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VOL 10 ISSUE 11 2021
10 Revolutionizing
Digital Era Digital Signage: The Change that We Need Today
Redefining Advertising Changing the Way Businesses Advertise
Jarad King Co-Founder and CEO
Protective Enclosures Company
Editor’s Desk Through the Screens to the People
T
o see the adaptation of digital technology in the signage field at such a rapid pace is astonishing. I wonder how many more years it will take for digitalization to overtake the traditional methods completely. Though the traditional ways created curiosity about the products it promoted, on the flip side, digital signage takes the straightforward approach to attract potential customers through various digital mediums. I remember this full-page ad of an ink brand with a blank white page, one huge ink drop, and two splatters below it, and I was mind blown. Whereas today, I see an ad for a product I desire, I click the link, and in mere few minutes, I have already bought the product and now waiting for its arrival. Needless to say, digital signage has revolutionized the traditional marketing and advertising methods, and most importantly, it delivers. Digital signage has vast applications in various sectors from healthcare to food outlets, education to sports, transportation to retail. Digital signage is spreading its root in its adjacent industries by offering customizable brand content, eye-catching visuals, and analytics and reports that help clients plan their moves ahead of time. If you have visited any food outlets, you’ll see the digital signage all over in the timely scrolling food menus, exciting offers, interactive drive-thru kiosk, new arrivals, and promotions. These signages not only make the space lively but also help the customers to have visual delight while waiting for their food to be served. Similarly, digital signages can be found occupying the busiest streets, promoting and spreading awareness about the current issues. In a sports stadium, digital signage is spread across
to publicize the sponsors, event managers, and investors from various major brands. The future where digital signage will inhabit us is near, and embracing it is the best move to stay ahead of the curve, which is what the companies featured in this edition of “The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage” imply. From offering services that enhance the brand’s customer experience to providing all-in-one platform software integrated with all the signages for easy access and control, these companies are rooting themselves in the industry to create the new wave of transformation. Featuring on the cover story is one of the leading US-based manufacturers of lightweight, costeffective TV, and digital signage enclosures, Protective Enclosures Company (PEC). PEC has become a household name with an exceptional product line and is changing the game with its various tactics and innovative solutions. Dive into the plethora of such inspiring entrepreneurial journeys that impact the digital signage space and gain insights about the industry through the CxO standpoints of the leading experts. While flipping through the pages, make sure to go through the articles written by our in-house editorial team. Let us begin!
Aditya Gaikar aditya.gaikar@insightssuccess.com
CONTENTS Cover Story
08 Protective
Enclosures Company
Articles
One of the 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage
00 22 00 38
Digtial Era Digital Signage: The Change that We Need Today
Redefining Advertising Changing the Way Businesses Advertise
18
Corum Digital
26
IAdea
32 40
A Worldwide Leader in the Digital Signage Industry
Enabling Organizations to Build the Most Effective Workspace
Reflect Systems, Inc. Creating Meaningful Connections Between Brands and People
Yodeck Offering Professional Digital Signage for Everyone at an Unbeatable Price
Editor-in-Chief Hitesh Dhamani Managing Editor Anish Miller
Executive Editor Aditya Gaikar
Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Sharad Chitalkar
Visualizer
Art & Design Director
Associate Designer
David King
Priyanka Rajage
Shubham Dali
Co-designer Kartik Balapurkar
Senior Sales Manager
Business Development Manager
Kshitij S
Peter Collins
Marketing Manager
Sales Executives
John Matthew
David, Martin, Anup
Technical Head
Business Development Executives
Jacob Smile
Steve, Joe, Maneesh
Technical Specialist Aditya
Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar
Research Analyst Frank Adams
Database Management Stella Andrew
Circulation Manager Robert Brown
Technology Consultant David Stokes
sales@insightssuccess.com October, 2021
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10 T h e
Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing
Company Name
Featured Person
Brief
BrightSign brightsign.biz
Jeff Hastings CEO
BrightSign is the global market leader in digital signage media players.
Citadel citadelcenter.net
Michele Ahlman Founder & CEO
Citadel is the cloud based digital signage software suite built to empower your brand, engage your customers….and sell more stuff.
Corum Digital Corporation corumdigital.com
Adam Snider Director of Sales & Marketing
Corum Digital Corporation is a technology company that focuses on creating innovative, highly reliable and easy-to-use digital technologies.
Doohly dooh.ly
Sean Law Co-founder
Doohly is a complete and affordable end-to-end SaaS advertising ecosystem for digital out-of-home.
IAdea iadea.com
John C. Wang Founder & CEO
IAdea is dedicated to the development of cutting-edge enterprise-grade Room Booking Panels, Kiosks and Signage Displays.
NovelVox novelvox.com
Amit Gandhi CEO
NovelVox is a leader and pioneer in providing industry-specific contact center agent desktop and wallboard.
Protective Enclosures Company LLC protectiveenclosures.com
Jarad King Co-Founder and CEO
Protective Enclosures Company is manufacturer of a affordable, lightweight, weatherproof and secure protective enclosures for TVs, flat panel displays and digital signage.
Reflect Systems, Inc. reflectsystems.com
Lee Summers CEO
Reflect Systems is expert in developing place-based digital media programs that create meaningful connections between brands and people.
Synect synectmedia.com
Yahav Ran Founder, CEO
Synect creates next-generation content and systems for digital signage and video walls.
Yodeck yodeck.com
Vangelis Mihalopoulos Co-founder & CEO
Yodeck is a screen-management platform, that allows you to power your screen with any type of content or widgets and instantly amaze your target viewers.
One of the 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage
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PEC is the leading US manufacturer of residential and commercial outdoor TV and digital signage enclosures.
Jarad King Co-Founder and CEO
Protec ve Enclosures Company, LLC
PEC Has You and Your TV or Display Covered
But all great influencers have an origin story. Protective Enclosures Company was born when Jarad King and Justin King wanted to put TVs on their patios, but could not find reasonable solutions. From ineffective grill covers to astronomically expensive outdoor TVs, the options were less than ideal. They were determined to develop a better alternative so they started working on a weatherproof, sturdy, secure, and economical outdoor TV option.
PEC stands committed to providing the most affordable and versatile protective enclosures in the industry.
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Picture the bright colors and vivid imagery of digital signage found in the futuristic scenes of movies like Back to the Future. Compelling visuals flash before your eyes and information is at your finger tips. It’s mind-blowing how close we are today to that reality... perhaps we’re already mostly there. Beautiful, exciting, eye-catching, and even interactive digital signage is popping up across the globe at shopping malls, theme parks, restaurants, and more. It was once the future and now the future is today. Industries are investing quickly in indoor and outdoor digital signage as studies confirm the effectiveness of it. Protective Enclosures Company is one of the leaders in the charge of bringing the future to life today through digital signage.
lightweight, cost-effective TV and digital signage enclosures. Today, PEC has become a household name in the US. The company is not only saving consumers and businesses money up front; it’s also offering long-term savings.
As a result, Protective Enclosures Company (PEC) was created. After two years of troubleshooting, researching, and engineering, they created The TV Shield®, a weatherproof TV enclosure that enabled viewers to watch, protect, and secure nearly any TV in almost any environment.
Inspired by the game-changing impacts of PEC, Insights Success interviewed PEC Co-Founder and CEO, Jarad King, to learn more about the company and their enclosures that are revolutionizing the consumer and commercial electronics market.
Since then, PEC has expanded its product line and brand portfolio to become the leading US-based manufacturer of
Below are highlights from the interview with Jarad King (PEC CEO and Co-founder):
Give us a brief overview of your company, its mission, and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the Consumer Electronics and Commercial Signage industries. We launched PEC in 2009 with our original product, which was The TV Shield composite line of enclosures with protection for 19” up to 60” displays. We now manufacture multiple branded product lines, including our patented The TV Shield ®, The Display Shield ®, The TV Shield PRO ®, The TV Shield PRO Portrait ® and The TV Shield PRO Lite ® TV and display enclosures which offer protection for up to 86” displays. We have also expanded our offerings with anti-ligature and touch screen products, enabling us to enter multiple niche markets. PEC’s products are popular with residential, professional, and commercial customers throughout the world. PEC stands committed to providing the most user friendly, affordable, versatile, and highly engineered protective enclosures in the industry. PEC is fueled by a desire to create US-based jobs and manufacture the highest quality products. The affordability and quality of our products and our deep dedication to customer service set us apart.
From top to bottom, the PEC team is committed to the research and development of solutions-based products to protect equipment in outdoor residential installations and harsh or extreme indoor and outdoor commercial environments. Customers trust PEC’s proprietary patented enclosures for installation in residential applications as well as arenas, stadiums, theme parks, restaurants, bars, airports, healthcare facilities, hotels, schools, training facilities, government buildings, retail environments, institutions, food processing facilities, a wide variety of manufacturing plants, and multiple other vertical commercial markets. As of 2021, our enclosures protect TVs, digital displays, and digital signage in over 31,000 locations in 44 countries. Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need of your customers. Thorough consideration is put into every product we develop. We have designed a range of TV and display enclosures that can handle various environments. Some customers need tamper or theft defense while others need to protect TVs or displays from hot or cold temperatures, rain, pool splashes, snow, moisture, dust, bugs, flying objects, and more. Some people need TV or display protection
PEC’s team is committed to the research and development of solutions-based products to protect your equipment from harsh or extreme environments.
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indoors and others outdoors. Enclosures are also needed in a variety of sizes. PEC has diligently worked over the years to meet all these needs and more as they arise. Our top-of-the-line offerings include The TV Shield ®, The Display Shield ®, The TV Shield PRO ®, The TV Shield PRO Portrait ®, and The TV Shield PRO Lite ® TV and display enclosures. We have also expanded our offerings with anti-ligature and touch screen products. From digital signage to menu boards, scoreboards, and more, these enclosures fill various purposes. From engineering and attention to detail to consistent innovation, we work hard to ensure our products are of the highest quality built with industry-leading materials and designs at the best value. Product Examples: • The TV Shield is used in the residential market to protect any off the shelf TV from hot and cold temperatures, rain, pool splashes, moisture, flying objects and impact, bugs, tampering, theft, and more. • The Display Shield and The TV Shield PRO are great for outdoor applications and indoor wet or harsh environments. • The TV Shield PRO Lite offers great security against tampering and breakage in indoor applications. With The
TV Shield PRO Lite, we also designed an anti-ligature accessory that attaches to this product and creates an impenetrable enclosure that abides by ligature resistant requirements. What makes your company a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors? We are truly humbled and appreciative to be the leading producer of outdoor TV enclosures. Customers turn to us because we offer excellence in quality, affordability, and customer service. Having been in business for over a decade and being trusted by homeowners and businesses across the globe, clients know they can trust us. Our clients appreciate free shipping, our A+ BBB rating, and great savings, sometimes thousands of dollars in savings depending on how many enclosures are needed. We offer the most diverse product lines with our five different brands and offer superior products from fit, function, and aesthetics standpoints. Our thought that goes into our engineering process is completely different. We focus on aesthetics, but we also focus heavily on ease of installation and use in the field for commercial customers.
At PEC, we use high-end parts and include things like custom-built aluminum commercial-grade power supplies (instead of cheap plastic extension cords), gas shock systems, and full-motion interior mounts. One example of our material and design advantage is that The TV Shield shatterproof front panel is UV stabilized polycarbonate rather than alternatives like safety glass. “A well-made polycarbonate enclosure easily steps up to the challenges of withstanding wind, water, heat, and more to protect the sensitive components within” (Polycarbonate Enclosures vs ABS Enclosures by Polycase). Polycarbonate costs significantly more but offers extreme impact resistance and safety for our customers and their patrons, especially over products like safety glass that some of our competitors use. And The TV Shield back-housing is made of HMWPE, which is one of the best materials on the market for UV resistance. On the other hand, competitors use materials like ABS, which is known to have poor UV resistance and is not considered nearly as durable or reliable for outdoor applications (Polycarbonate Enclosures vs ABS Enclosures by Polycase). HMWPE also has a twenty-plus year lifespan in outdoor direct sun environments over ABS products. Describe the values that drive your organization. P= People: Treat every person, including customers, coworkers, employees, and others, as you would want to be treated, in every situation, every day. E= Efficient: Get the customer what they need quickly. Work fast but check your work. Stay lean to always ensure profitability. C= Continue: Continue innovating. Continue solving customer issues. Continue learning. Continue growing. Continue to remember where we came from. As a company in digital signage, what advanced technologies are you leveraging to make your services more productive and approachable? We don’t fall into a service category per se. PEC manufacturers and sells products that are used within the digital signage industry. Some of the advanced technologies we use include the following: • IR touch frame technologies • Sealing and filtering technologies • Thermostatically controlled cooling and heating technologies • PEC products are produced with state-of-the-art
thermoforming, CNC, metal laser cutting and forming, and welding machines • PEC was humbled to have been listed by BigCommerce as one of the 19 Most Technically Innovative Ecommerce Brands of 2019 as a result of our e-commerce and product innovation • We research resources and nurture partnerships with other technology and software companies to be sure our products accommodate the latest technologies (such as software for digital signage or devices like Roku and Apple TV for Tvs) In your opinion, what could be the future of The TV Shield market? And how are you strategizing your company’s operations for that future? Residential outdoor living space investment, as well as indoor and outdoor digital signage implementation, are predicted to grow at a rapid pace between now and 2030. Our products fall squarely into these markets, and we provide superior products at a significantly lower cost than most options available. On top of this, we also provide things like unparalleled tampering, breakage, and theft protection that our competitors in the all-in-one outdoor TV market can’t compete with. Installation of our products in some of our niche markets has been taking off better than ever over the last 18 months. These are just some of the reasons that we are predicting significant growth over the next many years.
At PEC, we constantly innovate in our category, but we are also always refining our current products to make them better, smarter, and easier to use. In the next nine to twelve months, we will be launching a completely new product line directed mainly towards the consumer market. This product will be more affordable than our current lines, thus opening a whole new buyer at a different price point. We have multiple other products on the horizon that will provide solutions for current and future customers but will stay in our lane of product categories. Other strategies we will continue or be implementing are staying on the cutting edge of new marketing technologies and continuing to lean heavily on online marketing. We are in the process of further optimizing our multiple ecommerce channels for UX and increases in conversions after a full redesign in 2020. The TV Shield and The Display Shield line of products recently underwent a complete overhaul of the aesthetics, functionality, and size ranges offered. We will continue to capitalize on this with increased awareness to our current customers through marketing efforts and the implementation of new technologies in our email marketing systems. In what ways have you or your company contributed to the community?
At Protective Enclosures Company, we are passionate about helping others in our community and outside of our community. When it comes to giving back, we don’t focus on one organization, disease, or group of people. We regularly give and get involved with charities like Runway to Hope which is a local charity that helps families of children with pediatric cancer. We also recently offered a sponsorship for an organization called Touched by Type 1 that deals with diabetes. PEC regularly gives to Parkinson’s organizations. My mother is currently battling this horrible disease, and even if we can make a small contribution to organizations that are trying to find cures and ways to help affected people, we do. On a regular basis, we speak to parents and caregivers of children and adults with autism and other disabilities. They are typically looking for a product to protect a TV so their loved ones can have one in their home. They sometimes ask for info and sometimes ask if we have a discount or a scratch and dent unit, etc. We have given many enclosures to people in need like this when we are able to, and it touches our hearts every time to provide that individual and family with a break for once. In 2019, we created a new Christmas tradition at PEC that gets our whole team involved in giving back. We all go together to a local retail store, and each person is provided
with a budget by the company. We fill our carts with toys like lightsabers, board games, barbies, squirt guns, and other similar choices that bring us back to remembering what we would have loved as a kid. We then donate those toys to a local charity for children in need. This is something my team and I really enjoy. We hope to continue being involved in all these things, and more, for years and years to come. What are your future aspirations? Where do you see your company in the next five years? In the short term, we are very focused on staying on top of the ever-changing supply chain issues to ensure we can continue to produce products and fulfill orders in a timely manner. Along with this, we are continuing to be transparent and honest with our customers about product delays, shipping delays, and labor issues we are facing. At PEC, we aspire to always offer first-class customer service, which is more challenging than ever. As we work through the current supply and labor issues, we are still focusing on product development, marketing strategy, improved web presence and conversion, and implementing new processes that can improve customer service and retention. Over the next five years, we plan to launch multiple new products in the consumer and commercial marketplaces. We will position these products to increase our market share not only on the consumer side but also in many of the vertical commercial markets that we sell into today. At PEC, we will continue to improve margins and profitability while having double-digit growth each year over the next five years. Giving back to the community and people will also continue to be a top priority for PEC. We hope to continue to receive wonderful stories from the folks we were able to help as we have in the past.
A Worldwide Leader in the Digital Signage Industry
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vidently, digital signage has transformed the way businesses interact with their customers. Many companies have built novel solutions to help companies to communicate with their audience. What Corum Digital brings to the table is its 35 years of experience and ingenious innovation coupled with an insatiable passion for technology and visual communications. Corum Digital inspires their customers to become more effective communicators, so they can engage, educate and empower their audiences, by developing and supporting digital signage technology. We at Insights Success got into conversation with Adam Snider, the Director of Sales & Marketing of Corum
Adam Snider
Director of Sales & Marketing Corum Digital Corporation
18 | October 2021
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The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage
Digital, to know more about the company and how it is helping the market and the Digital Signage industry as a whole. Below are the highlights of the interview:
right solutions that make the right impact. The innovative solutions we're able to provide are thanks to Corum Digital's cloud-based CMS (Content Management Software). So, what we offer are top-notch experiences and solutions for our customer's unique needs.
Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need of your customers. "Top-notch offerings" is so subjective. What sets us apart is that we aren't interested in selling a screen or software licenses; we build solutions to support our clients. Our selfdeveloped "THINK process" drives consultative discussions about our clients' desired audience, function, and outcome. This intentional thinking is how we're able to provide the
As software developers, our platforms have unique capabilities that we evolve and improve on the back end based on our clients' unique needs and feedback. The front end of our easy-to-use platforms allows for the creation of customizable, vibrant, exciting, and brand-supporting content. Paired with the right digital signage hardware, our solutions engage, educate and empower our clients' audiences.
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What makes your company a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors? Clients come to us with stories about experiences with other companies, telling us about the challenges they faced when trying to discuss their unique needs with representatives or when receiving quotes that didn't align with their vision and needs.
Describe the values that drive your organization. We are focused on solutions rather than sales. To quote Simon Sinek, who is a huge source of inspiration for the way we operate our company: "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." Our mission to help our clients become better communicators runs through every vein of our company.
Each team member at Corum Digital works as a trusted consultant for our clients to achieve their communication visions by curating solutions that meet all functional and budgetary needs. Our consultative approach and focus on desired outcomes, rather than simply selling display units, is the reason why our clients choose us.
From our program developers to our sales team, every person at Corum is dedicated to creating solutions that connect our clients with their audiences in a meaningful and impactful way. Our clients engage, educate and empower people all over the world using our digital signage solutions, and it's a privilege that we don't take for granted.
From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the Digital Signage sector and the related market? One of the positives that resulted from the pandemic has been innovation across every industry. Everyone's needs and the way they communicate changed overnight. Companies that could adapt to support these changes needed to do so quickly. A more obvious consideration as a result of the pandemic has been budgets. Innovative solutions became more necessary, while budgets became more constrained.
In your opinion, what could be the future of the Digital Signage market post the COVID19 pandemic? And how are you strategizing your company's operations for that future? In response to the pandemic, Corum Digital launched into action to source and develop our Safety-Line Technologies. Our software development team focused to create interactive touchless technology to replace touch digital signage. We wanted to create solutions that ensured safety even amid lockdowns for those who were at risk, either at work or in public.
At Corum, for example, we worked with customers to put their software licenses on hold at vacant offices, and we developed our Corum Advantage Program to help customers who needed the technology quickly. This program allowed us to provide our clients with a financing tool to spread out their investment over time, providing them breathing room and better cash flow.
Corum Digital will only continue to evolve and adapt as the world does, and we look forward to continuing to create and provide solutions that help clients communicate amidst any challenges they might face as a result of the pandemic and beyond.
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In what ways have you or your company contributed to the community?
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Our CEO, Amedeo Tarzia, is an avid community member and believes in the responsibility of businesses to give back. Corum Digital's community involvement has included volunteering at The Vaughan Food Bank and donating school supplies and backpacks with the Start2Finish Backpack Program. Many of our contributions to the community were through in-person volunteering, which have been cancelled during the pandemic. While our team loves in-person volunteering and is eager to be able to participate in it again, we have continued investing in our customers by supporting local businesses with orders for team lunches and events. What are your future aspirations? Where do you see your company in the next five years? Our future aspirations align with inspiring our customers to become more effective communicators by engaging, educating, and empowering their audience. Innovation is at the heart of our business, so we will be continuously investing in advancing our technology to meet the needs of our user customers. Interactive touchless technology and analytics is one area we believe will be a large part of how we will be helping our customers well into the future.
“We inspire communication so you can effectively engage, educate and empower your audience.” www.insightssuccess.com
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Digital Era
22 | October 2021
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Digital Signage : The Change that We Need Today
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e as humans are continuously evolving in the way we live and work. Currently, we are evolving with technology and innovation all around us, improving the quality of our work in our day-today lives. Digital Signage is the result of one such wide range of technological innovations that serve the need of businesses, schools, or entertainment. Its solutions are vast; some of them are digital kiosks, smart booking systems, and smart signage. These systems are simple, ready-toinstalled, and are a perfect fit for today’s digital working environment. You might have already come across digital signage in the public space, in advertising, retail, weather forecasts, smart traffic signs, as it comes with many more features. Safe and Reliable Technology
Since the havoc of the pandemic, the world has shifted towards a touch-free environment. Touchless tech models such as smart QR codes or card readers have brought a drastic change in human’s lives. Thanks to the Digital Signage companies, businesses and people are returning to normal life, or the ‘new normal’. This somehow brought back the companies' confidence, as it helps them use touchless tools like – lifts, taps, wifi-enabled devices, and sensors while keeping the employees' health and working in a safe environment. There are many things that digital signage has replaced with human touch reducing low-touch or touchless workings. In other words, the pandemic has been a beauty in disguise for the digital signage industry. It has risen to many interactive touchless technologies that can replace a human touch. The industry showed that the world needs its solutions in the pandemic situation and beyond. Helping Businesses Thrive and Not Just Survive Companies in the digital signage industry have empowered businesses to evolve and adapt and create products to advertise in a creative way.
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The industry is set to become a big part of the business world. It has helped other businesses to get back on the business workings. It has transformed the way businesses operate, creating a healthy working environment for the benefit of everyone. Secondly, with the increasing population, it also comes quite naturally to maximize the reach with the growing needs. Digital signage solutions have made that possible for businesses. The need of the hour is to be smart in our workplaces by implementing digital signage solutions and improving the quality of working productivity. Door to Transformation While digital needs are growing each day – digital signage companies are ready with any challenges, no matter the size of any business. Today, each business is heading towards digitalization, and thus, adopting digital signage solutions is not just an option anymore but a necessity. The digital signage solutions even have the capability to bring products to life; that’s the quality content it offers. They also serve as a creative medium for businesses to communicate with their target audience, with the best use of images and videos in an innovative way. The Hopeful Future If there has to be another word for ‘improvement in businesses’ it has to be ‘digital signage’. The way digital signage companies provide solutions creates the right impact on the business. We are excited, what more digital signage has got along with its creativity. Although it has a long way to go, but Digital Signage is here to stay and will be one of the biggest transformations in the technological world. It will bring down the traditional walls of marketing and advertising and the business as a whole.
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IAdea
Enabling Organizations to Build the Most Effective Workspace
I
n today’s digitized world, organizations, shared workspace providers, and educational institutions must integrate digital signage into their strategic planning. It allows them to better engage with their employees, students, and customers to ensure productivity and an extraordinary experience for all involved. Aiming to provide exceptional customer service worldwide, IAdea has created one of the industry’s largest partner ecosystems around open standards across a wide variety of business markets including IWMS and software providers. IAdea has been a recognized pioneer in the global digital signage market since 2000. It creates innovative, enterprise-grade digital signage solutions that aid organizations in their digital transformation into smart workplaces. John C. Wang is the Founder and CEO of IAdea, who takes leading efforts to drive the development and standardization of digital out-of-home technologies. We at Insights Success, in our endeavor to find ‘The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage, 2021’, came across IAdea. We talked with John to understand how IAdea has proven itself a highly reliable and secure digital signage hardware provider for over two decades. Below are the highlights of the interview: Give us a brief overview of your company, its mission, and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the Digital Signage industry. IAdea has been creating digital signage solutions for more than 20 years. We have long been cultivating a vibrant
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ecosystem of world-leading partners that has allowed us to offer complete and comprehensive products. The exceptional growth of the IoT market has allowed IAdea smart signage products to rapidly grow their capabilities in line with the developing industry. Our focus has been to continuously evolve our technologies and services to turbocharge productivity, ultimately improving the quality and efficiency of the working environments in our daily lives. Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need of your customers. IAdea’s “smart workplace solutions” offer a wealth of benefits to businesses. We have created a diverse range of intelligent and flexible solutions that cater to a wide range of space management needs, whether it’s in the office, a business center, or school, library, entertainment area or other spaces — the potential applications are vast, often more than people realize! Our products include smart room booking panels, desk booking systems, smart signage and digital kiosks. These are complete, ready-to-go systems that can be quickly deployed. IAdea products are carefully designed with an aesthetic that fits naturally into a professional environment, and we try to go the extra mile to understand and support customers’ needs, educate them on the options, and ensure their deployment is successful. IAdea helps businesses do more with less by maximizing the use of their existing space while also allowing them to increase the positivity of the office experience with
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The 10 Most Innova ve Companies Revolu onizing Digital Signage
John C. Wang Founder & CEO
IAdea
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“
Our partnership with IAdea allows us to bring more than a market-leading space scheduling and planning solution to our customers. The combined power of the EMS scheduling engine and the IAdea digital communication system creates an end-to-end solution that makes space utilization and management an asset rather than a challenge.
seamless, hassle-free solutions that staff use every day. This can include room booking panels and management systems that increase the efficiency of meeting rooms and better use of office space through desk booking solutions, which can better support a flexible workforce. What makes your company a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors? Customers prefer IAdea because we provide enterprisegrade solutions that meet all key requirements in design, features, durability, security and manageability. Using consumer-grade hardware doesn’t offer the same level of security and bespoke application features — such as certified HID card readers, cameras, and security hardware, all of which we supply built-in and ready to go — as well as the durability for everyday use in public spaces. Our complete solutions include pre-installed software and partnerships that are highly flexible to meet a variety of environments and deployments. Extending beyond that, our remote management solution IAdeaCare enables streamlined deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting of all our devices.
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“
Robert Abdul, Senior Vice President, Industry Strategy, Accruent
From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the Digital Signage sector and the related market? Before the COVID-19 pandemic, digital signage was often considered a “nice to have”; used in non-essential, salesorientated tasks to showcase advertisements and promotions. Since then, the world has rapidly shifted to a ‘touch-free environment, with companies readjusting how they use their office space to accommodate new working models. Customers sought us out because IAdea solutions already enable low-touch or touch-free environments with HID card readers and QR code or smartphone check-ins. Businesses are striving to bring people back to the office, which IAdea is also accommodating. To ensure confidence in their working environment, temperature screening stations, visitor management kiosks, and wayfinding signs reduce the need for face-to-face interactions, while digital signage can be easily arranged to showcase health alerts alongside company notices, wayfinding, etc., all working together to keep the workplace safe.
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Describe the values that drive your organization. Our mission is to provide comprehensive products and services that deliver smart workplaces and turbocharge productivity. We are committed to improving the quality of the working environments in our daily lives, and we also aim to continuously improve office sustainability by reducing energy waste when spaces are not in use and helping companies effectively optimize their physical footprint to minimize costs. In your opinion, what could be the future of the Digital Signage market post the COVID-19 pandemic? And how are you strategizing your company’s operations for that future? In that respect, it’s already here: organizations rapidly realize the value of intelligent environments, in part through digital signage, to create workplaces that are safe and flexible enough to support and monitor hybrid working systems. A trend of distributed teams and workplaces can be accommodated with digital booking systems and connected check-in facilities. Office management can ensure rooms and spaces are sterilized between uses, overcrowding is avoided, and selfservice is available where possible. These will remain for the foreseeable future because they improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce.
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In what ways have you or your company contributed to the community? Easy to use and helpful for businesses and their staff, IAdea enables working environments that improve the wellbeing of those that use them. We help businesses get back on track in the post-pandemic world, giving their workforce the confidence to come back to the office. Our continuing investment in new technologies will help businesses transform the way they operate while also creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and healthy working environment for the benefit of everybody. What are your future aspirations? Where do you see your company in the next five years? IAdea aspires to be the technology partner for businesses to help improve their resilience and efficiency so they can continue to maximize the effectiveness of their working environment. In that regard, we will continue to build on our successes and remain focused on growing the recognition and capabilities of what smart workplaces can offer, as well as continuing to widen the scope of integration with our partners so IAdea solutions can find every wider application. We are always keen listeners, and our strength lies in our proactive attitude to the needs of customers. This means continuing to create breakthrough technologies that address the evolving needs of our business partners as they communicate them to us.
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Lee Summers
CEO Reflect Systems, Inc.
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The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage
Creating Meaningful Connections Between Brands and People
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odernization has brought transformative changes in the marketing and advertising space. With the help of digital signage, companies can achieve much more in significantly less time. Reflect Systems, Inc. is a digital signage company that helps users create and manage digital experiences that keep people engaged and returning for more. Demonstrating how Reflect can relieve the retail pain points is Lee Summers, the CEO. His understanding of the industry has helped the company achieve new and bold feats as Reflect has transformed and innovated digital signage under his leadership. In our endeavor to find "The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage," we at Insights Success came across Reflect Systems Inc. We talked with Lee to understand how Reflect has delivered proven increases in promoted product sales and enhanced customer experiences. Below are the highlights of the interview: Give us a brief overview of your company, its mission, and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the Digital Signage industry. Our purpose at Reflect, the reason we exist, is to enhance the everyday moments for our customers and their customers, guests and employees. We do this by bringing together the very best people, design and technology to deliver superior digital signage. For more than 20 years, Reflect has helped some of the most successful brands in
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North America leverage digital signage to achieve meaningful business objectives in industries such as retail, entertainment, healthcare, banking and digital out-of-home advertising, as well as in a variety of corporate communications environments. Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need of your customers. While Reflect provides a comprehensive suite of digital signage software, hardware, deployment, development and creative services, the centerpiece of our offering is the ReflectView™ digital signage platform. ReflectView is the leading solution to offer true scalability for place-based digital media and interactive applications. It is the trusted platform used by leading companies to power over 400,000 active digital displays. ReflectView can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. ReflectView allows businesses to control the specific content, messaging, and interactivity used in each location at any given time, using business rules and flexible customization. ReflectViewpowered digital media networks are controlled from a centralized, scalable system that requires minimal oversight and integrates seamlessly with existing operations. It efficiently distributes digital content to multiple digital endpoints, allowing companies to target a wide variety of business applications, locations and audiences. Another key component of our software suite is Reflect AdLogic™. Place-based digital media networks, owned and third-party, are commonly used to generate revenue through
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advertising sales and the presentation of paid brands or promotional messaging by partners or sponsors. Reflect’s patented AdLogic platform is an algorithmic engine disrupting the way that advertising operates on digital signage networks by replacing manual processes with automation for greater efficiency and flexibility. The power of the platform lies in automation and accuracy. AdLogic allows clients to set campaign objectives based on the frequency of plays and audience impression targets. Just import the media, define campaign objectives, and Reflect AdLogic handles the rest. Campaign status and progress toward goals are tracked in real-time. Reflect AdLogic shows how each campaign and ad unit is doing. It is a total game-changer for digital media deployment. Our latest software offering is Reflect Xperience. Managing a digital signage network can be a complex and timeconsuming activity, but the need to provide access to schedule content specific to a given location is becoming an increasingly important marketing objective. Unfortunately, many enterprise solutions are built for centralized command and control that make local scheduling difficult, while solutions that allow access for many users lack the controls and flexibility needed to meet the needs and scale of enterprise customers. That's why we created Reflect Xperience – a reimagined way to access our ReflectView digital signage platform. ReflectView has become the standard for scalability, flexibility and performance in enterprise digital signage. With Xperience, users have the ability to access the most frequently used ReflectView
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content management and scheduling features from any web browser, anywhere. Role-specific access ensures users have the ability to manage only the content and digital screens assigned to them, allowing maximum flexibility while protecting corporate standards and security. What makes your company a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors? Beyond our best-in-class software, clients choose Reflect for several reasons. Often times digital signage initiatives are treated like projects where getting it deployed is the measure of success. While deployment can certainly be challenging and Reflect manages that for many of our clients, from the outset, our approach is different. The Reflect team brings a combination of expertise and business focus that helps clients develop an objective-driven digital signage program, not just a deployment schedule. We are able to help with everything from strategy to content design to scheduling and program management based on the unique objectives of each client. We are also experts at developing custom applications as content, a service nearly all Reflect customers leverage that helps clients deliver more compelling, engaging digital experiences to their audiences. From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the Digital Signage sector and the related market?
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With Reflect Systems, you can lead the pack with a digital signage and content solution that's perfect for your industry.
Describe the values that drive your organization. Customer Testimonials: At Reflect, we live by six core values: 1. Be a Creative Problem Solver 2. Be Accountable 3. Be Helpful First 4. Be Smart 5. Be Respectful 6. Always Do the Right Thing These core values are integrated into everything we do – from our hiring processes to communications with customers and their constituents. As a result, these values represent not only characteristics we believe are important but attributes everyone at our company lives by continuously. What are your future aspirations? Where do you see your company in the next five years? It's difficult to envision the future without taking stock of the past. Twenty years into this journey, we are most thankful for the relationships we've built with our clients, teammates and community. That's probably why our greatest aspiration for the future is to do exactly this, but on a much larger scale. As digital signage continues to gain traction, we aspire to help lead the way and power more than one million digital experiences.
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POLARIS
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In the near term, the pandemic has slowed the deployment of digital screens, both because of temporary and permanent business closures and more recently due to supply chain delays slowing committed projects. However, we do not view this as a permanent drag on the digital signage space. In fact, some of the dynamics of shopper behavior relative to in-store vs. online buying have been accelerated. This will likely result in increased demand for compelling digital signage experiences as shoppers look for the same digital features in-stores they’ve grown accustomed to when shopping online.
The Polaris Retail Experience is all about trying to drive an interaction with our vehicles and really help to tell the Polaris story. Reflect tries to understand where you’re at today and then understand where you’re going tomorrow to build a solution that is going to be evergreen and making sure that they can grow with you as an organization. Amy Goolsbee, Retail Design & Merchandising Manager, Polaris PATIENTPOINT Reflect has been instrumental in helping us to get to the next level, where we need to be, and they’ve been a responsive partner in listening to our needs, our wants, our requirements, and then developing a system that is going to see us into the next five to ten years. Dan Owens, Chief Technology Officer, PatientPoint
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Redefining Advertising
38 | October 2021
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Changing the Way
Businesses Advertise
D
igital signage is a clever way of advertising to attract consumers. It generally uses LCD screens or LED lights to target consumers with changing messages, both textual and graphic. Such signage having a computer component engages with consumers in an interactive way than traditional print signage. Moreover, digital signage can feature flashing product information, bright moving images, scrolling sale messages, or feature color advertisements to attract clients' interest amidst the sea of digital information they come across every day. It can also feature interactive touch screens or short digital videos to broadcast products' information to clients by providing consumers with an interactive and immersive experience. Different uses of digital signage allow businesses to achieve a variety of goals. For modern and digitally engaged consumers, digital signage is endlessly customizable. With evolved purchasing habits of consumers and the increased dominance of the ecommerce industry, businesses can use the endlessly customizable digital signage to position themselves and their products more creatively to consumers. It can be used for creating more engaging and easier to view digital menu boards in restaurants. It can be used in window displays by creating eye-catching window displays displaying information about businesses. With counter displays, point-of-purchase displays, and touch screen information systems, Digital signage can entice consumers with information about all the available services.
information to people. This can facilitate their better decision-making. It can also be used in corporate settings to provide internal information and display the latest announcements while enhancing customer service experiences. For advertising and promotion of particular goods and services, digital signage is beneficial, as it enhances the brand’s identity. Besides, it influences consumer purchasing behavior as visible information always creates conscious attraction in consumers. Digital signage advertising offers huge advantages to all kinds of businesses. Unlike printed signage, digital signage is in continuous motion, and it increases the visibility of products and services of businesses. Digital signage is pleasant in its look and is enticing to consumers. Professional screen, bold colors, and eyecatching light patterns provide an enjoyable, aesthetic, and attractive view to consumers. They can consciously or unconsciously decide to purchase the advertised products. It is easy to keep digital signage up to date. It can provide the most reliable information to consumers. With digital signage, it is possible to update advertisements. It is easier to target the desired audience with digital signage by crafting a creative and unique digital message. With digital signage, it is possible to quickly reprogram messages to make them more accurate and appealing to consumers. Businesses can make a strong impression on consumers and can influence customers to purchase their products and services. It is possible to provide dynamic and eye-catching content to clients with digital signage. Businesses that invest in the latest digital signage technology can be benefitted incredibly in the coming times. The revenue of the companies can be increased to a great extent with digital signage advertisements.
In addition, digital signage can also be used to provide public information such as news, weather, and traffic
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Vangelis Mihalopoulos Co-founder & CEO Yodeck
40 | October 2021
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The 10 Most Innovative Companies Revolutionizing Digital Signage
Yodeck
Offering Professional Digital Signage for Everyone at an Unbeatable Price
T
he transformational shift from static signs to digital signage has become more and more significant in catching the eye of potential customers. The leading companies in digital signage are continuously innovating and improving technologies to offer an interactive experience. Yodeck is one such company in the industry that provides all-in-one Digital Signage for dynamic screen-management to power your screens with any content or widgets. Yodeck is a complete cloud service company that helps everyone display engaging media, such as images and videos, on one or multiple TVs, so brands can effectively connect and communicate with the people that matter the most to them. They provide an option of adding one Player to each TV screen, connecting it to the Internet, and then you can manage your content centrally and remotely through their online platform, no matter where you are.
operation to a 32+ strong team and has more than 6,000 customers and 320 partners, with 15,000 active accounts across 135 countries. Leading brands like Ford, Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Adobe are among the companies that trust Yodeck for their digital signage solutions. Its mission has always been to provide its clients with a high-quality software product and the best possible customer experience at a very affordable price. With digital needs rising more and more every day, its goal is to make digital signage available to any business, regardless of its size. What makes Yodeck stand out can be summed up in three basic principles: professionalism, affordability, and ease of use. Unmatched Offerings Yodeck strives to provide innovative solutions while respecting each business' uniqueness and needs. The
At the helm of Yodeck is Vangelis Mihalopoulos. As the Co-founder & CEO, he leads an exceptional team that is turning Yodeck.com as the No.1 Digital Signage cloud platform around the globe. The Journey to the Top Yodeck started its journey back in 2015, and within 6 years, it became one of the fastest-growing companies in the digital signage sector. It has now grown from a small
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company offers an intuitive platform that everyone can use, and it's easily scalable. It wants to make it straightforward for all its clients to create great content, even if they don't have an in-house designer. That's why it provides free professionally designed screen layout templates that people can customize with their own branding or images. If a business doesn't have the right photos or videos to hand, they can choose media from Yodeck's stock media galleries. It offers enterprise-grade security that aligns with big corporations' strategies, as it's one of Yodeck's priorities.
remote screen management system that allows customers to remotely manage and update their screens across multiple locations.
Why Yodeck?
Aligning Technology for Digital Transformation
The answer is simple. Its recipe for success includes incredibly user-friendly and robust hardware and a total
Vangelis states that many organizations these days consider or choose to pursue a Digital Transformation. For Yodeck, the primary keys to this are communication and feedback. Besides, digital signage is all about communication between its clients and their customers from one point of view. It is a solid example of how technology can become valuable to businesses of any service.
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Our people are the secret of our success.
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On top of that, Yodeck offers state-of-the-art security for digital signage, and it is one of the very few companies in the field that are ISO 27001 and 9001 certified. Additionally, they offer pricing plans that are accessible to all types of businesses and organizations.
Currently, along with the automation of Yodeck's existing internal processes and ways of working, the company aims to enable its clients to succeed in their business transformation. That's why, as an organization, Yodeck is willfully open to communicating with its users and receiving their feedback to improve its service and facilitate successful business transformations. Value-Driven Approach Vangelis highlights that, from its inception, of Yodeck has built relationships with its employees and clients based on
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honesty, transparency, and respect. He adds that Yodeck is all about its people, clients, partners, and team. By fostering a great working environment with a personal training budget, foreign language lessons, and opportunities to meet with a personal nutritionist and take yoga lessons, the company helps its teams bond and attract top professionals. This way, Yodeck can give its clients a stellar product while looking for new, innovative ideas to improve its service every day. Yodeck's team is always happy when their clients tell them that they love their services, which is why the company receives many 5-star reviews. One of their greatest values is giving back to the community, especially during these challenging times. Yodeck is trying to support whoever might need help, but this is a topic that the company keeps to itself, as Vangelis strongly believes it's a case of casting your bread upon the waters. Post-Pandemic Digital Signage Vangelis says, “At Yodeck, we truly believe that Digital Signage can and will become a useful ally when it comes to the post-COVID-19 world, even now that all stores are reopening. To better understand the impact of Digital Signs, we ran a survey, and it turned out that Covid-19 Safety Signs Spur 28% Jump in Compliance.” Yodeck doubled its company headcount and introduced a work from policy simultaneously. It focused on helping the healthcare industry or any other business that displayed Covid safety signs by offering its services free of charge for the duration of the pandemic.
difficult times. It has donated to health organizations for COVID-19. At the same time, it offered a 20% discount to NGOs and educational institutions, and sponsored educational conferences, providing the digital signage for all the screens set up in the venues. Ambitious Future Yodeck's first aspiration is to remain a digital signage software industry leader and provide an excellent experience for its customers. Personally, Vangelis’s goals are to invest even more in human capital, attract highly skilled employees, and offer them a great working environment where people can grow professionally and build meaningful relationships with one another. Yodeck wants to develop new innovative digital signage add-on services, like AI, touch-screen signage and more. Specifically, it is actively working on an audience analytics platform, which means that customers can get detailed reports on the viewer by using a simple camera. At the same time, the content displayed on the screen can be tailored to each viewer, all based on estimated age and sex. Yodeck believes this would offer companies a way of communicating and crafting more targeted messages and, therefore, more useful content for viewers. Vangelis thinks it's a win-win for both parties. Of course, privacy and data protection are of utmost importance to the company, which will be an essential part of the product.
Yodeck also created several free Covid related digital signage templates, ready to be used by their clients; to help them streamline the work process. Contributions to the Community Vangelis expresses that Yodeck wants to support the community in any way possible, especially during these
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