For Cramer, a digital marketing and event
solutions agency based in Norwood, Massachusetts, creating compelling
content for their AxisTV system is no problem.
That’s because, as
Creative Technology Director Rob Everton pointed out, Cramer enjoys a
depth of resources. “We have seven high-definition edit suites and we
can produce video easily. We send it down to the media lab to compress.
It’s an easy workflow.”
Cramer is equipped for
print, interactive, and web production in a facility they refer to as a
“75,000 square foot creative playground.” So their use of video is
clearly going to be more sophisticated than most. When it came time to
find a medium where they could demonstrate the power of digital signage,
they chose AxisTV.
Cramer’s sales force is
continually entertaining clients on site, and it was looking to make a
good first impression with a system where they could select and
personalize content. “We have frequent client traffic,” Everton
explains. “Initially the challenge was providing up-to-the-minute
updates on our work to customers coming to our building. We needed
something that allows us to change the display often and provide a variety
of media, so we went from video loop on a DVD to a signage solution.”
Everton pointed out that
even for them, ease-of-use was important. “We chose AxisTV because it
made things easier for a wide variety of people to update. It’s
important not to burden development teams with the updating of content.
That’s the appeal to us. It has a good amount of flexibility and
creative solutions and it’s really a fast learning curve.”
AxisTV struck a chord
with Cramer during its annual Innovation Day when they brought nearly
150 marketing and communications executives on site to show them the
latest technology. Systems integrator HB Communications set up the Axis
TV system, and Cramer leaders were impressed.
Today the lobby features
four content blocks incorporated into a company-branded layout, and
Everton described what visitors see. “The largest content block is
basically a sort of highlight reel, a playlist of videos that are
changed as often as needed. It’s a mixture of video we produce, edited
videos from our events, and examples of our work. A second block is the
latest news about Cramer, another is a welcome area for customers coming
to visit us, and the fourth is a rolling loop of world headlines,
weather and other utility functions.”
Everton said their lobby
display is a great way to demonstrate what the medium is capable of. “We
put AxisTV out there in order to open conversations about digital
signage with our clients,” said Everton. “We know how to implement a
message approach in company facilities, and we provide the strategy,
design and content.”
But the company’s use of
visual communications isn’t just focused externally. Cramer produces
more than 200 events a year, serving up to 10,000 attendees, so at any
given time teams are busy on a variety of projects. Employees are
understandably eager to showcase their work to their colleagues.
So the company runs a
second channel player for a display in the cafeteria that features
projects that are otherwise hard to catch. “There’s so much great
creative work that goes on here on a day-to-day basis,” noted Everton,
“The majority of it doesn’t get seen by employees. It goes out the door
and people move on. Since Cramer’s business is built around integrated,
multi-disciplined solutions, it’s important for our staff to understand
how the pieces work together.”
The cafeteria display
presents a single block of mixed content: video from events they’ve
produced, Flash® animation, and presentation graphics from PowerPoint®.
“People are anxious to get stuff up there, and it’s done a lot for
creating awareness of what’s going on around the building. A display
where people gather is a better opportunity to experience content that
isn’t critical to their day-to-day tasks.”
Everton notes that the
demand on their resources is minimal. “We have one person devoted to
each channel player, and we’ve assigned one ambassador from within each
discipline to periodically send them what’s going on with their group.
It arrives ready to publish, and they upload it and put it in the
playlist.”
Down the road, Cramer is
planning some custom integration to exploit even more of AxisTV’s
flexibility. “We’re looking at the possibility of custom programming to
automate some of the functionality so that we can pull in a feed from
our own internal communications.”
