Last week we were in New York seeing clients and squeezed in a little time to walk the floor at Macy's Herald Square. 
Each time I go there, I feel like a little kid watching the Wizard of Oz for the very first time. It's such a wondrous place. In the book of the Duratran Company, it's the Emerald City of retail space marketing. All that merchandise, oh my. Exciting displays, you bet. And signage that motivates, oh boy!
In the past few visits, one couldn't help but notice (and feel), the emphasis that Macy's was putting on in-store video as signage. Most with sound, but a lot of screens without it too. So much so, that our company started investing more and more time on how we could become part of this seemingly growing trend. But around each corner of our journey, we encountered another time sucking challenge. Just when we thought that we were almost there, a restless night's sleep would have us seeing the flying monkeys in the forest. This can't be the yellow brick road, we thought.
What really was stopping us was the fact that video seemed very distracting to the shopping experience. Too much noise, both audio and visual. Not to mention that cost of hardware and the even greater cost and challenge for compelling content.
Our trip last week uncovered an entirely different feeling in the Emerald City. The signage environment at Macy's had changed significantly. Gone was all the video and all of the sound too. It seems that it confused the consumer. A lot of what was in the video zones was replaces with what else? Duratrans! (Sorry for the not so subtle plug). The fact is video in its present form isn't working well in the retail environment. I hope you didn't get involved with it. There will be a place for controlled video somewhere in the future for jewelry and watch manufacturers that will enhance the jewelry store shopping experience. I'm pretty certain of that. But right now, there's no place like home Toto.
Video as signage seemed like a great idea. I guess that the flying monkeys of business opportunity sometimes scares us for a reason. Be sure not to confuse them with opportunities for gorillas.
I see wiseman... Customers looking up at monitors instead of down at jewels, all while I'm in the back shooting my next video!
Posted by: Dominick | January 31, 2007 at 08:38 PM