The channel was just forced on us

Is this a familiar sight?

While I've been going round and doing channel audits for one of the largest retailers in the country, I noticed an interesting trend with employee TV screens. The communications team said that the channel was "forced" on them by one of the senior people in the business. 

I don't need to bang on about the issue about adding channels without clear objectives but it was fascinating to see how it filtered down to the front line. The communications team didn't really want (or probably need) the channel so the effect of it hasn't been all that good. 

The content was well produced, looked polished and it seemed that it was relevant for branch employees. But...here is what I uncovered during my channel audit:

• The communications team didn't want the channel so it's not looked at as a serious means of getting messaging to front line staff
• Many of the TVs were switched off or had the volume down because they were in lunch areas or people were tired of hearing the same messages again and again
• The messages were too long - one was about 10 minutes in length, digital signage is good for bite sized messaging and at-a-glance content
• Staff such as drivers who are not desk based wanted to see weather, traffic and information related to their day-to-day jobs rather than the usual corporate messaging
• The built in interactivity was too hard to use (a numerical keypad to navigate content)

LCD screens are definitely an auxiliary means of getting messages across. It's certainly good to augment campaigns sent across more "serious" communications channels and can be powerful when you get it right. 

It goes without saying that if you apply the comms basics as you would with any other method of communication, digital signage will be much more effective.

There are also hundreds of vendors out there but I've not seen many who tick the right "comms" boxes. I'd love to hear about digital signage disasters but also success stories, write to me at ray.edun@gmail.com or post a comment.