“One key difference may be a shift in the balance between unconscious mirroring of another person’s actions and expressions and conscious attempts to grasp the other’s motives. This may lead to a decoupling from the other, a kind of separation within the interaction, as activity diminishes in areas that mirror experiences, while higher-order, cognitive frontal functions kick in.”

via How our brains build social worlds – opinion – 02 December 2009 – New Scientist.

via Holiday Inn ‘Green’ Signage Yields $4.4M Savings Annually · Environmental Leader · Green Business, Sustainable Business, and Green Strategy News for Corporate Sustainability Executives.

• Retail, hospitality and grocery companies will demand better interplay with customers through their signage networks
• Special consumer offers triggered by external events – such as weather changes – will help drive sales.

via Research identifies Customer Interaction as key trend for Digital Signage in 2010.

Ontario, Canada – 01 December, 2009 – Research from Capital Networks Limited (CNL), a leading global provider of broadcasting and dynamic digital signage software, identifies ‘Customer Interaction’ as the key driver for the digital signage industry in 2010. Companies across a range of industries, including retail, hospitality and grocery, will look at ways to engage dynamically with their customers, to boost sales and customer loyalty. With the average person exposed to thousands of marketing messages a day, only the most engaging content will break through the clutter. To be effective, digital signage must be able to deliver hyper-targeted, dynamic messaging to a specific audience. In the coming year, businesses will explore smarter ways to use their signage networks.

Software currently enables companies to schedule or pre-program their digital signage content to interact with any set of data, target audience or environment. Content can be programmed using simple codes, then triggered to play by real-time automated data feeds, such as local weather conditions, essentially delivering the message most relevant to the current environment of the screen. Through this type of ‘Dynamic Screen Scheduling’, retailers, restaurants and supermarkets can interact with customers in real-time to increase sales, boost footfall and encourage customer loyalty.
 
“Reports suggest that the US economy is beginning to turn a corner, yet it remains unclear whether consumers will resume spending or remain cautious with their money,” commented Jim Vair, Vice President of Business Development at Capital Networks Limited. “Companies that we work with are looking ahead to 2010 and identifying ways to ensure customers – old and new – feel they are getting the best value for money. And to do this, they want to interact with their customers, in real-time. Interactive digital signage is the only advertising mechanism that enables companies to immediately promote cost-saving offers when they most appeal to consumers.”

Smart digital signage in action – just some of the ways it can work:

Retailers – Coupons, Vouchers and ‘One-Day Sales’ are very effective ways of increasing profit, however they have to be organized and advertised days or weeks in advance, which can be time-consuming and costly. By utilizing ‘Dynamic Screen Scheduling’ shops can program content to interact with current data. For example, if the current conditions are rainy, consumers coming in from the rain or about to go back outside will see content promoting umbrellas, rain hats, etc but if the weather is bright sunshine, content will automatically switch to promote sunglasses, sunscreen, etc.

Sports Bars/Pubs – Establishments showing live sports events can have their signage pre-programmed to offer promotions when the score of a game changes. For example, every time the home team scores, adverts automatically pop up promoting half price nachos for the next ten minutes. Customers will already have their full attention directed at the screens and such offers can encourage long-term customer loyalty, which is just as important as attracting new customers.

Supermarket Wine Boutiques – Interactive applications are very popular with consumers. Touch screen applications are now available that allow shoppers to press a button indicating what they are planning to have for dinner that evening and the signage would display suggested wine pairings based on the store’s current inventory.

When shoppers are in a store, evaluating which brand to buy, digital signage has the chance to snatch a bit of mindshare at the precise moment a buying decision is being made. Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines and even the Internet cannot make that claim.

via Digital Signage: Economic Growth May Be Closer Than You Think | Submit Articles | Fully-Explained.

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The Danish parliament today passed legislation which will give police sweeping powers of “pre-emptive” arrest and extend custodial sentences for acts of civil disobedience. The “deeply worrying” law comes ahead of the UN climate talks which start on 7 December and are expected to attract thousands of activists from next week.

Under the new powers, Danish police will be able to detain people for up to 12 hours whom they suspect might break the law in the near future.

via Denmark approves new police powers ahead of Copenhagen | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

In the 1890′s many business people thought the telephone was a passing fancy… until everybody got one. Same with the fax in the 1980′s and email in the 1990′s. Its all about meeting the customer’s expectations. Unfortunately, you cannot change the expectation of an entire society, especially if you are trying to cling to the past.

Part of running a business is doing what works. The other part, the leadership part, is anticipating what will work in the future and preparing for those opportunities.

If anyone out there thinks putting your head in the sand is a good option, I’ve got a long line of your competitors waiting to kick your butt while your head is buried.

Things are changing, whether you like it or not. Conspicuous consumption is tacky. If clients notice you aren’t recycling, or making any attempt to be more efficient, they tend to wonder if you are up-to-date in any of your business affairs. They may even question themselves “Why am I still doing business with this troglodyte?”

The article below talks about ways some of the bigger, slower companies are finally getting around to “greening” their meetings. However, you will note, they are still throwing food away while people in town go hungry.

“This is becoming a standard,” said Allyson Wagner, project manager for event management firm Meeting Consultants Inc., which worked closely with IBM, the host property and other suppliers to incorporate environmentally friendly practices at the 5,000-attendee Information on Demand event. “It’s something that clients expect now. They’re starting to look for this in their RFPs. If it’s not already there, they’re adding it in. They’re expecting not only venues but their other vendor partners to bring something to the table.”

via Research: More Meetings Cutting Paper, Energy, Wasted F&B.

via Ink breakthrough puts the shine into printed images – tech – 10 November 2009 – New Scientist.

“This is a critical phase in the evolution of the business. We’ll see acceleration, but there are still issues out there including fragmentation, scalability and measurement.”

Growing pains aside, DOOH continues to capture a larger share of the out-of-home market, accounting for 34 percent in 2009, up 13.9 percentage points from 2004. DOOH is forecast to gain another 7.5 points by 2014, expanding to 41.5 percent of the OOH market.

via DOOH Forecast Dims.

If they can beam dynamic, digital video data to the surface of your eyes, there are going to be advertisers willing to pay for THAT space. I’m telling you, no place is sacred anymore. Signs, signs, everywhere a sign. So, what do you do? Fight the future? Embrace change? Pursue happiness? Rock & Roll! Happy Friday …

“A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.”
‘Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away,’ says Parviz.

“Future versions will be able to harvest power from a user’s cell phone, perhaps as it beams information to the lens. They will also have more pixels and an array of microlenses to focus the image so that it appears suspended in front of the wearer’s eyes.”

“Despite the limited space available, each component can be integrated into the lens without obscuring the wearer’s view, the researchers claim. As to what kinds of images can be viewed on this screen, the possibilities seem endless. Examples include subtitles when conversing with a foreign-language speaker, directions in unfamiliar territory and captioned photographs. The lens could also serve as a head-up display for pilots or gamers.”

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics – tech – 12 November 2009 – New Scientist.

Remember this? >> Tesla \”Signs\”

His proposal, Better Bikeways, calls for a simple, cost-effective overhaul of bikeway signage instead of the pricer options of paving new routes or marking dedicated lanes on the streets.

Read the full story @ Designerati | Fast Company