Growing Up A Pirate

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a Seton Hall Pirate.

Maybe it was the hoodie my mother gave me in the 5th grade or the multiple summers I spent at PJ’s (Carlesimo) Pirate Basketball Camp at the Hall that won me over!

Either way, it was a goal of mine from a young age to attend Seton Hall.

The moment the acceptance letter arrived with those magical words “Congratulations!”, my dream had come true. I was officially a Pirate!

And let’s face it, if not for Seton Hall there would be no OpenEye Global.

No “DJ’s of the consumer experience”

No “family”

No “Collective of big agency refugees”

I always had a fascination with computers and graphic design to the point in high school I started a small business called “Amazing Productions” in which friends would pay me to design their report covers and even the high school hired me to redesign the school crescent. So naturally, when I found out SHU had a Communication Arts program I was even more committed to perfecting the craft!

I am a proud Pirate and for those who know me or at least follow me on social, you will always see a reference back to the school!

Whether it’s me at a game, back on campus for an alumni event or mentoring students, I try to give back and support the school, which was so tremendous in helping launch my career.

This year has been extremely special for me!

In April I was honored to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award for the College of Communication and the Arts.

Most recently I was featured in the Summer edition of the Seton Hall Magazine in which the article focuses on the growth of OpenEye and a few of our successful projects.

It’s an honor to receive such a recognition from my Alma Mater and one that I will never forget!

Go Pirates!!!

Enhancing Digital Experiences By Leveraging Research & Analytics

When a leading real estate management company approached us to develop a digital wayfinding program for airport terminals, we realized that providing a solution to help get people from point A to point B was barely the tip of the iceberg.

The data flowing from the interactive touch solution that we designed was far too valuable to let pass into the ether. So we decided to capture it and leverage the intelligence to empower our client’s business decisions.

The analytics program we established as part of our solution provides visibility into the backend of our system, giving executive teams the ability to understand what people are searching for, when they’re searching for it, how they are engaging the system, for how long, and much, much more.
This visibility has changed they way they understand and utilize their space.

WHAT IT TAKES:

• No matter the data source, solid assessment and interpretation starts with defining your baseline. Benchmarking a digital solution begins with discovery, gathering available data and assessing current performance versus desired results and KPIs.
• Benchmarking the “current state” of your program will provide performance insights and illuminate data sources and available capture methods. Methodologies vary (more on that below) but the more you can build automation into your analytics program the better it will become.
• Another goal of your benchmarking process should be to create alignment on how your organization will interpret KPIs, which can include factors ranging from general success measure like sales lift to more qualitative factors like consumer sentiment and customer experience.
• If you take a moment to think about it, discovery is a beautiful thing. The process allows you to zoom way out, stop, and take time for an objective, critical assessment. Be relentless in deepening your understanding. This is your opportunity to take stock of user behaviors, to get to know how they’re encountering your program, and use that insight to enhance program functionality, UI, and the entire experience.
• When establishing your methodologies, know that there are great tools out there and some have more horsepower than you need. Take the time to set a plan that accounts for workflows, processes, and organizational bandwidth, as well as hierarchy, visibility through the ranks, and established timelines for periodic reporting.
• Once you’ve set your parameters, be diligent about your assessment and defined methodology. Let the data speak to you, be open to iteration, but stick to your measurement plan and give the research time to breathe. The insights flowing from a well-defined analytics program can be like catnip for executives, but being rigorous about standardization and allowing time will breed greater statistical significance, and reveal a truer body of work with more meaningful results.

HOW WE DO IT:

Analytics programs are always tailored to your media solution, though we tend to structure our programs based on a combination of three high-level methodologies:

1. Media Research & Benchmark Study: Survey / Exit Interviews
2. Interactive Measurement & Engagement Study & Analytical Reporting
3. Observational Technology & User Engagement / Facial Recognition / Demographics / Traffic

 WHAT IT MEASURES:

• Environment / Qualify
• Effectiveness / Quantify
• Engagement / Optimize

HOW TO GET STARTED:

Great projects start with a good discussion. We’d love to help clarify your objectives to determine what we can build together.
Let’s be in touch! CLICK HERE

-Bob

Recapping Las Vegas

We once again hit Vegas to see the latest trends and share our influence, with our focus of tying together the physical and digital worlds to create a fully immersive sensory experience.

From the tech of DSE to the content of SEGD and down into the beautiful designs of GlobalShop, we see ourselves as DJ’s of the consumer experience, mixing and remixing to create, as we like to call it — Adaptive Experiences.

Top 10 List To Surviving & Thriving DSE & GlobalShop

Heading to Vegas for DSE / GlobalShop?

WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED!

This being our 10+ year anniversary of attending these shows, take a look at our top 10 list for Surviving & Thriving a few days of Las Vegas fun & digital experiences. Having made a lot of these mistakes ourselves, all we can say is: Trust Us!

CLICK TO VIEW THE INFOGRAPHIC

CHECK OUT OUR EXPERIENCE FROM LAST YEAR … CLICK HERE

4 Ways Digital Signage Can Upgrade Your Bank’s Brand

The overwhelming selection of business systems, marketing tools, financial institutions and B2C communications that are present and shouting for space in a vibrant 2017 market means that only the most exceptional and pragmatic innovations will stand the test of time.

One of the most adept modernizations that we are likely to see this year is the banking industry incorporating digital signage into the way they engage with their customers. Given the proven versatility of such a platform, and its unerring marketing capabilities, it’s conceivable to see this technology transpire far beyond the realms of banking.

Digital signage can increase brand equity:

Initial hesitation to adopt digital signage in banking has doubtlessly been overcome. Whereas a couple of years ago, banks were keen to keep to traditional methods, we are now seeing branches all over the world modernizing their processes. The first banks to execute digital signage have already reaped the numerous benefits, and in the process, have improved their brand equity. The successes experienced by their competitors has led more and more global banking giants to acquiesce. Digital signage has become a major player in the way banks work, and our projections show that within a few years, all banks will have applied the process.
The story doesn’t stop there. With the banking industry set to overhaul their current signage methods in favor of a digital service, we have to consider what the future will bring. Increased competition is going to drive the quality, performance and security of digital signage to dizzying new heights. Fortunately, we’ve been in the game since the very start, so many of the hurdles that our competitors will face, we have already clambered over, and have the trophies to show for it. What we offer now, amongst all over the statistical benefits, is something almost immeasurable. Trust.

Enhancing customer experience:

Digital signage is a robust core tactic within an omni-channel strategy. It’s not just the customers that benefit, it’s the banks, and their dedicated staff too. Reduced waiting times are proven to improve customer experience inside the bank, and those benefits translate to employees as well. They can serve more bank users, spend less time organizing paperwork and achieve more during their working hours than before. To put it quite simply, if a bank customer has not had to queue, they will likely be in a much better mood by the time they reach the teller, making the ensuing exchange far more pleasant. Banks thus experience improved staff retention and morale, and by using digital signage to better connect their customers to the bank, experience increased customer retention and user experience as a bi-product. When a service you frequently use designs innovative features to improve your personal experience, security and data protection, you subconsciously build loyalty with them, and their brand equity grows.
It’s vital to mention not only the human benefits of digital signage, but the environmental benefits too. Digital signage can contribute to a huge reduction in the amount of paper used in-branch each year. Multiply that by tens, hundreds or even thousands of branches, and a bank can be seen to be making a huge anti-deforestation statement, with entire forests spared the axe. All that paper saved also creates a huge reduction in the amount of waste going to the bin, meaning that the bank’s carbon footprint is getting smaller. Fewer paper deliveries  (banks use a lot of paper) and bin collections means fewer miles are driven in the name of the bank. The environment is ultimately very grateful to digital signage.

Increase in:

Efficiency. Bank tellers have been among the first to approve and applaud the introduction of digital signage in their banks, admitting that the reduced chances of human error and fraud allow them to focus on the more important facets of their job. An increase in digital data is equal to an increase in security. Physical paperwork is at the peril of fire damage, water damage and physical loss.
Customers served per hour is also increased. Fewer queues, quicker in-and-out times and less time spent at the counter all equate to a more pleasant and fluid experience for customers, who are then more willing to return in future.

Decrease in:

Human administration. Automation allows work of a greater importance to be prioritized, improving the general productivity of employees. A decrease in paperwork leads to a decrease in physical space, freeing up room for other activities or furniture.
Bad press. CSR, better known as Corporate Social Responsibility, is the act of leveraging your business activities to do things that are good socially and environmentally. This is often referred to as ‘People, Planet, Profit’ and is something that not only looks superb on environmental policies, but continues to build brand equity with customers. There is a proven correlation between green purchasing decisions and environmental consciousness. Newspapers, word of mouth and social media are quick to spread the message of a business that is more environmentally proactive than its competitors. Free marketing!

Conclusion:

Digital signage quickly outgrew and shed the skepticism that had loosely been attached to it during its construction. Like many innovative technologies, it had to experience a period of finding its place in the world. That position has been firmly cemented in the global banking industry, where it is tipped to become the next integral facet of any determined omni-channel strategy. The signs all point to one thing, sure-fire brand value.

Interested in how we do it? Learn more HERE.

(written with the help of Joseph Kennedy from Content Pathways)

Seton Hall Design Students Participate in an Exclusive Workshop with Bryan Meszaros

A dozen faculty-selected Art, Design and Interactive Multimedia students recently attended an exclusive hands-on workshop titled, “Experience Design,” led by Bryan Meszaros ’00, a previous Professional-in-Residence in the College of Communication and the Arts and leading graphic and media designer.

Meszaros, the CEO of OpenEye Global, is a recognized leader in the field of experiential design and interactive media, earning distinctions from NJBIZ as one of the top 40 Under 40, and the 2018 SmartCEO Corporate Culture Award among many others. He recently lent his talents as a Professional-in-Residence in the College, teaching a semester-long class titled, “Digital Engagement in the Physical Space.” Meszaros’ company, OpenEye Global, was the digital effects team that helped create the “Ghostbusters Experience,” at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum in New York City.

During the day-long workshop, Mesazaros broke the students into small groups and lectured about the collaborative nature of design, and the specifics “experience design,” a unique approach that focuses on connecting individuals to a space. “We know every environment is different, but the challenge for designers is taking the environment and creating an immersive feeling,” said Meszaros. “Experience design takes the physical and transforms the space through telling a narrative. Designers are story-tellers and that’s what I wanted the students to walk away with.”

Throughout his discussion, Meszaros emphasized ways designers help individuals explore an environment and bring a space to life through simple concepts like placement, purpose and emotion. Folding together examples from his own firm, Meszaros embraced student questions and worked with the groups to understand how a project becomes both unique and inspirational.

Meszaros turns everyday experiences into industry lessons. For example, he showed a video he recorded earlier in the same week when he traveled to London. Students eyed the screen as Meszaros shared footage from a London train station hallway. As a passenger walked by, a digital projection detected the walking speed and announced that he needed to walk just a bit faster to catch the train. “Travelers walk in train stations every day, but this caught my eye my instantly as a teaching moment. A typical commute turned into a creative and interactive experience,” noted Meszaros.

Post-discussion, students embarked on their own experience design project. Commissioned by College of Communication and the Arts’ Dean Deirdre Yates, design students will create an art installation in Arts and Sciences Hall.

Following the site visit, students worked to brainstorm ideas for the installation and then presented their design approaches and discussed options. The final piece will be installed in April 2019.

The combined approach of Meszaros’ teaching style and the new, informative content exposed students to design strategies they had not yet experienced. “The workshop was a definite eye-opening experience into a field of design that I haven’t quite explored yet,” commented Brittany Hull, a senior Art, Design and Interactive Media major. “Bryan’s visual approach in teaching interactive digital design made me excited about the importance of digitalization and interaction in graphic design that we see around us every day. I look forward to applying the workshop with future projects.”

Assistant Professor of Art and Design Christine Lhowe acknowledged the impact of Meszaros’ professional work and helping students to construct their ideas for the art installation. “Students are looking forward to the execution of their concepts impacting future generations of the Communication and the Arts community,” said Lhowe.

(This post was originally posted on the Seton hall website on 12/12/18)

The Making Of An Experience

As designers, our shared core competency lays in our ability to solve complex problems. We solve them for our clients daily, which ultimately allows our clients to create memorable and positive brand experiences for their customers.

We don’t take that responsibility lightly.

This responsibility means we’re required to be adaptive, flexible, and think both inside and outside the box, while questioning the relevance of the box in general.

With the convergence of digital and physical, connecting people to place in the built environment become one of the main problems we’ve been solving for many years now.

With his upcoming talk for AIGA Vermont, as part of their WTF! Speaker Series, Bryan will be exploring the core concepts behind Designing for engagement in physical spaces.

Concepts Include:

• Demystifying what Experience Design really means, as for us, it’s the sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments.
• Emotions: Everything around us has been designed in some way and all design ultimately produces an emotion. We experience an emotional reaction to our environment moment-by-moment: a like or a dislike, elation, joy, frustration. We ‘feel’ it. It’s personal.
• Behavior, including:
  • How we interact with spaces
  • Change the way we behave and communicate
  • Digital allows for a different experience each time
  • Push the boundaries of the physical
  • Experiences resonate with us
• Branded Environments: They extend the experience of an organization’s brand, or distinguishing characteristics as expressed in names, symbols, and designs, the design of interior or exterior physical settings. It uses space as a physical embodiment of the brand to create a ‘brand space’.
• Engagement, including:
  • Immerse your audience into a ‘one of a kind’ experience
  • Consumers are searching for a theatrical experience
  • Communicate the subtleties of time and place and covey cultural and visual stories
  • Finding that balance between physical design and digital engagement

• Connecting, including:
  • Convert your audience to brand advocates
  • Create a PULL system (as opposed to a push system)
  • Establish a connection that makes them feel part of the environment or the ability to control the experience

With all the talk on immersive and interactive environments, it’s how hope that some of these points will help you (and your brand) as you look to connect further with your audience.

Interested in learning more about how we can help? Contact us HERE.

You can learn more about Bryan’s talk at AIGA Vermont by clicking the link below:

https://vermont.aiga.org/design-wtf-new-speaker-series/

The Two Presidents: SEGD & DSF

Last week I had the opportunity to chat with The DSF President Richard Ventura about the role digital technology and design have in the creation of experiences today. We also talked about the events SEGD and Digital Signage Federationare having during Digital Signage Week in NYC

What did we talk about?

• Why do designers need to understand digital technologies and why do digital technology experts need to understand design?
• How mature is digital technology and what can we expect in the next few years?
• Why should DSF and SEGD members collaborate more? Both are members of SEGD and DSF and have the perspective of what each brings to the table.

Take a listen below:

Bryan’s Take: 2018 SEGD Conference

We’re designers, dreamers, and doers by trade and heart. This level of thinking often impacts the brands we work with, the partners we leverage, and the work we create.

It allows us to create the WOW factor while at the same time keeping true to strategy, budgets and timelines.

This why we call ourselves an adaptable agency… Because we’re able to foster our thinking to ensure we’re looking at all angles when designing a brand experience, be it retail, financial, themed entertainment, or within a corporate communications setting.

Enter the 2018 SEGD Conference!

With Bryan attending, we’re getting the inside scoop from the current SEGD President in an interactive, conversational way.

 What made this year’s conference so special?

Bryan: By far this had been one of the best SEGD Conferences I have attended. Not to take away anything from previous years, but this year you could clearly see the progression of how we are challenging the boundaries of experience design.

Since we changed the word “Environmental” to “Experience” we are at times, as a community, struggling to understand what that change actually means. Understandable as it is a big shift in perception. No longer is SEGD a community solely focused on traditional EGD, but a community seeing a record number of young designers and students attending that are all eager to hone their craft of telling stories through a multi-discipline approach.

There are so many highlights but the ones that stood out for me were:

• Listening to Jane Davis Doggett talk about the evolution of wayfinding and the challenges she encountered as a woman in the profession
• Wayne Hunt talking about the evolution of his career
• THERE (Agency from Sydney) talking about the evolution of workplace branding
• Seeing our client Merlin Entertainment be honored for their commitment to Experience design by receiving the Insight Award
• The City of Minneapolis! What a wonderful backdrop for us… And that stadium!
• One memory that really sticks out is… One evening a group of us found a speakeasy (you know me, always up for a good bar). So here I am with other senior designers and off to the corner I spot a group of young designers hanging out and just enjoying being part of the community. Looking at them, with their young creative genius at tow made me feel great because I could see the next generation of leaders in the community.
• Speaking of young designers, The Young Designers Summit was amazing.

 #Prezaros… What’s your overall perspective on this years conference?

Bryan: Talk about a surreal moment… Here I am (the youngest president in SEGD Hhistory) on stage greeting several hundred designers from around the world.

When I joined the organization in 2012 never did I imagine being in this position. I was just honored to be in the presence of designers who I admired and look towards for inspiration. It’s very humbling to see the support of the community and reaction from everyone the moment the conference kicked off.

It’s also interesting for me, having gone the way of a “digital practitioner” and to be in this situation where I am stepping into the role of president, not having come from a traditional design background.

I think it shows how far SEGD has come and hopefully that is a sign as to where it can grow to in the future!

 Why do brands need to focus on design moving into 2019 and beyond?

Bryan: It’s all about storytelling and creating immersive environments that connect the audience to the brand. For OEG, we’re all about creating that “theatrical experience’.

That experience that leaves us wanting more and eager to share with others in a loop of brand advocacy and consumer delight.

How to Build Brand Equity through Digital Signage

Fresh from Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas as well as London Digital Signage week, it’s no surprise why the digital signage industry as a whole is booming.

Brands understand the power that comes with amazing resolution screens and CMS systems able to adapt to their changing behaviors. Customers expect brand experiences at every turn, making omni-channel the norm as opposed to the exception. Marketers are looking at attribution models and how we can deploy smarter campaigns leveraging data, intuition, and awe-inspiring creative. A perfect ‘brand-building’ storm is brewing. As organizations realize the power of combining the latest technologies with smart and adaptive content, while tying it all back to KPIs through strategy, the opportunity to build lasting brand equity through digital signage means that the competition to have your brand live in the hearts and mind of your customer base has never been more challenging, yet equally rewarding.

What do I mean when I say brand equity? As an adjunct instructor at Drexel University on branding and marketing theory, I define branding to my students as that gut feeling you get when you hear a specific brand name or think about a specific product or service that brand produces. It’s the trust and responsibility that comes with being influential, as most brands are.

That gut feeling mixed with trust, whether good or bad, is essentially the equity your brand has produced.

Moment of truth: Digital signage does not make brand equity. In fact, it’s just a slight sliver in the marketing mix that creates the overall brand experience, but when it is done right and incorporated properly into a strategy, it can produce opportunities to not only push relevant content, but channel your audience down a sales funnel to the point where they’re not only transacting with you, but you’re creating advocates who will in turn market for you.

Brands understand the power that comes with amazing resolution screens and CMS systems able to adapt to their changing behaviors 

With Digital Signage Expo and London Digital Signage Week still fresh in our minds, this is exactly what we’ve been seeing and hearing. More and more creatives, agencies, marketing folks, and CMOs are taking interesting in the power that digital signage has in not only pushing brand awareness, but in also pushing products, culture, and experience.

This latest trend shouldn’t be seen as a trend, but as a new spoke in the marketing hub & spoke model. Digital signage should not be seen as an afterthought, but as a native tactic to build that elusive brand equity. As a native tactic, the digital signage conversation should be starting from the very first conversations of incorporating digital into a built environment through an architectural firm, and should be carried on up the brand’s ladder through IT, marketing, and even customer service. To build quality brand equity and trust with digital signage as a tactic, an all-encompassing digital ecosystem must not merely be ideated and created, but it must be managed and properly nurtured. When we define brand equity as building trust with your audience, we can look at it like a formula:

Trust = Reliability + Delight

The trust comes from not only meeting, but exceeding the customer’s expectations. This correlates to digital signage because every digital touchpoint the customer has with your screens is an opportunity to build brand equity through trust, reliability, and delight.

Let’s break this down, starting from the endpoint and working backwards:

Delight: You’re taking into account your audience’s wants and needs, where they are in the sales or customer journey funnel, and they’re actually pleased and happy with the content being shown. This might also include taking the experience away from the screen and into the customers, hands by introducing mobile and social integrations.

Reliability: The screens and signage are working as they should and they are brilliant in nature. They are not only displaying the right content, but the brand standards are shining through and the message and content are all consistent, not just through 1 particular touchpoint but integrated throughout a multiple of touchpoints. With lack of consistency as the #1 brand killer, ensuring you’re consistent throughout every touch point is how to build trust and brand equity.

Trust: When we’re able to delight your audience in both a reliable, consistent and authentic nature, we’re able to build trust, which then turns your audience into advocates.

While digital signage might not be the end-all, be-all to building brand equity, it is certainly carving out a larger chunk of the brand-spend pie. This is especially true and evident by the increased budgets brands are allocating towards digital signage as a tactic.

With those increased budgets and natural opportunities to build brand trust and advocacy, there should be no excuse not to invest and be smart with how you execute.

Download our latest ebook on digital signage HERE

[Originally posted by Steven Picanza for CIO Review Magazine, May 2018]