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A 2022 Retrospective and a Look Ahead

2022, A Year of Fruition As the calendar rolls over to 2023, we find ourselves (yet again) looking back at a year that flew by. I’ll remember 2022 as a year where ideas came to fruition. I am grateful to have come this far, to witness the progress we’ve made. I count the strong state […]

2020 in Perspective | Letter from the Founder

Our family Christmas card this year started with “2020 – a year for the books”. As I thought about this letter I feel the same intro is appropriate. None of us will forget 2020, but probably not for the reasons we would have expected when it began. Let’s put 2020 in perspective as we look […]

Which BrightAuthor should I use?

BrightSign units are well known for their consistent reliability in the digital signage industry. Most people would tell you that BrightSign units have very few downsides, especially once they are up and running. For most consumers, once the units are up and running, managing them requires little to no work. Historically any drawbacks to using […]

How Tracking Room Occupancy Helps Ensure COVID Safety

… Now “social distancing” is our watchword, and rightly so as COVID-19 seems to spread, unabated. Given this reality, organizations must have tools to understand how many people are in a space in order to manage risk and help people stay safe.

COVID-19 and the Rise of the Engaging Workplace : Part Three

This is the third of three entries where I’ve shared Creating Margin’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide shift to Work from Home, and how these dynamics may forever change our expectations of the workplace. In the first entry, I shared about Creating Margin and our experience moving the team to work from home […]

COVID-19 and the Rise of the Engaging Workplace: Part Two

This is the second of three entries where I’ll share Creating Margin’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide shift to Work from Home, and how these dynamics may forever change our expectations of the workplace. In the previous entry, I shared my experience moving our team to Work from Home. I wrote about how […]

COVID-19 and the Rise of the Engaging Workplace : Part One

This is the first of three entries where I’ll share Creating Margin’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide shift to Work from Home, and how these dynamics may forever change our expectations of the workplace.

The Golden Age of Software (Over)Development

You’ve heard it said that “it’s the golden age of software development”. It truly is. Technologies and their accompanying software tools continue to make our lives easier and our days more productive. But there is a less discussed side to this golden age of software development. Never have so many software developers employed by competing […]

Digital Signage benefits everyone

As my wife and I sat in Freddy’s (burger joint) eating our frozen custard, I analyzed the digital menu boards above the ordering counter. They were perfect. All of the menu items were easy to read and other areas rotated frequently, showing more desserts or sides. Even bigger snapshots of ice cream sandwiches swapped with […]

How Digital Signage Builds Trust

Maybe the title of this article is a dead give away. But, in a world where messages are constantly flung each and every direction, it’s comforting to know that digital signage has become a very established form of communication. Digital Signage owns the “catch your eye” factor of marketing while communicating more effectively than any […]

Effectively scheduled Digital Signage content

Scheduled digital signage content is most effective by being on-time. By ‘on-time’ content, we mean scheduled content such as videos, promotional items, ideas, and images. Nothing is better than having catered content served up to your customers at the perfect time. Ah, sheer bliss. You know your hard work has paid off at this point. […]

Why Aren’t Digital Menu Boards More Widespread?

I don’t travel as extensively as I once did, but I’m still blessed to get around our beautiful country, and occasionally outside of it, a few times a year. As a long-time digital signage vet (they say once you start, you can’t stop!) I always notice digital signage and Building Map Designs wherever I go. One question […]

Content Creation For Digital Signage

In the new age of digital signage, content can make or break the experience you create for your customers. Whether a company invests in cutting edge equipment or not, they may miss the mark…is their content taking full advantage of its capabilities, or did they simply throw their funds at an absurdly expensive digital screen? They would probably […]

NFL Network Uses Interactive Touch Screen

It’s amazing how digital signage works to augment our day-to-day reality. Earlier this week, I watched a clip from the NFL Network, where the commentators used an interactive touch screen application to show a March Madness bracket to project the “best future NFL player”. Charles Barkley simply tapped once on the team he liked, and […]

Digital Wayfinding Options

Digital wayfinding has been one of the most popular developments in digital signage in the last 6 years when we saw a noticeable uptake in customers evaluating solutions based on support for “wayfinding,” in general- driving rapid growth for several digital signage software leaders, including the San Jose-based 22Miles and Montreal-based X2O/Barco. Leading digital wayfinding […]

4 Digital Signage Tips For Happier Users

As you embark on your quest for better digital signage and happier end-users, here are a few signage tips we’ve put together to arm you with success. 1. Make it Useful If you really know your customers, then you’ll know exactly what they need. People often make the mistake of using filler information in place […]

New Year’s Resolutions for Digital Signage Content

While many in the digital signage content industry are focused on acquiring new customers to buy screens – an ever-shrinking group of those who have managed to avoid the technology (in vain!) – those of us in the content creation niche, are confident that our market will continue to expand. As we ring in the […]

How Digital Signage Content Is Broken – And How Affordable Managed Services Can Fix It

This article appears in the Sound and Video Contractor‘s July 2015 Issue Digital signage, increasingly prevalent across industries, is now used in a variety of applications, among others, to communicate with employees, market wares to shoppers, track warehouse safety metrics, guide visitors through hotels and public places, and post-meeting room reservations. Digital signage is everywhere and […]

Five traits of a Digital Signage consultant

Do a quick search for ‘Employee Communications Consulting’ on LinkedIn and you’ll find people with degrees from Hooters to Harvard. “Oh, you’re a ‘chest’ consultant? I see…” Well, I suppose there might be an opportunity there. So when I suggest that consulting might be helpful to customers exploring new digital signage applications, or expanding their existing […]

Technical training for a non-technical audience

Explaining technical topics can be tricky, especially when your audience is not technically inclined.  But at some point, every technology company will need to train non-tech people on complex tools or processes.  We hope that the following recommendations will help you engage team members who are unfamiliar with, or even averse to, technical subject matter. […]

Creating Margin: The story behind the name

Papenburg, Germany For about a week in the winter of 2013, I was in Papenburg, Germany for business. I was visiting the Meyer Werft shipyards, where hardworking Germans craft the colossal passenger ships for Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). They really pack the technology into those ships, and I was there representing a software company that […]

New video content on the way!

One of our recent initiatives has been more regular video content updates across our website and social media pages.I am happy to report that we are making great progress in this area! In addition to updates and tweaks to the website, we’ll be publishing new videos to explain the services we provide. Additionally, customer case studies will […]

What is the difference between a Digital Signage assessment and an audit?

Creating Margin provides Digital Signage Needs Assessment and Audit Services. No, this isn’t a post about the IRS. The word “audit” may drive fear into our heart, the last thing anyone wants to see in their mailbox is the foreboding letter AUDIT! Luckily, our audits are much more positive and helpful! So What’s The Difference? […]

How can Creating Margin help you with your Content Creation?

Content creation is a critical component of the implementation and maintenance of any digital signage network. As that first sentence suggests, it’s not a one-time requirement at kick-off, but an ongoing responsibility in order to ensure that a company’s investment in digital signage pays off. At Creating Margin we regularly work with companies on all […]

Can your business benefit from Digital Signage Audits … even if another company has installed it?

Dave Haynes at Sixteen: Nine shows how platform-agnostic digital signage providers can conduct audits for businesses that seek to optimize their performance, compliance, engagement, and ROI. Source: https://www.sixteen-nine.net/  Let’s say your firm invested in 1 video wall and 3 wayfinding kiosks in the atrium a year ago. They work well…right? But part of you wonders if they should change next year…new content, new placement, […]