I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with the Digital Signage Association since it’s inception a few years ago, as well as membership in the SSKA (Self Service & Kiosk Association).  In the past few months both of those organizations combined into one non profit association which makes my life a lot easier.  The new association is the Digital ScreenMedia Association ( notice how the kept the DSA moniker). And with a membership of over 650 end users, deployers, manufacturers and agencies it is a pretty powerful organization.

I’ve been the chairperson for the DSA Marketing & PR committee for about 1.5 years now and with the merger of the two associations and two committees it was a bit up in the air if I would be the new combined committee chairperson or if the esteemed Bill Lynch of the SSKA committee would lead going forwards.   Well it’s official that I am indeed the new chairperson of the combined committee and we had our first conference call a few weeks ago to engage the now larger committee.  It was a great call as we reviewed old news and new items including some very exciting programs we will be recommending to the board.   I can’t speak of them yet but I’m hopeful they will make an impact in the marketing of the DSA, giving us several PR opportunities and help fulfill the mission of the DSA.   More word on this when it’s public knowledge.

To learn more about the DSA and get involved as a user/integrator/agency of digital signage, mobile or kiosk technologies visit their web site at: http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org/

With the winter Olympics currently underway and recent record amounts of snowfall, you might find yourself inspired to take to the slopes this year. Thanks to a local company, your experience at Cincinnati’s closest ski resort is now more informative and accessible for ski experts and novices alike.

Electronic Art, an interactive agency specializing in touch screen kiosks, digital signage and integrated websites, recently integrated digital signage hardware and screen management software at Perfect North Slopes in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Burke, Founder and President of Electronic Art, was named chair of the PR & Marketing Committee for the Digital Signage Association on May 5, in Las Vegas, during a board meeting prior to the 2009 KioskCom Self Service Expo.

In this role, Burke plans to provide marketing and PR guidance to promote the awareness of the industry association and increase membership. He expects to work with other association committees to help them achieve their missions as well.

“Marketing is one of my key strengths. I’ll help drive awareness through social media, trade shows and other events with attendees that consume digital signage,” Burke said.

Burke’s first goal is to get the DSA involved with the Cincinnati Digital Non-Conference to be held on Sept. 24 – 25, which provides a targeted audience for the DSA to provide education and drive awareness of the association. He will also encourage involvement in the Digital Signage Expo and other events that serve to educate agencies, media and IT professionals, architects, and property management firms about digital signage.

DSA members are some of the most prominent and respected suppliers in the digital signage industry. Other committee chairpersons were named at the board meeting, including Margot Myers of the Platt Retail Institute, the chair of the Education & Certification committee, and Greg Masingill of Seneca Data, the chair of the Membership committee.

“Our industry has grown tremendously in the past three years and is expected to double in size by 2012. I want to help lead the organization meet its mission and play a role in that industry growth,” Burke said.

For more information about Electronic Art, contact Tim Burke at (513) 321-1771 or tburke@electronicart.com, or visit www.ElectronicArt.com.

About the Digital Signage Association

The purpose of the Digital Signage Association (DSA) is to accelerate the growth and advance the excellence of digital signage deployments worldwide. The DSA strives to help those deploying digital signage solutions be as successful as possible. The Association is built on three pillars: advocacy, education and networking. For more information, visit http://www.digitalsignageassociation.com.

About Electronic Art

Electronic Art (www.ElectronicArt.com) is a Cincinnati-based interactive agency specializing in kiosks and digital signage as well as many related online services. Originally founded in 1998 and incorporated in 2002, Electronic Art began primarily as a Web studio offering high end custom programming, ecommerce, and design. Electronic Art provides custom solutions for many industries in kiosks, digital signage and website development. Sales of kiosk and digital signage hardware allow for a complete solution from one vendor, and an onsite IT staff handles build, integration and support needs.

We wanted to let you know that Electronic Art has launched a first of its kind social networking sweepstakes service named Twit2Win.  The service allows brands to target the growing audience on social networks with sweepstakes to promote their brand and grow their presence with the social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and many other platforms.  A new sweepstakes is started weekly to provide a continual reason for the loyal followers to return to the site and enter the branded sweepstakes and win free prizes.  It is an opportunity to expose your brand by allowing the entrants to share the sweepstakes within their own social circle of friends.  This can grow exponentially!

Although sharing by the consumer is totally up to them, this is not something you can expect to “control”.  If your sweeps prize or your brand message is interesting, they will share it.  Some marketers have a hard time with giving up control, but with social media, that is exactly what you have to do.

So, how might your company use this service? Some brands have a global reach and their products or services are universal. Giving away one or several of your products is a great way to promote your brand and also gain lead generation from the entrants to the sweepstakes.  Other companies may not have a product to give away such as a non-profit or charity, but they can still participate by providing highly sought after consumer goods such as Ipods, HDTV’s, vacations or other similar items.  For a small fee, Twit2Win brands the main web site for the duration of the sweepstakes with the sponsor’s logos and imagery and provides many link back services to the sponsor’s web sites or presence on Twitter, Facebook, etc..  We can help your brand grow its social media presence or simply help provide the lead generation services you desire. There are many other services available and the innovative team at Electronic Art can consult with your team to craft a targeted campaign. If your brand or agency would like to participate, contact us for details.  We are making it really low cost initially to show you how great this can be for your brand.

In the short time since our launch in mid January 2009 we have really grown our following of people who read the micro-blog postings each day.  The prizes have included ipods, Obama Hope posters during the inauguration week, and a family membership to a museum.  That museum saw a 45% increase in the people who now follow their blog postings during that sweepstakes.  Interestingly, it also grew dramatically in the weeks following the sweepstakes as people continued to share. They now have a larger audience of people reading their blogs and visiting their web site daily.

Twit2Win continues to grow and offer additional services across more platforms.  Twit2Win advertises and draws traffic from Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other grass roots marketing methods.  Our blogging professionals promote the sweepstakes on Twitter and multiple other social networking sites such as Facebook, Friend Finder and other sites to drive traffic and generate sweepstakes entries. The growth in a short amount of time shows the popularity of the sweepstakes in this unique channel. We expect our growth to be huge in 2009 as each of these platforms continue to add new users.

Things people are saying

On Twitter, people send “Tweets” or posts to their personal network about things they are thinking about or that they find interesting.  Here are a few posts about the Twit2Win service on Twitter:

joeyTWOwheels @twit2win should be recognized as a good way to build followers. 1:11 PM Jan 31st from web

anexemines @kmesiab , ppl getting clever w/ twitter sweepstake ideas: http://twit2win.com/ 9:44 PM Jan 28th from TweetDeck

So follow us on Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/Twit2Win and watch for our tweets on cool Tweetstakes from great brands that “get” social media.  Reward your customers, authenticate your brand and gain new socially aware advocates!

Links to articles on Twitter and Social Media

New to Twitter and social media, here are some articles to help.

• The Top 20 Social Networks of 2008
• 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them
• Twitter’s Massive 2008: 752 Percent Growth

CINCINNATI – Electronic Art has partnered with Scala, a pioneer in digital signage, to provide clients access to InfoChannel, the most widely-deployed digital signage software platform in the world. Electronic Art has been given a certified partner status to enable digital signage network management using the Scala InfoChannel tools. This high-end enterprise-level content management system for digital signage will allow Electronic Art to integrate large scale deployments with advanced content features built into the Scala toolsets.

Electronic Art already provides content, hardware and management of out-of-home networks using more simplistic tools, but this new partnership will allow their reach to include global deployments and rich data driven content. As a Scala InfoChannel Value Added Reseller, Electronic Art can provide Scala licensing, software, installation and support in addition to digital signage content. Scala-approved player hardware is also available in addition to the multiple LCD vendors that Electronic Art resells, such as LG, Samsung & Phillips.

“We are proud to be recognized as a certified partner of such a renowned company. Scala is cutting-edge and we are committing Electronic Art to be on the same level,” said Tim Burke, President of Electronic Art.

In November, Electronic Art employees traveled to Scala’s corporate office in Exton, Pa., to receive training on Scala’s InfoChannel and InfoChannel Designer software. This training ensures that Electronic Art can support all of their clients’ InfoChannel needs.

For more information about Electronic Art, contact Tim Burke at (513) 321-1771 or tburke@electronicart.com, or visit www.ElectronicArt.com.

About Scala’s InfoChannel

InfoChannel is Scala’s digital signage management suite that provides enterprise level features and scalability for large and medium size installations. InfoChannel provides the ability to collaboratively create, publish, schedule and centrally control media-rich content that can be delivered and dynamically localized at the point of playback to one or thousands of networked displays . As the leader in Dynamic Digital Signage solutions since 1987, the technology has field-proven scalability and 24/7 reliability.

About Electronic Art

Electronic Art (www.ElectronicArt.com) is a Cincinnati-based interactive agency specializing in kiosks and digital signage as well as many related online services. Originally founded in 1998 and incorporated in 2002, Electronic Art began primarily as a Web studio offering high end custom programming, ecommerce, and design. Electronic Art provides custom solutions for many industries in kiosks, digital signage and Web site development. Sales of kiosk and digital signage hardware allow for a complete solution from one vendor, and an onsite IT staff handles build, integration and support needs.

CINCINNATI – Electronic Art, an interactive agency specializing in custom kiosk software, kiosk hardware and integrated Web sites, will be providing services for two new clients, Adplex and Engagement Health.

Electronic Art is creating a kiosk for one of Adplex’s retail food clients as part of its customer loyalty program that allows account management and in-store printing of rewards. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Adplex is a strategic marketing solutions company with a focus on customer relationships and communication that drive measurable value. Visit www.adplex.com for more information.

In addition, Electronic Art has signed Engagement Health, of Westchester, Ill., as a client. Electronic Art will provide kiosk software applications to be used in corporate wellness programs that reduce healthcare costs for both the employee and the corporation. The kiosks incorporate specialty hardware for measurement of blood pressure, weight and other unique data items to help employees monitor their progress towards healthy living. Visit www.engagementhealth.com for more information.

For more information about Electronic Art, contact Tim Burke at (513) 321-1771 or visit www.ElectronicArt.com.

About Electronic Art

Electronic Art (www.ElectronicArt.com) is a Cincinnati-based interactive agency specializing in kiosks and digital signage as well as many related online services. Originally founded in 1998 and incorporated in 2002, Electronic Art began primarily as a Web studio offering high end custom programming, ecommerce, and design. Electronic Art provides custom solutions for many industries in kiosks, digital signage and Web site development. Sales of kiosk and digital signage hardware allow for a complete solution from one vendor, and an onsite IT staff handles build, integration and support needs.

Statewide Ohio Underground Railroad Tourism Program Underway

CINCINNATI - Electronic Art (www.ElectronicArt.com), an interactive agency specializing in custom kiosk software, kiosk hardware and integrated Web sites, recently installed interactive kiosks and custom-designed software at the Ohio Historical Society building in Columbus, Ohio, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

These two kiosks are part of the “Passage to Freedom” initiative, which promotes tourism to historical sites throughout the state that relate to the Underground Railroad. Visitors can access detailed information about the site and its history using touch screen interfaces, simple navigation, and focused content. Electronic Art’s EasyShip XL model kiosks also showcase nearby points of interest and events to make a visit to the area complete.

Each kiosk is linked to the Web site www.passagetofreedomohio.com, and is constantly updated with the latest information about local and regional events, such as fairs, arts and cultural festivities, and children’s activities. Read the rest of this entry »