- Digital Retailing Expo, held in Chicago May 18-19, was by all accounts a landmark event. The Expo featured more than 81 exhibitors utilizing nearly 25,000 net square feet of exhibit space and 1,517 attendees from all over the world, up over 230 percent over 2004. The Educational Summit, comprising 12 courses and featuring 34 speakers, was attended by more than 400 participants.
- The in-depth Educational Summit offered three separate tracks focusing on Retail Digital Signage. These included Retail Digital Signage Marketing, an Introduction to Retail Digital Signage and Advanced Retail Digital Signage Topics. Marketing courses included Integrating Retail Digital Signage into the Marketing Mix, Content Creation and Management, How Retail Digital Signage Impacts Brands, and How Advertising and Marketing Agencies Interface with Retail Digital Signage Programs. The Introductory tract featured an Introduction to Retail Digital Signage, Effectiveness and Potential for Retail Digital Signage, International Developments, and a course on Choosing the Right Technology for an Effective Deployment. Advanced Topics included Retail Digital Signage 2015: Visions of the Future, Financing Models that Work, Measurement and Impact Analysis, and a Case Study detailing the Digital Signage Deployment by the U.S. Postal Service.
- The speaker panel was equally outstanding. Speakers represented companies including Advance Auto Parts, Asda, Bank of America, Bell Canada, Bank of Montreal, Circle K Stores, CompUSA, Nike, Safeway, Tesco, Unilever, the U.S. Postal Service, Walt Disney and Wrigley. Educators from Indiana University, Northwestern University and Southern Methodist University presented as well. In addition, speakers representing major consulting firms including Accenture, ActiveLight, Draft, IBM, Loeb Associates, Market Forward, Millward Brown, Retail Marketing Services, Scala, The Store and United Service Source addressed a variety of topics.
- Another major event was the introduction of the Working Paper "Establishing Retail Digital Signage as a New Medium and Measuring Its Effectiveness." This is the first research publication of its kind which establishes that Retail Digital Signage can impact consumers in-store. The Paper provides extensive insights into how retail digital signage systems influence consumer shopping behavior, and details the measurement of its impact upon sales to assist retailers and consumer product manufactures in determining whether to allocate promotional dollars to this new medium.
- This Working Paper, as well as others pertaining to Retail Digital Signage can be purchased from PRI by visiting the website at www.plattretailinstitute.org/research4sale.html.
