A few weeks ago i got interviewed by a journalist (Jacqueline Burns) who was writing a piece (1.4MB PDF) on Digital Point Of Purchase (DPOP) or Digital Signage as it is also known, for the October edition of an Australian magazine called "Marketing" which is published by Niche Media.

Allright...before i go to far into this...time for a bit of background....DPOP (PDF (6MB) & video (18MB)) is a digital marketing / communications channel we have been working with since about the middle of 2003, when we got involved in developing the strategy and creating the content for the new improved "Telstra Shop's" (images) which are the retail face of Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company. As Executive Producer at Singleton OgilvyInteractive, and by default the Technical Director, I was heavily involved in putting together the initial thinking behind what this new "digital touchpoint" was capable of achieving, not only for Telstra but for a number of our other clients as well. This lead to a substantial amount of research being done into what was happening around the world and a lot of thinking by me about how we could integrate other technologies (like RFID cards and moble devices) into the retail marketing mix along with DPOP....but more on that another time.

Of course when you get excited about a technology you understand that is breaking into new areas, you tend to rant and rave about it and because of that you tend to get tagged as an expert (or a nut ;) by other people...thats exactly what has happened with DPOP and myself (the expert tag...not the nut...well mostly the expert tag). This lead to my being called up and quoted quite heavily in this informative article....though i don't remember saying the line, "They must be freaking out"...shhh...don't tell them, but they are... ;)

I actually really like the last line from me that Jacqueline used in the article and it is true of not just DPOP but of pretty much every other form of marketing and communication being used by the old school thinking that pervades the current advertising/marketing space around the world..."For all the talk of convergence and strategic thinking, clients and agencies still aren't thinking in holistic terms of what can be achieved. Marketers should approach the medium in a different way, giving greater consideration to the customer relationship, to segmentation, and to how the content can be tailored to different audiences."

Anyway...heres a PDF (1.4MB) of the article and I'll have more on DPOP and my thoughts on the current state of advertising/marketing another time....

Note from the publisher of Marketing Magazine: Article is supplied courtesy of Marketing magazine. To subscribe anywhere in the world, please email subscriptions@niche.com.au

(Written by Mick Stanic and originally posted to SplaTT's Blog on 11th October 2004)