Keith Kelsen does a masterful job in Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage of introducing this new technology to the business world. All marketers need to pay close attention to what is going on here, for as Kelsen points out, what we are witnessing is the birth of the 5th screen – beyond movies, TV, computers, and mobile phones – which provides companies with a new tool in the arsenal of how to interact with people. Whether you are already deeply involved in using digital signage in your enterprise, are just starting to investigate it, or are reading about it for the very first time, this is the ideal book to learn what it’s about, what it means, and what you should do about it.

But understand that digital signage is not just about interacting, nor just about marketing, nor even about technology per se. What Brenda Laurel said in Computers as Theater about the third screen – “Think of the computer not as a tool, but as a medium” – applies to the fifth screen (and, come to think of it, each of the other ones as well!). So think of digital signage as the birth of a new medium. Not a communications medium, however; think of it as an experience medium, a place that engages people in the experience.

So make your use of digital signage an experience! Certainly make it entertaining and whenever possible an element of the design esthetic of your places. (We love the example of the video wall in MGM Grand’s Shiboya restaurant that furnishes a level of ambience perhaps unachievable without this technology.) But across each of the three types of networks that Kelsen has identified – point of sale, point of wait, and point of transit – don’t just make it a passive endeavor to entertain people momentarily, but an active experience that engages them over a duration of time. That’s not always easy, of course, but read about Oblong in the last chapter and see what it is doing to take interaction far beyond today’s simple touch interfaces into analyzing and responding to people’s gestures. Then envision how you could use a digital signage network to engage, educate, and offer people an escape from the humdrum commonality all too often found in each of the three networks: the drudgery of waiting, waiting, waiting.