Missy’s been working on making new, simple posters to attract attention to their new bargain basement. Like this one:

Good work Missy! Few words, simple message, decent contrast between the words and the image, and a nice, compelling visual.

We just updated our website and online store with the following:

• Sign/Kit: now in more sizes, from 22″ – 47″, using LG’s new Commercial LCD line which have built-in TV tuners and built-in speakers, also lower prices (bonus!)
• RedPost/Sign: now with a touchscreen option
• RedPost/Touch: when you need a simple, web-connected kiosk, this guy’s for you

Several of the residents I chatted with were excited — they use the bus a lot and hate waiting out in the cold.

In low volumes, they cost us a bit more, but I’m fine with that as the money stays local and in the U.S.

We’ve updated our DIY page to reflect this exciting update.

And if you’re a total geek, here’s the Firefox bug that was the cause of the problem that is now solved.

Two of the sweet spots for digital out-of-home advertising are convenience and distraction — using technology to make a tedious or unpleasant situation shorter in duration, or at least less tedious and unpleasant. One good example comes from Chicago, where the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhood has received a new network of 13 digital signs, installed and operated by RedPost in coffee shops, book stores, and similar establishments, which display the arrival times of Chicago Transit Authority buses approaching nearby stops. Four more signs will be installed in coming months.

I wonder how they heard about us. Oh, the power of the Internets.

Here’s the poster she saw:

De Luca is my favorite, as it’s right next to the other posters on the wall and fits in well.

Our nice KIA rental, 28 MPG!

Smaller than I thought a “midsize SUV” would be.

Too bad that’s our old logo…

And I thought I couldn’t fit my bike.

MOR/ryde, being slow themselves, started manufacturing a line of LCD/TV mounts. I had a chance to play with some today and they’re much better quality than the cheap China crap and on par with the expensive Peerless mounts.

The visit today reminded me why I like Elkhart County, despite all its flaws, high unemployment, lack of mountains, etc. Because we actually make things here — like, not just services, but things. That you can actually touch, drive, ratchet, swivel, roll, swing, etc. I don’t know if it’s my Amish/Mennonite farmer roots, but I really like that fact. Oh, and we can actually do it cheaper/better than China here in the U.S, especially with higher oil prices. I like that too.

The sign will be displaying video and information about Mechatronics Engineering Technology and the hands-on learning that takes place inside the lab. From Purdue Calumet’s Mechatronics web page:

This program prepares students to work as designers in the stable, exciting area of high speed packaging. A broad background in both electrical and mechanical areas along with internships will help you begin a great career designing, installing, and troubleshooting the complex equipment that produces and packages all of the items consumers purchase daily. The degree is also very valuable in the automotive and industrial areas as well. Graduates from this program are very mobile with career opportunities available nationwide.

The cool thing is, the headline posters were automatically generated. They used an RSS feed with a custom stylesheet (CSS for you nerds), a feature that’s built into our software, so that they didn’t have to update the Sign manually, it was all automatic. Looks great, and good use of the RSS feature!

Each Sign is playing the same content, with the posters formatted in both 4:3 and 16:9 ratio. They developed a series of 8 posters that accomplish three goals:

1. let customers know about things the bookstore does that aren’t well known  (accept book donations, sell both new and used books, order books they don’t have in stock, and buy/sell textbooks)
2. promote specials at the store (the basement sale going on over the next two weeks, the bargain room, and the popular kids section)
3. build the bookstore’s brand (advertise for First Fridays, promote the green aspects of book donation, tout the large inventory in-store and in their warehouse)

Here are the posters. Note that at most they have 15 words, use bright colors to attract attention and simple visuals to communicate the message. Each posters displays for 10 seconds:

How we’ll measure the result: we’ll compare last year’s sales for July to this year’s. We’ll also compare book donations, bargain room sales and kid’s corner sales year over year to see if there’s an improvement.