DS-digest # 11 - news and cases from Digital Signage for marketers

In this issue: A 1300 square meter building was built in Dubai; NanoLumens released a new versatile digital display; Korea has built a 99% transparent LED wall; Two-thirds of consumers vote for a personal approach; IKEA opens new format stores; The negative impact of a break-in advertising on brand growth

I equipped the Saudi Expo Dubai pavilion with a 1300 sqm digital screen.

The square building is at an acute angle, decorated with LED strips on the sides, and has a display area of ​​1302.5 square meters on the facade. An interactive wall is also installed in one of the corridors inside the building, which simulates an aquarium.

The pavilion was built back in 2020, but due to the pandemic, the exhibition was postponed for a year. The opening date is set for October 2021.

NanoLumens launches new universal LED displays

The Captivate series from NanoLumens is positioned as a complete solution that works out of the box. The LED display is easy to install, equipped with an HDMI port and a remote control. You can install the screen through standard wall mounts or on a special stand. Available in 120 ", 150" and 180 "diagonals, all with HD resolution. Captivate is designed to be an easy to ship and install display for conference rooms, residential and educational environments.

University in Korea Uses 99% Transparency LED Screen

The architects completed the wall of the second floor of the building from architectural glass with built-in RGB LEDs. The brightness of the LEDs is sufficient for the image to be clearly visible in the dark. The project is based on displays from GSMATT. Journalists believe that the technology of placing LEDs in architectural glass has great potential for design solutions in building design and digital signage.

Two-thirds of consumers return to brands that treat them as individuals

OpenText conducted a survey of 2,000 UK consumers to find out how the pandemic has changed customer expectations of brands. 62% of consumers said they were more likely to repeat purchases from brands with a personalized customer experience. The demand for this type of interaction is reflected throughout Europe - in Italy (70%), Spain (63%), France (59%), and Germany (55%).

The survey also touched on the topic of brand preferences. Four out of ten respondents said they only buy from brands that make them feel like they understand their preferences. 72% noted the importance of a simple site search. 48% prefer to shop on sites that fill out the form automatically after the first purchase. However, brands are forced to store data securely: 54% of consumers are willing to pay more to do business with a company that seeks to protect their personal data. Due to the pandemic, almost half of respondents (46%) now feel comfortable working only with digital businesses.

IKEA has launched a new store format, in which it is impossible to get lost

As part of its research on how to keep physical stores relevant in the e-commerce era, the company is testing two new store designs in Shanghai and Vienna. The Shanghai store has been made a pastime, where visitors can socialize in a cozy theater-like space, eat at an eco-friendly farm restaurant, or spend time at Maker's Hub, where store staff help repair old items or create new items.

The store in Vienna occupies five floors and houses a café on the roof. Visitors can buy accessories and small pieces of furniture, and order large furniture with next-day delivery. In both locations, visitors can scan products with smartphones to find out the cost. The route of movement to new stores, unlike the usual IKEA, can be chosen to your taste.

Negative Impact of Ad Interruption on Brand Growth

When finances are tight or a brand's bottom line needs to be increased, ad spend is often the first choice. The Covid-19 pandemic was no different, with marketers taking down ads and cutting costs for months or longer.

However, research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute proves that advertising breaks not only lead to a noticeable decrease in sales but also cannot be easily made up.

Conducted in 2018 by Prof Byron Sharp, Prof Rachel Kennedy, Dr. Virginia Beale, Dr. Nicole Hartnett, and Adam Gelzinis, the study builds on existing data tracked media spending and sales of 70 Australian consumer product brands over more than two decades.

There are 57 known cases where a brand has cut all media spending for a year or longer, and some of them have not been advertised for ten years.

The institute estimates that, on average, brand sales fell 16% after one year without ads compared to the last advertised year, and 25% after two years. By three years, the decline reaches 36%, although as the years go on, the steady decline eventually diminishes.

However, according to the report, there is a “widespread” around this average as not all brands experienced an immediate drop in sales. In fact, larger brands tend to continue to grow or remain stable after stopping ads for a year or two, while smaller growing brands quickly change their trajectory and suffer more.

In the sample used in the study, all large and mid-sized brands that grew before the advertising break continued to grow for one to two years. On the other hand, all previously growing small brands stopped growing and sales fell below the baseline.

According to the report, this “size advantage” for large brands coincides with the Institute's research on the impact of greater mental and physical accessibility for large brands.

"As a result, greater mental and physical availability for large brands is likely to better protect sales from declines after ad cessation compared to smaller brands."

Brands that were previously stable prior to the advertising cut, meanwhile, have largely managed to maintain some stability over the next two years, although they began to experience a "significant" decline if they continued to go ad-free after that point.

"Initial stability may be due to investments in marketing activities other than advertising, but also likely due to mostly habitual consumer purchases," the report explains.

However, the drop in sales among major brands is becoming more widespread and "more significant" as brands go longer ad-free, and after four years of ad-free, there are no cases where any brands still reported higher sales. than last ad year.

Every brand that was in decline before it stopped being advertised continued to decline in subsequent years, regardless of its size. If advertising had not been renewed, sales would have halved on average within two years.

Pause for just a year

Of the 57 brands included in the study, 14 stopped advertising just one year before relaunching. Before they stopped advertising, five of these brands were growing, five were stable, and four were in decline.

After just one year of no advertising, three of these brands were still growing, while six were in decline.

Importantly, the study found that resuming ads the following year did not stop this trend. The number of growing brands continued to fall and more and more sales declined so that only two growing brands and three stable brands were able to maintain the upward trend after advertising resumed during the year.

The other five initially growing or stable brands have failed to return to their previous sales trend following the resumption of advertising, suggesting it will take more than 12 months to recover from a one-year hiatus.

“While it may be tempting to cut ad budgets to increase profits, the available evidence suggests that this could lead to lower brand sales,” the report said.

“Without advertising, mental accessibility is destroyed. Silence periods widen the gap between consumers making a purchase and those who last saw a brand's ad. In the meantime, they may be attracted by a competitor's advertising, or their memory-based connection to the brand will collapse, and they are less likely to think of you, especially if they are not regular customers. "

As previous research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has shown, small shoppers are the largest group in any brand's customer base and most important to growth, the risk of such mental accessibility can be an expensive strategy - particularly for small brands.

“However, large growing brands can avoid serious negative consequences in the short term when advertising is suspended, although they could grow even faster with the support of advertising,” concludes Joseph Marc Blumenthal.