Article

Digital signage at the dentist

Implant manufacturer launches waiting room network.    

December 9, 2007

Sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's office, the choice of entertainment can be pretty small. The selection is usually limited to a mixture of dental care brochures, Sports Illustrateds from 1997 and various Highlights for Children. But one network provider is looking to change that through digital signage.

 

On Monday, digital network provider c3ms and dental implant solution provider Nobel Biocare launched a digital signage network that will be installed in 200 dentist's offices across North America by the end of December. Nobel Biocare holds a majority market share in the dental implant industry and reported more than $900 million in revenue for 2007.

 

After a year of collaborative work between Nobel, c3ms and hardware provider Real Digital Media, the NobelVision Network will narrowcast channels of dental and oral care information to flatscreen monitors placed in dentist's waiting rooms. Nobel Biocare will provide the digital signage network to dentists who participate in partnerships with the company to purchase implants.

 

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The company has plans of expanding the network to 1,200 North American locations by the end of 2008, with plans to add global locations after that.

 

Max Engel is a satellite and digital signage communications analyst with Frost & Sullivan. He preaches that digital signage has the ability to perform four main functions: advertising, marketing, wait time reduction and education. Engel said that NobelVision is unique in that it encompasses all four.

 

"I've never seen a more complete use of the possibilities of digital signage, at least to date," he said.

 

Not just ads, education, too

 

The NobelVision Network serves two main purposes, one that occurs during business hours and one that is fulfilled after the offices close. During the day, the network will narrowcast an array dental health and general wellness information. The content will come in various forms, such as 10 minute informational spots and standard 30-second ads. The spots will be aimed at patients thinking about esthetic procedures.

 

In addition the informational spots, the network will also serve a patient entertainment role by providing dental trivia and health and wellness info as well as news and weather updates through a news ticker.

 

"Dentists want to be clinical providers, not come off as sales people," said Kevin Mosher, vice president and general management for Nobel Biocare, North America.

 

Content will run on a two-hour loop that can be customized to each particular office. Since certain dentists may have contracts to use specific products, said Ray Heiser, managing partner of c3ms. He said network will use the SpotSwap program, part of RDM's NEOCAST software, to ensure that info spots about competing products won't run in their offices.

 

"Dentists have no real time to educate patients on their services," Heiser said. "Patients can now come in to the office and ask about things they have just seen."

 

After hours, the network becomes a medium for dentists to learn about new products and procedures through video seminars, leveraging continued education, something required in the dental industry.

 

Mosher said that Nobel Biocare trains about 75,000 dentists a year on using its products, and generally has to fly them to seminars and sessions.

 

The network will provide those same training courses and seminars that can be viewed by the dentists after the office closes, eliminating the need for travel. For the office staff, Nobel is working with dental office software providers to narrowcast training content for software updates and new programs.

 

This, of course, also opens the door for advertisers looking to market products such as Novocaine and dental instruments directly to the dentists, something that patients in the waiting room may have no real interest in.

 

The solution itself consists of LG 32-inch LCD displays, although Ken Goldberg, CEO of Real Digital Media, said that some offices may be using 42-inch displays, depending on their size. The network is backed by RDM's NEOCAST server and the company's Media Player GS is placed in each office to store, play and log content. Goldberg said the media players operate on a pull, not push system, where the units periodically "check-in" with the server to receive new updates and content.

 

Unique in the industry

 

Nikki Baird, a managing partner of Retail Systems Research, said that while waiting room digital signage isn't new, the NobelVision network is unique because of two things. For one, the network is being created and driven by a manufacturer.

 

"Usually, networks are put in place by a large retailer, such as Wal-Mart, or an intermediary like PRN or SignStorey," Baird said. "This model eliminates having to get all the parties together to launch the network."

 

Baird also said that having the manufacturer operate the network eliminates the difficulty of a network provider first having to convince deployers that digital signage will be supported by advertisers, while at same time getting advertisers to buy into the network based on interest from deployers.

 

"NobelVision creates a greater sense of security for all parties since they know that a large company is already on board to advertise," Baird said.

 

And Nobel Biocare is indeed a large and well-known company in the dental industry.

 

"It's as if Frito-Lay went to a grocer and asked to install a signage network in exchange for certain order volumes," Baird said.