If you’ve had an opportunity to step into any Fortune 50 firm’s headquarters, lobby or waiting area recently, chances are you’ve seen some incredibly compelling and advanced digital signage installations.
Witness the latest remodel of Adobe’s HQ in San Francisco, the Price Waterhouse Coopers installation on London’s Left bank of the Thames river, Caterpillar headquarters in IL, KeyNote’s new HQ in San Mateo, CA- RMG’s corporate lobby in Dallas TX, Maxim’s Touch wall in Seattle, WA… the list goes on and on.
In fact, we’d go so far as to call it an arms-race, a competition, a “keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s”!
From video walls to large-format touch panels to wall – and even floor! – projection-mapping, each of these examples are cutting edge digital experiences. Regardless of whether you call it refined digital signage, “tech-o-rating” or just really advanced, old-fashioned AV installations, we are seeing more and more firms create engaging digital experiences. Now, on a repeatable, Monday-to-Friday, everyday world it’s possible to get close to immersive, trade-show-type environments and experiences.
Go into any lobby these days and gone are the days of the friendly receptionist asking you if you’d like water and then 15 minutes to sit on the couch and sift through a 5-month old version of “Better Homes and Gardens.”
Now brands and firms are engaging with you from the moment you walk through the door, keeping you entertained, reducing perceived wait time.
Why? Why this outlay of capital and focus on compelling experiences? Does any of this matter in the online, virtual, be-anywhere world?
Yes!
Fortune 50 firms – and some of the MOST virtual brands (Facebook, LinkedIn, KeyNote, etc) understand that lobbies and corporate HQ are still “ground zero” in the interaction between brands and the physical world and, as such, are years ahead of other locations and installations.
In general, firms are pursuing these experiences as their lobbies serve 3 main groups:
- Prospective Employees – In the global war for talent, firms need to make a compelling case as to why they should work there, not somewhere else.
- Customers – With in-person sales call still a reality, is there a better way to impress prospective clients then to walk them through an impressive lobby experience that discusses company background, history, markets served, etc?
- Current Employees – what better way to inspire, educate and motivate current employees than an impressive entrance and exit each and every day? Showing your firms’ best face to the people “on the inside” is a powerful, motivating force.
Expect to see more and more of these innovative, cutting-edge installations at a lobby and corporate waiting room near you soon.
