From Bill Gerba's comments:

If I had to pick one concept to latch onto, it would be that the format is least annoying to consumers. After all, if a TV viewer or radio listener doesn't like a commercial, he can simply change the channel, and there's still a good chance that he'll change back after a while. Newspaper and magazine readers simply have to turn a page or two. But if a shopper gets really turned off by an in-store ad, she could just walk out, and that translates directly into lost sales revenue. Thus, while retailers can make huge gains by effectively marketing at retail, they also risk irritating shoppers and reducing customer loyalty. With this in mind, it's encouraging to learn that when it comes to digital signage, shoppers have indicated that they find ads on the screens to be unique, eye-catching and entertaining -- and less annoying than virtually any other medium out there today.

Link (Wirespring)

According to the sponsor,

The study was designed to gain deeper insight into how people engage with and respond to digital signage advertising. A few of the questions that the study answers are:

* How effective is advertising on digital signs?
* Is digital out-of-home media a better way to engage people who are busy and difficult to reach?
* How does digital signage advertising compare to other media?

Study is here.

This looks like essentially a multimedia business card. Remember when people were doing these on mini CD-ROMs? Trouble was, you had to actually put the thing into your computer in order to see the content - and sometimes they even got stuck in there (many drives couldn't handle the odd sizes).

This one, by contrast, is a self-contained player. You load it up with content via USB (so clearly it'll be re-loadable), and it's got a battery that lets it display content independent of a computer.

In addition to the obvious business-card use, I can also see this playing a role in a sweepstakes - kind of a multimedia scratch & win, maybe.

From the Gizmag article:

[N]ow this novel new technology that lends itself to countless business applications is hitting the market at a cost of around USD$40 (though previous predictions had the price at $25).

The number of potential business development applications for the device are huge - photo companies can sell them to customers to use as an updateable digital portfolio, real-estate brokers can load images of properties onto the card to tempt prospective buyers, product reps can build relationships by presenting new services on the card to prospects at trade shows or on sales calls, pharmaceutical firms can educate physicians about new treatments via the card and retailers can run promotions and giveaways using information presented on the card.

From the rCard site:

It is an electronic device the size of a thick business card with a high-resolution, color screen that displays slide shows, graphics, photos, text and videos.

Thanks to Rob Webber for the lead.

Top line: Email and search marketing eclipse online display ads as the most prominent elements in the interactive marketing mix, while social media — like blogs, podcasts, RSS, social networks, and online video — are strong up-and-comers. But mobile and game marketing are relatively ignored.

Among Forrester's recommendations: Start adopting now to keep up with your customers who already actively use emerging technologies. Advanced online ad targeting, RSS, and blogs provide the easiest entry points.

Ilya Vedrashko asks: How do people come up with these numbers that in-game advertising is going to grow to $1B by 2011 if 70-80% of marketers are not even planning to go there in the next year? And 2011 is in three years.

Interactive Marketing Channels To Watch In 2007 by Brian Haven - Forrester Research

NOTE: Free registration at Forrester required to view full report.

Virgin America have announced that "sometime in 2008" you'll be able to connect to the internet from their flights, using either your own device (laptop, PDA, etc.) or their seatback-screen based application.
More info here and here.

Seth Godin weighs in on the advantages of doing things because they're the right thing to do, and how that impacts your standing and success in your community.

From the post:

In an industry in which anyone can claim to be an expert, [a] firm's connections and relationships confirm that they are the real deal.

Link