Last week I was at my local shopping centre and noticed that they installed digital signage. The setup was as follows:

• There were two 47″ LG screens hanging from the ceiling.
• There was an LG player the back of the first screen
• Connected to the player there was a Telstra USB 3G modem – I’m assuming this was needed for Internet connectivity
• There was also a VGA splitter that connected the Video output to the second screen

Now, in terms of content and what was displayed on the screen seemed quite disappointing. There was only two ads displayed on the screen. One was the company’s own advertisement and the other was just an image.

My initial thoughts were, “How is the company making money?” and “Are the network owners already struggling to find advertisers?”

I believe this is a common issue for digital signage network startups. Most believe that having a network means that they can easily generate advertising revenue but that’s not always the case. Finding advertisers is the biggest challange easpecially if the network only has a handful of screens. Its a numbers game -most of the advertisers want exposure and they are willing to pay for it if the exposure is high.

So before jumping at the chance of setting up a digital signage network make sure you have advertisers ready to buy your advertising space…. and good luck.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

I’m not sure whether most of you have seen this tender before but I thought I’d better share it with you all. It appears a Utility company (Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited) is looking for a company to supply a digital signage system for several of their power stations. The date of the submission will be open on the 21st April 2011.

There’s not much detail about the number of screens or what they are looking for and good luck to those that are applying for the tender. Here’s the link to the tender information. http://www.hellotrade.com/tenders/details/328898614/

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Our showroom screens

Last week I had a brief discussion with one of my colleagues about the confusion between Landscape vs Portrait content and the extra effort required to maintain content on these two types of layouts. In a digital signage network with screens in both landscape and portrait orientations, it can be quite confusing for the content creator who maintains a large network of screens. On a landscape screen you create landscape designs and for portrait screens you create portrait designs. Well, I mentioned to him that most administrators of the digital signage network may not be able to easily distinguish the difference especially if the network group of a digital signage screens are a mix and do the clients really understand the extra effort (may even cost) required.

There are some digital signage solutions that are just able to automatically rotate and crop the content so that it fits on the screen no matter if it’s landscape or portrait but in the case where your digital signage system doesn’t have this feature, what do you do? To solve this issue you need to have two sets of designs or templates – one in landscape and then one in portrait.Then, when scheduling the content the administrator needs to work out which screens will use the landscape content and which ones will use the portrait content. If you have more than 20 screens with a mix of landscape and portrait screen this can be a very tedious task. I guess if you have setup your screens to be within a group e.g Landscape screens, Portrait screens then this task may be easier but at the end of the day does your network require both screen orientations? If not, I would say stick with one type of screen orientation to minimise administration and design efforts.

As digital signage solution providers we provide consultancy services and help them understand the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining a digital signage solution.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products

Christmas is just around the corner and retail stores should take the opportunity to install a digital signage signage for their business during this festive season. The benefits are simple:

1. draw more customers into your stores with a christmas theme on the screens

2. showcase special christmas products on the screens

3. announcements and greeting your customers e.g “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”

4. make more money… don’t worry about the ROI you’ll certainly make you’re money back within the first 2 years.

5. stand out from your competitors

If your store needs to stand out then digital signage is the most cost effective solution.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

We are constantly receiving emails and comments from people asking to publish articles on our blog. Since the first day we launched this website we wanted to keep this digital signage blog as our own blog. That is, we write and publish our own articles. But because of the constant requests we MAY and I repeat we MAY be thinking of having guests posts. That’s why we’re asking you, our readers what you think.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Polls, Featured Post

I was in Canberra Australia on the weekend and noticed a very clever and innovative kiosk/digital signage solution that I’ve never seen before. Basically, it at a 24 hour dry cleaners service. It’s an automated machine with a small touch screen that allows you to drop off your dry cleaning and pick them up at a later time. The whole point of having this is for convenience – how many of us don’t have the time to drop off our dry cleaning during business hours? There two compartments, one to drop of your clothes and the other to pick up the clothes. My understanding is that the clothes are dry cleaned during the day and are hanged on an automated hanger so all you need to do is enter your receipt number and it will automatically position your clothes to the pickup shaft.

dry cleaners kiosk digital signage

dry cleaners kiosk digital signage 1

I really haven’t seen it in action so the above is just a guess based on what I saw. Has anyone else seen any innovative kiosk or digital signage solutions?

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Quite a number of companies are now giving their customers the option of hiring digital signage equipment instead of purchasing it outright. There are quite a number of benefits for doing this and these are:

1. Tax reasons – for leased or rented equipment you can claim the full cost as an expense
2. If the equipment is rented, then you have the option to upgrade your hardware once you contract has ended
3. No initial upfront costs – some businesses don’t have the upfront costs and would have their money invested in purchasing actual products to sell

There are many more reasons but we would like to hear from you what these reasons are.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

digital signage is now becoming more popular in retail stores and now it’s a good time to install one in yours. Whether you’re a small retail store or a large retail chain, we’ve done it all. We’ve helped and provided our customers with simple and standalone digital signage solution for a single store to building a digital signage network for a large corporate retail chain.
There are many, many digital signage products in the market and what we do different is to provide our clients with a cost effective solution that meets their needs. We have tested many solutions and we basically recommend the most effective solution that meets our clients requirements. Whether its a digital signage player, an all in one digital signage system, a display screen or content, we can help businesses in the retail industry.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Using a digital display instead of a static display is as easy as 1-2-3. Over the years, we realised how a large percentage of retail owners are hesitant and reluctant in using a digital display because no one took the time to clearly explain what the benefits are in using digital signage. The majority of them are still installing and purchasing static displays i.e lightboxes and posters which is a bit of a waste of money.

Yes, its true that the cost of digital displays is generally higher than the static display – there’s no doubt about that. But here’s why you should still consider in using a digital display:

1. Printing costs – there are no printing costs involved with digital displays. If done correctly, you don’t even have to spend too much money with design costs as you may already have existing content from your website or marketing material.

2. Resource costs – how much time is spent replacing static images. Wouldn’t it be more effective if your staff was actually serving customers rather than spending time hanging posters?

3. Animation and engaging content – this is used to attract more customer into your store.

4. Live information – e.g news, weather, twitter posts, facebook information, you can’t do this with static display!

The switch is easy… just contact advertise me and we’ll take care of everything for you.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

The best time you should install digital signage would be during a shop fitout. Why you may ask? Here’s a few simple reasons:

1. cost savings for running cables and power. If planned correctly then during the electrical fitout, you can install and run cables (this includes audio, video, and data) to the various screens locations before the walls are put up. Trust me, it’s must cheaper than having to install these at a later stage

2. structural support – during a fitout you’ll be able to easily plan where the screens will be located and hence you’ll be able to install structural support for the screen brackets

3. Use digital signage for opening specials and to attract more customers into the store

4. Generally, the installation of the screens are very minimal compared to the overall cost of the shop fitout

5. Bring your store to life – if done correctly, you’ll be able to use engaging content and differentiate your store from your competitors

There may be more reasons and in my point of view, digital signage should definitely be considered when you plan to refit your shop. So if you’re in the process of renovating or opening up a new shop, make sure you contact Advertise Me so we can demonstrate how you can use digital signage to your advantage.

What do you think?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

I was walking past several shops the other day and noticed that most of them had a plasma screen at the front of their shop  – facing out on the street. Now if you asked me what was displaying on these screens I would not be able to answer this because it was a sunny day and there was too much glare on the screen.

So in this situation, should the store owner have paid the extra money and went with sunlight readable screens? Did the installer mention this to the store manager? Was there a site survey conducted and did someone analyse the environmental constraints?

I guess these are some of the questions you need to ask yourself or the installer before proceeding with purchasing a screen.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

We were clearing up some of our documents and stumbled across one of our very first digital signage proposals and we thought we’d share some of this with you all. Just keep in mind that this was one of our very first proposal…

In today’s day and age, the Internet and email technology has revolutionised the way we communicate with people all over the world. Both of these technologies are critical and vital to the operations of any business. Without these technologies, your employees and company will come to a standstill.

Moving forward with technology, digital signage is a new form of digital medium for corporate businesses with multiple offices around the world to deliver dynamic messages to its employees. It is a proven fact that dynamic images and information attract more attention than static images such as posters or billboards by a factor of 10.

XXX  is a large global organisation and it can embrace this technology by keeping its local and remote employees up to date with; business events (National Sales Conferences, annual Christmas party), corporate headlines (the launch of new xxx products or systems) and local business effecting announcements (building renovations, Information Technology business interruptions).

What is digital signage?

Digital signage is the method of displaying multimedia content on a display unit such as a LCD screen, a plasma display panel, a monitor, a video wall composed of a number of screens to deliver informative and entertaining content to employees, visitors, captive audiences and passers by.

As opposed to still images, multimedia content is the new standard of digital communication. The information presented to your viewers will not only be exciting but also captivating.

Benefits

XXX can use the digital signage technology to impress both its visitors and employees. Imagine the following scenarios:

Your visitors are standing at your reception desk signing the visitor’s book. They look up and their eyes are caught by a large LCD screen. A message is displayed “Welcome to XXX.” The message fades and the next message appears “Dear visitor, please ensure your visitors badge is visible at all times whilst on XXX premises. Please also remember to sign out before leaving. Thank you and enjoy your visit.” The system can also be used to display Training timetable information (training name, time and locations) and help guide your visitors to the training rooms.

Your employees walk into the office and their eyes are caught by the LCD screen. There is a message on the screen “Reminder: Flash Presentation at 11:00 AM”. In this particular scenario, the system is being used as a bulletin board to efficiently remind staff of particular events.

Your employees are eating in the cafeteria, the LCD screen displays the message at all sites with the following “advertise me Christmas countdown: 2 days to go. Visit http://www.advertiseme.com.au for more information.” Staff members are updated with important company information.

There are infinite possibilities and scenarios where your business can benefit from this evolving digital signage technology. Take the step now and you will notice the difference.

Just by simply introducing the digital signage technology to XXX’s corporate environment, Advertise Me can guarantee the business can achieve the following:

• Promote new products to its employees
• Increase awareness of critical business projects to employees
• Improve business image to visitors and the public
• Achieve recognition from competitors by being the first YYY company to use this technology
• Keep employees informed with information with eye catching presentations

Proposal

A typical digital signage network consists of a small form factor Personal Computer, a 32 inch LCD TV (inclusive of a mounting bracket) and the digital signage software.  Our proposal for XXX is slightly different and is as follows:

• XXX will supply Advertise Me with a PC which meets our technical specifications. This will ensure that the PC has been qualified by a XXX employee and conforms to the XXX standards.
• We will supply XXX with a 32 inch LCD TV as a minimum or for an additional cost, upgrade to a larger screen size LCD.
• We will install, configure and support the software on any PC that is connected to a stand.
• Provide basic training to either IT staff or XXX employees who will manage the system
• Provide on-site maintenance for the equipment and software

XXX has the option to have the digital network set up on its own private network or on the Advertise Me network. Our preference is to have the PC’s on our network so that we can monitor and remotely manage each stand. We will provide Internet access points at each stand and set up VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnels with the highest security back to our network. We will then provide XXX with access to the players via our network.

There are ZZZ XXX offices based in Australia; [locations]. At each location we propose to have an stand at the reception desk, and one in the cafeteria/lunch area. At XXX we can additionally add another stand in the Hub.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

advertise me has been in the digital signage industry since its infancy in Australia and we’ve experienced the convergence of the Information Technology and Audio Visual industry. Both are now becoming so dependent on each other that professionals in the IT industry are learning skills from the audio visual industry and vice versa.

What are the main reasons behind this and which industry does digital signage fit in?

In this particular post I will attempt to explore these areas and hopefully others can follow and join me with sharing their thoughts and ideas on this particular topic.

Let’s firstly look at the roles and responsibilities of both industries:

The IT industry

Information Technology Network equipment

Generally speaking, when someone uses the term IT (Information Technology), the first thing that comes to their mind is computers – basically this is what the majority of digital signage players are (embedded computers, laptops, desktops, Macs etc). One thing that needs to be clarified is that IT encompasses much more than computers, it covers broader areas such as software development, desktop management, server management (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc), network infrastructure, security and helpdesk support. All of these areas form the basic foundation of the IT backbone and digital signage is one of those technologies which have a great dependency on the IT framework. The design, stability of the overall IT infrastructure needs to work in order for the digital signage network to also be reliable and efficient.

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Featured Post

When it comes to protecting your investment, physical security should be considered for any digital signage installation. Whether its for outdoor or indoor purposes, enclosures are the best form of physical protection. We previously touched upon some of the other security considerations in two of our previous posts called “How secure is your digital signage solution?” and “Secure your digital signage solution – here’s why“.

Enclosures are primarily designed to protect the display screens from:

• the environment – direct sunlight or extreme weather can cause damage to the screen
• theft – fortunately we haven’t come across this situation but I’m sure others around the world have experience this
• physical damage – vandalism is quite common in public areas continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Coincidently on my third trip back to Melbourne for a digital signage project rollout, I came across something that is too familiar to me.

Digital Signage gone wrong

Almost 9 out of 10 times when digital signage goes wrong through my observations, they are running Windows. There is no perfect system out there regardless what hardware, operating system, or configuration you may have, but according to Murphy’s Law, when something does go wrong how do control it? Does your software allow you to show an exception or alternate display?

Weirdly enough, these observations have now become second nature to me, whereby I notice all other people would just walk right past it. Not to mention the urge for me to take out my blackberry to snap it.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Its been a crazy past many weeks for us here at advertise me. In the past 2 months gone, I’ve been hopping between different cities every week for digital signage installations and meetings.

It is interesting to see where each city is at with the influence of digital signage, and I have noticed that the usage of its application differs between different regions across the country. However one of the disappointing things that I have picked up is the management of downtime for systems going offline. In less populated cities, when a screen goes offline it can be left like that for days without anybody coming to its attention. In more populated cities, the screen will be back live again by the afternoon, or the next day at latest.

I’ve got a couple more places to go before the end of this month, and that should leave me with an open, but not easy December where I can get my feet back on the ground and plan for the next year. By gosh its mid November already and Christmas is just around the corner!

Telstra building in Melbourne

Offline Screen in Perth Domestic Airport

Has anybody found any other trends with digital signage applications across different regions of your country?

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Several weeks ago I was in the Adelaide airport and I was surprised on how different the airport digital signage screens was being used and implemented there. This is what I saw:

Digital Signage At Adelaide Airport

If you look at the screen closely, you’ll notice that on the top right hand section there is a banner stating “Advertise Here…”. This is the first time I’ve seen an airport trying to promote advertising space which is great to see.

Digital Signage At Adelaide Airport

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

This seems to be a common dilemma amongst a number of LCD/Plasma decisions in a lot of tender projects and client requirements. Do clients really know what they are asking for, and how important is screen resolution for digital signage rollouts?

Let’s clear a few things up first.

Native resolution is the fixed number of pixels on the screen. For example, if your screen has a native resolution of 1280×720 pixels, this means your screen is physically made up of 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels high.

Maximum resolution is the highest resolution that the screen is capbable to display.

When an incoming signal to the screen does not match the native resolution, that signal must be converted (or scaled) to be displayed correctly on the screen. So lets use the same screen above, it has a native resolution of 1280×720. If an incoming signal is 1920×1080, the screen will scale this resolution down so that it can fit on the physical dimensions of 1280×720. Likewise if an incoming signal is 1024×768, then the screen will up-scale this resolution to fit 1280×720.

This process is possible because the screen has been programmed to recognise different input signals and to convert them as such. More often than not you will have a list of all the supported input signal resolution sizes, and the highest supported resolution is your Maximum resolution.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets talk about how important is screen resolution in digital signage?

In all my digital signage years until now, I have not had to focus on optimising the quality of the display in regards to picture sharpness and contrast ratio. The general technology of the Plasma/LCD screen makes up for this. What comes out of the digital signage player is just right for the display quality. The general conversation would be on how to most effectively capture consumers attention with the type of content and how it is designed.

However recently in Australia, digital broadcasting of TV networks have become more prominent and consumers are now well aware of terms like HDTV. This presence of high definition television has entered many homes and now the retail store fronts want to show this off also. Because consumers are already aware of such technology, there is an expectation on store owners to provide this service to them.

The question comes back to client requirements. Do most clients have the proper knowledge to determine what screens they want based on what they know or what they have been told? Is it important to match the right resolution of what is coming from the digital receiver into the digital signage player, and out to the screen?

We’d like to hear your point of view on this topic. There is no right or wrong answer, as each requirements are different, but we would like to hear your thoughts.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Techie, Featured Post

Here’s a picture I took of a takeaway store that clearly had a problem with their digital signage solution:

Digital Signage Screen Failures

But what’s interesting is that they at least had a backup plan – ie. static posters.

So, what do you do when your screen fails?

We previously talked about this in another post called “Why Digital Signage Can Work Against You”

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

If your digital signage solution is not implemented correctly it may work against you. Let me explain…

On the weekend whilst walking past a busy street I spotted across the road a real estate company with several LCD screens located at their front window. This is what I saw: (excuse the quality of the pictures but it was late at night and I was using my blackberry):

Digital Signage Screen not working

Digital Signage Faulty Screen

Digital Signage Faulty Screen

Now, in Australia quite a number of real estate agencies have moved away from using the traditional static posters for displaying their property listing and have implemented some form of a digital signage solution (visual display screens or touchscreen technology).

What I was most surprised about this particular installation and setup was that 1/3 of their screens was either turned off or had a fault with the LCD unit. Does this mean that 1/3 of the properties were not displayed? How would the property owner feel knowing that they are potentially losing interested buyers.

So what I have learnt from this situation is the following:

1. If there’s a hardware fault fix it immediately

2. Always have a backup plan – don’t be afraid to revert back to the old method of using traditional posters when required

3. Use a mixture of digital signage solutions and traditional posters

4. It looks unprofessional and embarrassing for both the digital signage solution provider and owner if the solution fails

5. You will definately lose customers if the problem is not rectified in a timely manner

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

For this weekend fun, we want to share with you a comic on digital signage. I think this one has been floating around for a couple of days and it’s from the Blondie comic series by Dean Young & John Marshall. Thanks guys, we’re glad to see that the digital signage industry is getting noticed and acknowledged by the comic industry. Also, thanks to Ronnie for sharing this.

Blondie comic - digital signage

Source of the image: http://www.jsonline.com/comics/32402404.html?feature_id=Blondie&feature_date=2009-08-25

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

This week we were approached by an individual who was interested in purchasing one of our domain names. We are not too sure what their intentions were but we thought that for this weekend fun post we would ask our readers how much do they think this domain name (www.digitalsignageblog.com) is worth. By the way… we are NOT selling this domain name.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Polls, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

It’s another weekend so you know what that means? It’s time for some weekend fun. For this weekend fun post, I thought I’d look around for a fun video to post. Generally, most of the content for digital signage is serious (depends on the environment) but I believe that sometimes it’s those funny ads that stand out and makes it go viral. So here’s a Youtube video clip of a McDonald’s funny advertisement:

What I found most interesting about this video from McDonalds is that it doesn’t matter which language the video is in, as long as it portrays the intended message to the audience then in my eyes it’s definitely a sure winner!

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Video

This will be nice and short. If you want to follow our latest blog entries, forums, comments, and basically all our latest updates, then follow us on twitter.

You can follow us on twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/advertisemeAU

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News

It’s another weekend and for this particular post we’re going to look at a fun and innovative digital signage solution in Taoyuan Airport. Basically, as you’re waling down the duty free alley in the Taoyuan airport Terminal 2, you will notice that an advertisement follows you. I’m not sure whether the ads as targeted specifically based on the gender or characteristics of the person walking past but do you find this too intrusive? Have a look at the video:

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Polls, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

For those of you that didn’t know, we have provided you the facility to use the Google translator to translate these blog posts in different languages. At the moment, you can translate these posts in German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Chinese Traditional. So no matter what language you speak, click on the flag at the top right hand column and Google will translate the post for you.

Happy reading… in whatever language you read.

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Here’s some of the translations (don’t blame us if it doesn’t make sense):

German

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

We all knew this was going to happen and it eventually did. Coca-cola has released digital signage vending machines which are interactive. Here’s a video to show you what we mean:

And here’s a video of someone actually using the vending machine… I like it how he had to press the right arrow several times before it scrolled to the right and it also has the Pay Pass payment option (I haven’t really seen this been used in Australia):

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video

It’s the weekend and thought I’d share an exciting and fun video clip – you’ll be also surprised as well.

We previously talked about how the iPhone can be used as a digital signage player (there’s already a few companies out there who have created an application on the iPhone) but now how would you like to be served by a humanoid robot with an iPhone attached to it’s head? Watch the funky video and we’ll discuss later:

In the examples in the video, the humanoid robot with the iPhone attached as it’s head, can be used to:

• wake you up – morning!!! maybe even give you a hug or a slap
• entertain – it’s a dance machine…shake it’s robo booty
• teach it new tricks and moves – next thing you know it will start imitating your moves
• and if you’re nice to it… it might even make you a coffee (just kidding – ummmm may be it is possible)

BUT more importantly it can interact with YOU – think about it from a sales and marketing perspective and you’ll start realising that this robot can be used to attract more customers into your store and even possibly serve it’s customers (stick your own photo image as it’s head ). The screen itself can be used even to promote sales, products and specials whilst it’s dancing around entertaining it’s customers (yes it’s  digital signage after all). And yes…. I’ve said it before… the possibilities seem to be endless with the future of mobile phones as digital signage players.

So that’s our weekend fun for this week and we all hope you’re having a great weekend.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video, Digital Signage Ideas, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Wirespring is currently running an interesting survey called: How much should digital signage cost and I’ve just completed it. The survey basically looks at how much different digital signage hardware and services cost – now I assumed that the survey was in US$ and not local AU$.

Bill Gerba explains in his post that participating in this survey is worthwhile because:

1.  demand-driven pricing estimate is a great way to check the accuracy of all of the supply-driven pricing estimates out there.

2. it’s easier than voting with your wallet: by choosing the fair-value price for each item, you get to (anonymously) tell everybody who receives the survey data what’s on your mind.

So let’s get to it, complete the survey here. I’m very interested to see what the results are but we’ll have to wait until the end of August when the survey ends.

How much should digital signage cost?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News

At 8 stories above the ground, APN Outdoor’s 200m long billboard sets the country’s largest billboard at the Sydney International Airport.

The billboard is made up of two panels each over 100m long and just over 5m high. International airline V Australia is the first to take up the billboard located atop the Terminal 1 car park with their “fly girls” campaign exclusively for 12 months.

“V Australia will be noticed by anyone parking, driving or flying anywhere in the vicinity of the International Airport. Apart from being the largest site in the country, it also has a very high and consistent level of guaranteed traffic and visibility” – Paul McBeth, General Manager of marketing at APN Outdoor.

Source: http://www.bandt.com.au/news/75/0C062875.asp

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info