Almo Professional A/V had already been leveraging its relationship with digital signage content and creative company Insteo, led by creative director Jim Nista, to provide the distributor’s digital signage integrator customers with a service that allows them to go beyond hardware and sell content creation. As Almo Professional A/V acquires Insteo, that content creation service is solidified.
[related]As part of the acquisition, Jim Nista, digital graphics design pioneer and founder of Insteo, will indeed run the Almo content creation team.
Nista is no stranger to Commercial Integrator’s audience. With a shared emphasis that AV integrators ought to rethink their often-too-hardware-centric approach to selling digital signage and instead lead with the content and emotional aspects of the solution, Almo Pro A/V and CI have conducted several webinars about digital signage content creation – often with Jim Nista as an expert panelist.
Here’s Nista talking about how the term “digital signage” itself is probably too technical for most customers’ priorities. “Very rarely does a customer use that term. That’s a tech term. That’s our term,” Nista says. “Technology is a means to an end for them.”
Watch the entire webinar here.
Why Acquiring Insteo Makes Sense for Almo Professional A/V
Almo Pro A/V has been beating the drum that the ability to deliver content creation is critical for a digital signage provider – and, by the way, it’s a great source of recurring revenue.
Digital signage … “Very rarely does a customer use that term. That’s a tech term. That’s our term,” Jim Nista says.
The acquisition of Insteo, according to executive VP and COO Sam Taylor, gives us the ability to greatly advance what we can offer our partners in terms of expanded platforms, including Insteo’s proprietary cloud signage.”
Accoring to Aylor, through working Almo content creation services integrators “can customize their content for each install and at the outset of every project based specifically on size, scope and budget. Because we now have an entire team of experts on staff, we can offer an expedited quote and project management process with increased responsiveness.”
There’s also a geographic benefit to Almo’s acquisition of Insteo. “In addition to the U.S., these services can be accessed throughout Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean, and we have plans for expansion,” Taylor says. “Through Jim Nista’s visionary insight and success as the founder of Insteo, this acquisition solidifies our leadership role in the creative content arena with new platforms and other exciting developments on the horizon.”
Related: CI’s State of Digital Signage Market in 2018
There is also a comfort level for Almo Pro A/V in working with Insteo – and vice versa, says Nista, now senior director of Content Creation Services, Almo Professional A/V. “Together over the last year, Almo and Insteo have expanded partnerships with AV integrators, IT service providers and traditional print sign shops to help them grow their content and creative services for digital signage,” he says. “Almo’s position in the industry as the largest distributor and a leader in managed services makes the acquisition an ideal next step for partners to offer complete digital signage solutions, increase revenue and become more competitive.”
Here’s Nista talking about how, though sales conversations, it’s important to blend the customer’s emphasis on content with the real-world need for hardware:
Watch the entire webinar here.
What Insteo Brings to Almo Pro A/V (from press release):
The Insteo Display CMS platform supports menu boards, directories, interactive wayfinders, digital bulletin boards and more. Insteo also develops content for all major CMS platforms, including BrightSign’s BrightAuthor, Samsung’s MagicInfo, Rise Vision, and many others.
Creative content options include:
- Cloud Templates: Pre-designed content templates for businesses of any size allow for immediate content edits from any web browser. The large library of templates is for digital menu boards, lobby directories, real estate listings project boards and more. Clients can change prices, tenants or any other line item from any web browser and from anywhere in the world.
- Custom Content: Award-winning designers and programmers help create unique digital signage interactive content for static and interactive displays to fit the exact needs of a project. Custom content includes data integration, touch screens, video development, motion graphics and custom programming.
