i.e. their context. For example it might be determined that people potentially interested in pizza could be found at gas stations within 1 mile of the pizza restaurant around lunch or dinner time.

The value of this context is OK, but is typically a one way (i.e. passive) message from an advertiser to the public screen (shown as the one-way blue dotted line to the public screens in Fig.1.) with no direct engagement path to the audience, in other words, this approach lacks the actionable, two way connection that’s inherent in the Intent model. It’s also less measurable or immediate, and therefore, from the perspective of a digital media buyer, potentially less valuable.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could leverage the advantages of both the Intent and Context models in one hybrid approach? Of course that’s a soft-ball question addressed in the slide below.

FIG. 2. MOBILE BRIDGES INTENT AND CONTEXT. (Click to enlarge)

MOBILE SCREENS: DISCOVERY VIA INTENT AND CONTEXT

An out of home audience is mobile. Their mobile behavior moves between Intent and Context models all the time. And the mobile phone, because it’s always on and available, can support both Intent and Context models. For example the user might want to find a pizza restaurant near by and type that into their phone’s browser (i.e. Intent Model shown as the 2-way red dotted line to/from the phone and advertiser in Fig. 2). They might also act on a promotion they discover at the gas station near the pizza restaurant or respond to a poll, check in, or send a message when they are at the restaurant (i.e. Context Model shown as the 2-way blue dotted line to/from the phone and advertiser in Fig. 2).

The mobile phone is providing a “mobile click” to an otherwise passive public screen.

As our ability to leverage all screens is better understood, and the friction of doing so is reduced, the entire eco-system will benefit – i.e. locations, advertisers, network operators and end users will each get a more valuable experience.

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Our industry has done an excellent job of confusing our potential customers. We have used words such as Narrowcasting, Digital Signage, Digital Out-of-Home, Out-of-Home TV, Place-Based etc to describe ourselves.

Our value is in being location-based.

How many mobile businesses in the “location-based” industry can get their media on to screens without the end-user having to opt-in or discover them?

NONE.

We are in a great position. We manage and monetize digital media in millions of locations. We’re hanging on walls. At check outs. On the backs of seats. In elevators. On the streets. Our media doesn’t need the consumer to opt in – can’t be avoided or fast forwarded. It’s right there in front of the audiences’ faces, often closest to the point of purchase.

Our value isn’t in the signage per se, it’s in our connection to the location and proximity to the mobile audience.

As in all digital media and communications businesses, our business is ultimately valued on how we help our clients’ media effectively reach and engage the intended audience.

Rob Gorrie, CEO of Adcentricty, was spot on in his post “Where Hyperlocal and DOOH Intersect”, and you might notice that it ends with “Adcentricty, a location-based digital ad network” – way more descriptive than “a DOOH ad network” in my opinion. I also like fellow Adcenturian, Jeff Atley’s post “Why DOOH, Mobile and Social Should be BFFs”. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that their opinions resonate with us at LocaModa – after all the name LocaModa comes from the words Location + Mobile + Data.

Before we differentiate (aka fragment) our market into a niche, isn’t it time we invited ourselves to the location-based party? After all, it’s happening right here on our street.

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