Electronic LED Outdoor Advertising

I will be going to the lovely state of Terengganu tomorrow; more specifically that Riverfront City of Kuala Terengganu. The mission is to help train a team of selling personnel in the sales and marketing of airtime/advertising space on an LED Screen installed in the heart of the city.

The video or electronic billboard, in the form of LED Screens, is slowly and steadily gaining acceptance in Malaysia's advertising industry. High in initial outlay, it however promises handsome potential returns to any media owner if all the forecasts are realized. Having been around since 1999 when Hi-Q Media first installed an Altoona giant LED Screen at KOMTAR, Pulau Pinang strictly for outdoor advertising purposes, and UPD SuperScreen brought in a 9M x 6M trailer-mounted LED Screen ( a Lighthouse Technologies product) for events and roadshows, the LEDScreen has grown into a serious medium of video message boards in outdoor advertising.

Power Screen (successor to Hi-Q Media) operates several electronic billboards around the country in a network format; City Screen has a few units, the now defunct i-Boards from VisionScape (a KUB family member) had 5 units installed in KL and JB from 2000-2003; Putrajaya has 3 units operational; and a smattering of single-unit operations scattered around the country.

As an emerging media system, LED video billboards offer the following:-

• a greater flexibility of use than conventional (static) billboards could ever provide
• with high brightness, high resolution, up to 4.33 Trillion brilliant colours and a large format, the conventional billboard has been transformed into the perfect high-tech electronic outdoor display medium
• ability to play video and graphic animations, in effect, screening specialized TV Commercials outdoors
• the electronic signs also act as a multiple message provider where one sign can show a loop of continuous messages
• changing or updating the visual or advertising message is easily done (and almost immediately) on almost any equipped PC, rather than having to send out a crew to pull down and replace a vinyl face --- not to mention the vinyl printing process
• increased yield per outdoor advertising site by displaying multiple advertisers on any given day
• one of the best feature of these electronic signs is the possibility of evolving them into a citywide, regional or nationwide display-advertising network controlled from a central hub (as in the case of VisionScape)
• the best prime and strategic sites in the city where conventional billboards and spectaculars are usually not allowed access by the local authorities. This is because of the high-tech attraction of electronic displays
  

Therefore, the sales training and media development session in Kuala Terengganu promises to be a challenging one. The mission is not only about converting a team of employees into sales professionals, but to teach them about this emerging and exciting outdoor electronic display medium, its features and benefits, the unique selling points, and the reasons why advertisers should utilize the medium as their specialist Brand Communicator to the buying public. New sales kits need to be developed, creative sales presentations prepared that can help sway customers' thinking into diverting some of their AdSpend away from conventional billboards and other media.

The potential in electronic outdoor display advertising is there, and it is a major one. Once the right formula is attained: visual format, pricing and price packages, screening times and and frequencies, screening durations per slot, demographic data, etc., I am pretty positive that electronic outdoor display advertising (I like to call it e-Outdoor) will be a major Brand Communications medium of the very near future.

Thank you. Your comments are solicited.

Shaharuman Shahadan

InfoConsult --- a discussion on professional selling: HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN SALES IN MALAYSIA

InfoConsult --- a discussion on professional selling: HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN SALES IN MALAYSIA

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN SALES IN MALAYSIA

My partner and I have been involved in professional selling in Malaysia and abroad for the last 36 years. We have received sales training both in Malaysia and the USA by some of the best trainers around. We have trained hundreds of selling personnel in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.

We see a vacuum in professional selling skills and techniques presently in the country, where influence and networking (which are useful sales enablers) are replacing plain good selling. Companies often hire “ready-made” sales people, mostly for their contacts and previous “experience” in like industry without regard as to whether such experience is relevant or genuine. Human development in good professional selling skills and techniques are neglected, and such hirees are left to their own devices. The irony is that, the top executives are the ones actually soliciting and procuring the sales, then feeling disappointed at the lackadaisical performance of their sales team.

Symptoms of inadequate selling ability, and poor sales management and leadership are indicated.

We strongly believe in the maxim that “A PROFESSIONAL IS AT HIS BEST … REGARDLESS”. Together, we wish to share the knowledge, skills, techniques and experience we have gained over the years as practicing salesmen, leading and managing sales teams, heading companies and operations, teaching and coaching salespeople, making major sales presentations and developing sales proposals to interested individuals and sales organizations in Malaysia.

We invite inquiries and comments from anywhere (Malaysia or overseas) and any discussion ensuing are most welcome.

Thank you.