Take Control of Your Advertising


By David Little

At last election day is upon us and we as Americans should have a much better sense of which direction our country will be headed within the next few hours.

Day after day, the media are filled with stories of who will do what if this party or that party takes control. The headlines are filled with phrases like “seizing control” and “taking power” and stories about the ramifications of Democratic or Republican control of Congress.

“Taking control” is part of our daily lexicon, too. “He’s a take charge kind of guy.” Or, “She’s a control freak.” Everywhere you turn, life seems about controlling our words, our actions and our environment. At least it is in most spheres.

But I wonder if you were to ask 10 marketers how in control they feel about their marketing message if even half could honestly say they’re in charge. Sure they design their messages and sign off on the creative product of their advertising agencies. But from that point on they start to lose control.

Marketers cast their messages out to the public through a variety of media, like newspapers, broadcast and the Internet, without really knowing whether or not the public is fully absorbing their messages. These days it seems the public is just as likely to zap the commercials on their digital video recorder, change the radio station and turn past the newspaper and magazine ads as they are to actually acknowledge the marketer’s message and take a desired action.

That’s why when it comes to taking control of marketing messages, no other medium appears to approach digital signage. With digital signage, marketers can influence shoppers when they’re in the buying frame of mind. They can day-part their messages, appealing to stay-at-home moms during one portion of the day and school kids at another. Digital signage even allows them to control their messages on a micro-geographic level, targeting a neighborhood, ethnicity, age group, social strata or income like no other medium.

With digital signage, marketers aren’t only in control of their message but on how, where and when that message is presented to a highly targeted market audience. Digital signage elevates the control over messaging to a level all managers dream of and few currently achieve.

About the author:

David Little is a digital signage authority with 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to more effectively communicate their unique marketing messages. He is the director of marketing for Keywest Technology in Lenexa, KS, a software development company specializing in systems for digital signage creation, scheduling, management and playback.

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