Although educators may find their students’ devotion to their phones frustrating, digital communication infiltrates every aspect of our lives. Screen-saturated students and their parents expect to receive information in electronic form. School signs are no different.
When your district has invested in led school signs, you must also decide what information to put in a school marquee sign. These signs are so versatile, you can change the messaging every day to take advantage of the morning drop-off drill, where students arriving on foot, by bike or bus, or in cars driven by their parents will see your school sign.
Read on to explore some suggestions for school marquee sign messaging.
Promote Events
Reinforce the messages you send via email and text with signage that highlights upcoming events. Most will be aware of upcoming football and basketball games, but give the lesser-known teams a boost with messages about track, cross-country, tennis, and debate. Celebrate those victories on your sign.
You can also remind your entire community about upcoming fundraisers and school theater productions, plus band, choir, and orchestra concerts. Your sign will help you build audiences for students who work so hard to prepare excellent performances.
Finally, there are the social events: homecoming and spring formal dances, pep rallies, and community service days. Your sign can involve the entire community, not just students and parents, in what’s going on in the schools, inspiring greater participation and support.
Celebrate Academic Achievements
When your school places at or near the top of state testing or a senior student wins a prestigious scholarship, offer congratulations on your school sign. Display the names of colleges and universities that have accepted your graduating seniors or the percentage of your students taking AP exams.
Alert Parents to Upcoming Deadlines
A permission slip stuffed in a backpack is easy to forget, while a school marquee sign can issue a bold reminder that parental action is necessary. Remind parents of parent-teacher meeting schedules, PTO/PTA meetings, and days when students are out of school. Signs will help you avoid surprised and disappointed parents claiming they didn’t get adequate notice of schedule changes.
Display Emergency Information
When bad weather is in the forecast, alert your town with a message on your school sign. Issue reminders about disaster drills, school closures, and community preparedness. If bad weather, fires, or floods affect your community, schools are often scenes of refuge and sources of information.
Putting timely information on your LED school sign raises awareness of the school’s achievements and events. Use signage as an opportunity to involve the community and give notice to students and parents of deadlines and actions they need to take to ensure participation in events. Build school spirit by displaying the school’s name and mascot in colorful, animated, and eye-catching lighted displays.
For details and information on LED signs for schools, contact the experts at Guthman Signs. We can help you select the type of signage that will be most effective for your schools.
Every sign project comes with its fair share of customization and nuance. You need to know what aspects of the sign are most important to you, so that you can quote the appropriate vendors. This includes the cost, longevity, ease of installation, tech support, software, etc. It’s this step where you determine where the sign is going, and what size/resolution. You also delve into the design a bit so that you as the client can get an idea of what options are available.
2. Discovery Phase
Every city and county is different across the U.S. so it’s difficult to know what you’re “permitted” without reaching out to the local zoning office. Guthman Signs offers this service at $50, or the client is welcome to get that information themselves. This should be done FIRST, because it helps provide a framework for the quoting and designs. A business or church may WANT a 50 square foot sign, but only be “permitted” 32 square feet, for example. you get this information early on in the process so that there are no surprises when we go to pull permits for the installation of the sign.
3. Quoting and Design
Once you know the parameters you are working within via the zoning regulations, you can then work up different designs/quotes using all of our national vendors across the country. Often times we will send a video along with our quotes in an effort to explain how the various vendors differ in their offerings. You will then need to schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss the pros and cons of each option according to your preferences, and then go back to the vendors with your feedback.
4. Quote Comparison and Design questions
Because there isn’t ANYTHING we CAN’T build, this phase can sometimes take a bit. You have unlimited options for faux stone, brick, masonry etc. and access to quotes from 13 of the most popular LED vendors in the market. Our job is to streamline your access to ALL of the options out there, and provide unbiased feedback so that the client can make the best decision for their own unique circumstance. This is often the stage where we pit LED vendors against each other on your behalf in order to help drive down the cost for the client.
5. Final quote/design selection/scope of work (installation) paramaters
This is where you settle on the design, quote, and installation of the sign. Guthman Signs can be as hands-on, or hands-off as you’d like us to be with your sign project. We can simply ship you an LED display for self-installation, or provide a turn-key proposal including permits, install, etc. Our terms are 50-50. 50% of the overall sign project costs is required to begin production. Once the quote and design are also signed off on and sent back, we start the engineering process of the sign.
6. Permits/surveys
BEFORE we start building your sign, we need to make sure ALL necessary permits are approved. This is to make sure your organization isn’t on the hook to buy a sign that you aren’t permitted to have. This may involve electrical, building, and sign permits. Surveys may need to be done before or after providing a firm installation quote (depending on the scope of work.)
7. LED Sign Production
Once you have all permit/survey docs, you can put the LED sign “into production.” Depending on the customization of the sign, our signs typically range anywhere from 6-12 weeks to fabricate. Guthman Signs does provide much more information throughout this process than ANY other company in the market. When applicable, we will provide updates, including pictures of the progress being made throughout the entire build process.
8. Final 50% payment/sign shipment
Once the sign is ready to ship, we will invoice the final 50% of the overall project cost. Once that is received, we will provide tracking information and set up the shipping and receipt of the sign (whether that’s our turn-key solution, or us simply shipping the sign to you to install yourself.)
9. Software/tech support set-up
We will get you in touch with the LED provider for your sign and set you up for the software tutorial/demo. We will make sure you have all of the contact information for any and all potential issues moving forward.
10. Follow-up Quality Check call/email
We will check back in with you after a month or two to make sure everything is performing up to standards in case there are any “loose ends”.
Most churches have signage outside to identify the denomination they represent or to welcome all to services. But when you learn how LED signs can increase church attendance, you may consider upgrading from your static signage to something more customizable.
LED signs are dynamic message boards that can display updated messages as necessary, so each time someone sees it, they may see something new. Updating the message on an LED sign is as easy as typing new text, selecting some graphics, and clicking a few keys on a laptop to direct the software that runs the sign to display the new information.
LED Signs Welcome All
Houses of worship of all faiths benefit from LED signs because these signs allow them to communicate with the surrounding area. Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and meeting houses can all use signage to send messages of welcome to draw in curious newcomers and to lure returnees who’ve been out of the habit of attending services back to worship.
They Can Become Neighborhood Landmarks
People drive past your church every day of the week, so your church sign may become a local landmark. People may give guests and strangers directions using your sign as a point of reference. As a neighborhood fixture, an LED sign provides you with an opportunity to communicate not just your church’s name and the time you hold services but also upcoming events, scripture verses, and local news. People will come to rely on your church sign as a source of inspiration, a reminder of important events, or a supplier of uplifting local news. These notices draw interest—and they may draw more folks through the door.
Newcomers Often Look for Signs
Moving to a new town requires many adjustments, and one of them is finding a compatible congregation. Your church sign can act as a welcome wagon for new neighbors and convey your congregation’s personality in the messages you post. Piquing newcomers’ interest with a regularly updated welcome message may inspire them to choose your church for next Sunday’s service.
LED Signs Are Attractive and Budget Friendly
An electronic sign needn’t be garish or overly bright. The latest technology helps churches post legible greetings and sharp images that are both tasteful and informative. And although budget may be a concern, many congregations have found that installing LED signs is quite cost effective. Anyone who drives, bikes, or walks past will see the clear messaging, eliminating the need to print flyers and mailers to announce events. Reminders on the sign can direct congregants and guests to your website to download next week’s order of worship or sign up to bring food to the potluck.
LED signs can increase church attendance with current messaging that’s important to the neighborhood and attractive to newcomers. The Sign Specialists at Guthman Signs can help you choose the most appropriate digital church sign for your property. Contact Guthman Signs for information on how we can help your church thrive with new LED signage.
Signage can make a difference in a business’s success. New LED signs provide bright, clear signage that states your message in vibrant detail. There are several things to consider when choosing an LED sign.
Visual Quality and Image Resolution
The most important consideration for outdoor LED signs is visual quality. You want potential customers to notice the beauty of the sign and the information it conveys. You don’t want them to glance at your sign and think, “Wow, that looks choppy!”
LED signs display detailed images with vibrant colors. However, the image resolution required for maximum effect depends on the distance between the sign and viewers. Large signs meant to be seen from the highway require a larger “pixel pitch” than smaller signs intended for streetside or building display.
“Pixel pitch” is the distance from the center of one pixel to another. A “pixel” is a group of red, green, and blue LED lights. Signs meant to be seen from closer up require a smaller pixel pitch.
Durability and Weather Resistance
Outdoor signs must be sturdy and weather resistant. Consider the severity of wind storms in your area, the frequency of heavy precipitation, and other potential hazards like fire or earthquake. No sign will survive a major natural disaster completely intact, but you can choose weather-resistant signs that keep moisture out.
Adaptability
One of the most important things to consider when choosing an LED sign is the operating system that controls the message and images on the sign. If you change your message often, you may want to choose a synchronous system that reflects your changes the moment you make them.
If you won’t need to change your sign often, you can pre-program a few rotating messages to run automatically until you decide to re-program the sequence.
Zoning
Most areas have strict zoning requirements for business signage. Zoning requirements may affect the permissible size, brightness, and location of your sign. Be sure to check all applicable restrictions on the type of sign you can put up in your location to avoid costly mistakes.
Budget
Large LED billboards aren’t cheap, but they have been shown to have a positive return on investment by bringing in new customers and increasing sales. If your budget is tight, it is still possible to get the benefits of energy-efficient, bright, effective messaging by using a light-box arrangement or other less expensive design that uses LED lighting.
Contact Guthman Signs with any questions about what type of LED sign is right for your business. Our years of experience and expertise will help you select the most effective sign design to boost your bottom line.
Top 5 Ways to Care for Your LED Display and Increase its Longevity
Keep Ventilation in Mind
Make sure that your LED display is properly vented (whether that’s on the side, back, or front of the sign.) LEDs give off different levels of heat depending on the factory of origin when run for extended periods of time. So, it’s imperative that the air is able to freely move in and out of your sign in order to keep the components cooled and operating at the highest level. Review the factory manual or ask your Sign Specialist for model-specific guidance. Some LED vendors will actually try to nullify your warranty if you don’t properly vent their project. We are very familiar with the large range of products in the market, and this is why we quote the proper display to allow for proper ventilation in your unique situation.
LED Sign Content is Important
Limit the amount of pure white background you use. LED’s don’t just “die” one day and never turn back on again, like a normal light bulb, for example. LED’s are effective in outdoor displays because they shine bright enough to compete with the sunlight. That’s why you can’t just buy a regular old indoor TV and put it outside (aside from those also not being warrantied for outdoor use) and have it be effective. LED diodes degrade over time, and the rate of that is determined by the quality of the LED diodes. White is the color that requires the most output on LED displays, so if you limit those, you can extend the lifespan of your LED display.
Optimize the LED Sign’s Schedule
Through your sign’s control software, set the sign on a schedule, so that it’s running during high traffic hours, and maybe less so later into the night, for example. Running your display 24/7 is a surefire way to degrade the LED diodes the quickest. Organizations typically have an idea of when the majority of their “traffic” is coming throughout the day. Setting your sign to turn on at 7am and off at maybe 8pm will help you not only save money short term, but also extend the life of your sign. Careful scheduling like this can save you years of use on your sign.
Physical Maintenance
Clean the boards with regular dish detergent (a few drops per gallon of water) every 6 months. These displays are meant to stand up to extreme conditions, but it never hurts to help the situation a bit. Depending on the display, the more connection points you have in your LED display, the more potential “failure points” you have. The less debris and other contaminants you can keep off of and inside of your sign, the better.
NOTE: Do not pressure wash your sign. It potentially pushes water past barriers and/or into connections that are otherwise protected from the elements.
Restart/Refresh the LED Sign’s Controller
Shut the sign down and reboot it once every few months. A lot of companies update their software throughout the year, and the best way to make sure you’re up to date is to power the sign down every once in a while. This way, you know you’re up to date on your software, so that won’t be an issue when troubleshooting in the future.
NOTE: Do not restart or refresh your sign by manually cutting the power to the sign. Always follow the guidance in the manual provided by the factory.
Many areas require an independent laboratory listing be visible on electronic signs of any kind in order to provide a permit for installation. So, logically, it is often sought after. However, it can be extremely difficult to make sense of how an independent testing facility like UL, ETL, MET, or CSA, or others affect the way you should view the quality of any given product. The sign and display industry has made this particularly difficult since each company tries to make the case for their listing, or lack thereof, leaving you at a loss as to the truth of the matter. In this post, we’ll break down each of the top 3 listings to help separate the sales and marketing talk from the real truth of each. We’ll also include a few nuggets of info to help you decipher these options and verify them for yourself.
But first, it is important to understand just how these listings are given. Whether it is a single component, or a whole solution, like an LED church sign, for example, each manufacturer must pay the laboratory to submit their products to testing. The manufacturer works together with the laboratory to fix any issues causing the component or solution to fail any given test. Some laboratories also require regular visits to the manufacturer’s factory (usually 2-4 times per year) in order to verify that standards are being kept. These processes can be extremely costly, resulting in a higher-priced product in most cases.
#1 UL Listing (Underwriter Laboratories)
UL has been around the longest of the independent testing facilities and is widely recognized as a measure of quality and safety. For this reason, many sales companies and manufacturers alike tout UL as their quality standard.
However, claims do not always match up with the truth in these circumstances. The reason for this is that there are different types of UL Listings. You will often hear claims like UL Compliant, fulfills UL standards, or made with UL Listed components. These are red flags. Many factories use one or more components that are UL Listed, but leave the rest without any testing to cut costs while providing a quality statement.
The correct full listing of any given sign solution should read “UL Listed” with the trademarked UL Listed logo (see below).
Also, UL knows this is going on in many markets so they provide a free search tool where you can verify any company’s claims of being UL Listed. You can access that tool here: https://productiq.ulprospector.com/en/search
#2 ETL Listing (Edison Testing Laboratories)
The benefit of using ETL as the lab of choice for manufacturers is that they have a lower cost, and testing is generally a quicker process from start to finish, making it easier to innovate and change products while maintaining a quality listing. ETL is recognized by most of the same entities that accept UL Listing standards. The general rule is that ETL recognizes UL standards, but UL does not recognize ETL standards. Most experts in the signage industry, including outdoor LED signs, recognize both listings as acceptable. However, since ETL is lesser-known, many buyers feel it is substandard simply for the difference in brand recognition.
The ETL mark should be verified equivalent to the logo seen below.
In the past, MET laboratories were a competitive alternative to UL and ETL due to lower cost and a focus on OSHA standards rather than varying from those standards to create new required verifications that are billed to the manufacturers using their mark. In recent years, MET has grown enough that they decided to adopt the same tactics as ETL and UL in this sense, now requiring manufacturers to verify, and re-verify components and solutions previously confirmed as a way to make more money. However, MET laboratories do still focus on the OSHA requirements as a tactic to further verify their standing as a solid testing choice. Today, MET is an alternative that is still somewhat less expensive than ETL and UL, so many manufacturers are adopting the MET mark as their preferred show of compliance with quality and safety standards. MET visits factories 2 times per year for verification compared to up to 4 times a year required for many UL listed factories, depending on their size.
Most permitting offices accept MET marks for permitting in signage, but it is always a good idea to verify first before purchasing a MET labeled product for your outdoor electronic sign project, just to be sure.
It is always a good idea to verify the MET listing logo seen below as well.
Some people may not recognize the CSA mark, but it has indeed been a very reliable International Standards Development, Testing, Inspection, & Certification company based in Canada for over one hundred (100) years. Initially focused on building energy standards, they have branched into all fields including mental health and safety, and electronics including electronic signage such as LED signs and marquee displays as well.
In 1992 The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration accredited CSA as a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL). See notes below concerning the NRTL Listing process and background.
Manufacturers have claimed that CSA is much easier and more logical to work with because they have fewer fees and penalties. Reports are clear that CSA is more willing to allow for corrections to an issue prior to charging fees or penalties. This is at times seen as a weakness to the validity of the CSA mark. This is incorrect however, as such a perspective neglects to take into account that improvements still result from regular factory inspections. CSA proponents argue that this process is much better than draconian fees making, because it allows manufacturers to more freely expose issues and subsequently learn from them in much more effective fashion than perhaps they would have if they feared fees or other repercussions.
The CSA mark should be verified equivalent to the logo seen below.
A note on NRTL Listing (Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory)
You might notice claims concerning NRTL Listings for quality and safety standards while doing product research. NRTL is a program started by OSHA, and MET was the first to adopt this mark. The goal was to standardize the testing standards provided by the US government. However, this left UL, ETL, MET and others to simply add on to the OSHA standards as a way to set themselves apart as going above and beyond national standards, primarily as a marketing tactic.
According to the Sign Research Foundation, (https://signresearch.org/research/) sign quality directly impacts an organization’s ability to attract people in many ways.
The Good News:
This is true whether the organization is a business looking to improve revenue, a school looking to increase community involvement, or a church with a newfound need to reach out to the community and drive attendance, or a municipality seeking to improve community outreach and emergency communications.
Fact #1: 76% of people said they have entered an organization they had never been to before because of the sign.
By considering more creative styles and electronic message centers, you can capitalize on this fact by making your sign more unique, and thus, more noticeable.
Fact #2: 75% of people say they have referred someone to an organization solely because of the sign.
Referrals are any organization’s most prized engagement. LED signs create a sense of uniqueness, reliability, and trustworthiness, making them the best possible marketing tool for assisting referrals.
Fact #3: 67% of people purchased a product or service because the sign caught their eye.
Most signs are “invisible” to the passer-by. This is because typical sign designs are so common, that audiences become desensitized to signs that in the past would have captured their attention. With LED Digital displays you can avoid this problem. Instead of a normal sign, that doesn’t change, LED signs with ever-changing and unique content will make you stand out…
Fact #4: 50% of people said that an old or poor sign deterred them from entering a business.
Signs are often considered a decoration, or ornament for a property. Of course, signs can serve this purpose, and do it well, but many underestimate the power of signs. Signs are one of the most important marketing tools for an organization. Be sure to regularly check your sign and upgrade when needed to avoid a decline in marketing effectiveness and loss of revenue.
Fact #5: 68% of people believe a sign reflects the quality of an organization’s product or service.
With this in mind, creative styles and designs, as well as dynamic LED message centers are great for building confidence in your organization’s brand. Be creative and don’t be afraid to stand out with your sign design. Chances are, you are more creative than you think.
Fact #6: 60% of organizations that updated their signage saw a 10% increase in revenue.
If your sign is old, damaged, faded, or failing in some way, keep this in mind. It is virtually guaranteed that upgrading your signage will increase your marketing plan’s effectiveness.
Fact #7: 85% of your audience/customers/parishioners are within a 5-mile radius of your location.
The people you seek to serve most, are all within your reach. However, if you do not stand out, because of an outdated sign your organization will suffer losses as a result. Keep your sign updated, uniquely designed, and implement LED signs when possible, to stand out, build trust, and meet your organization’s goals as a result.
The use of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to buy advertising in real-time, instead of going through human negotiations and pre-set prices. In the early days, the number of publishers grew quicker than the number of advertisers – meaning there were more websites available than people willing to advertise on them. This left publishers with an oversupply of ad space, and large quantities of unsold inventory.
As a solution to this, ad networks were created. They were platforms that pooled unsold ad space from several publishers and made it available to advertisers at a discounted rate. The problem with this approach was targeting.
If you chose to advertise on a large publisher’s website there was no way of knowing who saw your ads. Products aimed at an audience of, say, people over the age of 50 could just as well be shown to 25 year-olds. This brought on the birth of Real-Time Bidding (RTB) – the first real instance of programmatic advertising.
Programmatic Targeting
The problem with this approach was targeting. There are a number of ways you can choose to target your ads with programmatic advertising, to achieve better accuracy and results. These are the most common strategies that advertisers use to target where their ads appear:
o Contextual Targeting
o Keyword Targeting
o Data Targeting (Audience targeting) i.e. cookies
o Geo-Targeting
o Retargeting
Programmatic Continues to Grow
Digital ad dollars as a percentage of ad spend are projected to more than double in a ten-year period.
According to emarketer, Programmatic is going to account for 86.5% of all digital ad spend in the US in 2021. The primary growth in ad spend will be in video, social media, mobile, and DOOH ads.
Top Trends in the Programmatic AD
AI in Programmatic Advertising:
Programmatic advertising statistics show that in 2020 one of the top trends is automation–– AI and machine learning. It is expected that by 2021 digital ad spend will increase by 88% in the US.
o Dynamic, data-driven, automated creative
By maximizing contextual relevance, such as time of day, weather, traffic, brands can manage contents to maximize media value.
o Predictive Analytics & Audience Targeting:
One of the primary benefits of AI in DOOH is unlocking of predictive analytics to allow agency and media to make better decisions
o The use of Artificial Intelligence in programmatic advertising will continue to rise. This is because it provides the marketers with a deluge of data that enables them to target the right people at the right time, through the right channel, on the right device, and with the right message.
Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Combined with Mobile Location Data
o Combined with mobile location data, DOOH is capable of redefining how advertisers/marketers can deal with the vital last mile between the store and home, or online and offline. A direct impact is guaranteed on the scale and speed of conversions while connecting advertising and buying.
o Marketers that use DOOH for their programmatic advertising can combine location data with their ads. This allows them to write content that can be tailor-made. This content’s reach can be immense, as brands can display their DOOH ads in locations like train or bus stations or shopping malls.
o Programmatic DOOH is a medium that is good-for-all. It will provide both experimental and performance marketing as it gets more accurate with first- and third-party information from companies.
5G Network will Enhance all Forms of Programmatic Advertising.
By 2030, the use of 5G tech is estimated to expand to 1.4 billion users. This means that programmatic advertising will have an ample audience to run sharper and more interactive ads without lags across mediums.
The high bandwidth speed of 5G enhances THE ADTECH ecosystem, allowing websites and videos to process faster, enabling precision of ad placement and delivery through the right mediums with perfect timing and with lightning speed.
Omnichannel or Integrated Programmatic Advertising is the Way to Go
o 49% of agencies are using their ad technology for programmatic media buys.
o According to New research by IPONWEB and ExchangeWire, 49% of the entire advertising fraternity is carrying out programmatic media buying with their technology. This is enabling the agencies to gain better performance across various vital media measurements and buying criteria. The research originates from a survey of 129 programmatic professionals. The research concluded that 58% of agencies in EMEA depend on their technology, while 56% used US agencies
Personalization will Remain Paramount
o Programmatic customization is increasing. This allows marketers to offer highly personalized and relevant messaging to a target group. In conjunction with AI predictive modeling, the programmatic ad technology can serve more specific messages at the right time and place.
Having a sign, be it an LED church sign or a changeable letter sign, has many benefits and very few downsides. It will help you speak directly and effectively with your community, and it will also allow you to strengthen your relationship with your congregation. Some churches use their signs for events, group updates, advertising, and in some cases, like below, to deliver a message that will cause a few laughs. The ability to easily change the message on an LED sign allows you to maximize its use.
Here are some of the funniest church signs sayings from many churches across the country:
1.Respect your parents, they passed school without Google
2.Looking for “Mr. Right”? This is his house!
3.Social distancing does not apply to God. Draw near to Him.
4.The struggle is real but so is God.
5.Hipster Jesus loved you before you were cool.
6.Whoever’s praying 4 snow, pleez stop!
7.You can’t enter heaven unless Jesus enters you.
8.Bring your sin to the altar and drop it like it’s hot!
9.This heat wave is temporary. Be certain you won’t face an eternal one!
10.Walmart is not the only saving place
11.Our church is like fudge, sweet with a few nuts.
12.The best vitamin for a christian is B1
13.You are on heaven’s most wanted list.
14.Cars aren’t the only thing recalled by their maker.
15.Jesus is coming look busy.
16.God wants spiritual fruit not religious nuts.
17.Don’t let worries kill you. Let the church help.
18.Staying in bed shouting, oh god! Does not constitute going to church.
19.The best way to the top is on your knees.
20.Under the same management for 2,000 years!
21.God wants full custody, not just weekend visits.
22.Tweet others as you would like to be tweeted.
23.Honk if you love Jesus text while driving if you want to meet him.
24.He who farts in church sits in his own pew.
25.A 4 inch tongue can bring a 6 foot man to his knees.
26.Ch__ch– What’s missing.
27.You give God the credit. Now give God the cash.
28.Lord, help us to be people our dogs think we are.
29.6 feet apart today is better than 6 feet under tomorrow.
30.Services cancelled God making house calls.
31.Don’t give up, Moses was once a basket case.
32.God loves you whether you like it or not.
33.Prayer. The original wireless connection!
34.If God had a refrigerator your picture would be on it.
35.Exercise daily. Walk with the lord.
36.How do we make Holy Water? We boil the Hell out of it
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Meet Our Partners, the series that we’re using to kind of get up close and personal with our vendors, our factory partners that we use all the time. The goal of this, obviously, to provide some more exposure from our factories, so you’d be able to talk directly to our customers when otherwise you might not be able to. So, today we’re doing Watchfire, one of our favorite companies out there that make awesome displays. This is Chris McGary from Watchfire, he’s been in the sign industry for over 15 years now, knows his stuff, so that’s why we invited him on. Hi, Chris.
Hey, Bob. Thank you very much for having me. Truly enjoy working with Guthman Signs and yourself, and I’m a big believer and enthusiast in LED Signage and what it can do for the end-users.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Of course, yeah. So, I guess we could start off with the basics, dive right in. Who’s Watchfire? What makes Watchfire different?
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Okay. Well, Watchfire has an 87-year history, and it’s one of a lot of consistency, because basically when you really pare down our product and the service and our customer base, we’ve been doing the same thing for 87 years. You may say, “Well, how’s that possible if LED signs haven’t been around for 87 years?” Which is true, but we got our start selling animated sign products. It was called Chaser Technology. So you see old pictures of neon signs that had motion, or movie marquees with colored light bulbs that go in a pattern. That was the technology that we sold.
Even back then, we sold the product through the sales channel we still use today through our reseller partners’ sign companies. So, over the years, the product has changed its appearance from time and temp units to bold message centers, to red message centers, single color to full color indoor and outdoor displays now. It’s always been the same thing through the same resellers. I think a big part of that is, we understand that our reseller partner is our customer, not the end-user and how that impacts the sale and customer support in the end.
I got into signs in 2002 up in the Florida Panhandle. It was very small sign company and had a couple sales that were almost a hundred thousand dollars and I thought I’d died and went to heaven. They were Watchfire signs and they were red monochrome signs, to a restaurant, to a beach store.
What really got me excited besides the price tag was the fact that the end-users rave to me about how much it helped their business. And I thought, “You know what? This could be big.” So I proceeded to try to sell a few more signs and found out that Watchfire was not the most inexpensive brand out there. One of the hotel owners gave me a quote of my competitor and I called him up and the guy told me about all the great signs he had sold, wanted me to meet him in Orlando. I went down and met him and was amazed. These big, full-color signs. And I thought, “Hey, I can do this in my own backyard.” Without giving you all the detail, I went through several different brands and several different heartaches and ended up coming back to Watchfire and having a good experience.
So, I think when you talk about what Watchfire is, and what makes us different. There’s a lot of people you can buy LED signs from out there and they all have varying degrees of quality. Obviously, I’m biased. I think we’re the best, but there’s a lot of people out there that have some signs that look good, that are somewhat reliable, that have customer support. But most of the time when you do your examination and you really look under the hood, they’re lacking somewhere. If they have a good customer service, then maybe the warranty isn’t really what you’re looking for. Maybe the sign doesn’t last quite as long, maybe the diodes aren’t the top grade. I really feel like the best thing about Watchfire is when you buy a Watchfire sign, you’re really guaranteed success.
If we’ve got a problem with the sign, we take care of it. Our dealer Guthman Signs helps us do that. You’re our boots on the ground, but we take care of problems. We take care of them promptly. There’s people out there that have their warranties that are taken care of through insurance companies. Seven years, six years, whatever the term, being able to get a part is one thing. But if it takes you two weeks to get it or months to get it, you’re not going to be very happy. I mean, one thing that I learned about these LED signs, Bob, was the customers always underestimate how much they help their business. As a result of that, they underestimate the frustration they’re going to have if it’s hard to program, if the communication system goes down and it’s the middle of January and their signs saying Merry Christmas, it’s embarrassing. It doesn’t look good.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
So now we know the history of Watchfire. That’s a lot of years. You learn a few things during those many years. Like you said, we got to look under the hood to see the differences and understand more. So, looks like you have something there for us to describe for us. Thank you.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Yeah. So, in our factory, in Danville, Illinois, which is where we’ve been for over 85 years, we employ over 350 people. I think one of the things that really sets us apart is the fact that we conceive, develop, engineer, test, manufacture, market, and service our digital products all from one facility. So, if engineering is looking at developing brightness in a six millimeter SMD product, they can build the product, test the product, and revise the product all under one roof, under real conditions. We have a testing lab with accelerated failure testing that we can use, customer service.
If one of our customers has a module go out on a board and they see a problem, two or three signs are having the same problem, service can go to engineering, they can pull the batch number and look at the test results from those and troubleshoot and see if there is something that was missed. Hopefully, there wasn’t, but all that data and all the people all the way through the manufacturing product process and the service design engineering is all under one roof. Engineering is all in one section. So they have meetings, they’ve got their product development and everything is… There’s a lot of synergy developed from this. We’re not subcontracting things out and not understanding what we’re getting. So, that really helps a lot.
The other thing is, we’ve got all the records, we’ve got over 65,000 signs installed across the country. Every one of those signs has a history that they can go back and look at to check and see if there’s an abnormal issue, or if they make a change in manufacturing, does that increase the longevity of the product? Does that improve the product? So, in my mind, that’s a big differentiator. The other thing is, you’ve been to our factory, it’s a great place to bring our reseller partners to understand our business and see how it’s done. You get to be more of an expert and much more confident in the product we provide.
What Makes an LED Sign Display from Watchfire Last So Long?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
I do hear a lot, you’ve mentioned I think three or four times, the word long longevity is big with Watchfire obviously. What makes an LED sign from Watchfire last longer? I guess that’s the most simple way I can ask that.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
So, we make digital signs. That’s fairly well established, but the key component of any digital sign, whether it’s a Watchfire, an imported brand or Brand X or modules, this is the fundamental building block of the sign. It’s got your diodes on the front and that’s a very important, the biggest cost factor of the sign. But the real longevity is in the engineering. I’ve put one of our main competitor’s modules on one side, and I’ve put ours on the other. I’ve got some arrows highlighting some of the key components. One, you can see the matte… I guess I would call it matte clear finish that encapsulates all the electronics on our module. That is a Silicon gel encapsulation. It’s about an eighth of an inch thick.
We go to the sign shows. We get teased a lot because we’ve put this in a fish tank and run it, and nobody runs times underwater. It’s theatrics. But the point is, it’s weatherproof. We’re here in Florida, I know you sell signs all over the world and we do as well. But the Florida market is in fact, one of the harshest between hurricanes, heat, humidity… Nothing messes LED signs up like corrosion. So, one of the biggest building blocks, one of the biggest things we do is the Silicon encapsulation. Keeps all the moisture off the electronics and eliminates a lot of problems that way.
If you see the arrow going to the middle, there’s a little black square on there. That is an integrated circuit, a little microchip. What that chip does is several things. One, it does some of the control at the module level, whether it cause to color blending, brightness, starting and stopping. Each module has some control on itself. It’s not just getting data from the controller that runs the entire sign. So we’re not sending as much data across the sign as some of the competitors. Which allows… If you see the two receptacles up above the IC chip, there’re Molex outdoor rated connections from our data. These basically you can see they’re outdoor rated. Those are weatherproof connections. Only nine connection points per module.
When you go to the right, you see that module, and at the top and bottom, you see ribbon connections. 20 connections coming in 20 connections going out. 40 in all. That’s that’s 40 potential failure points. One is not really outdoor rated, but there’s just so many connections. There’s a lot more opportunity for failure and moisture to get in there. It’s not encapsulated. All your resistors and solder joints and whatnot are going to be exposed to the weather.
A lot of people say, “Well this is inside the sign. It’s not in the weather,” but I mean, you still have ventilation and air flow through the cabinet. We know if it’s 95% humidity, there’s going to be moisture in there. The power connection, you see it’s an exposed connection compared to the Molex connections that we’re using.
The other thing that the smart module with the IC chip does is, allows us to do remote diagnostics on the sign. Our billboard… Brethren we’re the largest domestic billboard supplier in the United States. That allows for remote diagnostics. Our tech support can go through a wireless broadband communication and run diagnostics on the sign, either next day or second day, a power supply or a module or whatever it is and our dealer partner is going out to do a part replacement, not tear the sign apart to diagnose the problem to order parts and come back a second time. So there’s a lot that goes into it, but this is one of the big factors. These are the building blocks. Doesn’t matter what kind of cabinet you have, what kind of controller you have. If you don’t have a good module, you’re going to have a lot more problems.
One other thing why we have good longevity is, if we need a part replaced during the warranty or after the warranty, the module you get is from the same manufacturing batch as the original sign. So we may have to tweak the brightness a little bit if it’s an older sign, but the color here, the color palette will match up and you won’t get the tiling effect that you see on some of the LED signs.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Can you describe tiling? That’s an industry term I’m thinking people might not understand that it’s important.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Yeah. They say tiling, they say quilting, but basically what it is, if you have like colors on a sign… We have square modules. Some people have different sizes, but basically, you can see differentiation between the modules where the brightness or the colors don’t match exactly. It doesn’t look good, detracts from the sign.
How Does Watchfire Provide Customer Support?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
So the question is, what actually makes the sign last longer? Not just that. What makes Watchfire service a little bit different?
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Another big factor would be tech service. Like I said, we’ve got a very high quality product, but there is a time when you need service and your customers, the end users, are not going to be patient because the sign makes them money and they want it back up and go on. We pay shipping on our parts. We don’t ask to get a part. Some people… You have a certain failure rate you’ve got to hit before you can get a new module. Some people you actually have to ship a module there and having them repair that. We’re shipping replacement parts, next day, second day. You will definitely, if you have to service a Watchfire sign, an LED sign, nobody is going to take care of an issue faster than we will.
There’s 15 people on a phone bank. If the call answer rate dips below 93% in five minutes, we add somebody. That’s how we determine when we need to have more help. These people are experts. They’re not reading an owner’s manual and having you try to turn it on and off. They know what they’re doing and our dealers really appreciate what they do for sure.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Yeah and by default, the customer experience becomes better.
What Mistakes Can Clients Avoid?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
After people look at Watchfire and they’re looking at other options, like most people do, what would the mistakes be that they might make in that process that you could help them avoid?
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Well, we get it all the time, Watchfire is the expensive brand. Like I’d tried to explain in the beginning, we’re not perfect, but if we do have a problem, we take care of it in a timely manner. The end user has a good experience. We’ve got the unlimited software support, unlimited tech service via the phone, if not in person. So when you look at the other alternatives out there, I think that it’s hard. What you don’t want to take as an answer is just as good as Watchfire. Look at the software, make sure that you’re comfortable with that. I mean, this is probably as expensive or more expensive than last car somebody bought. They went to a dealership, they test drove it, they looked at different options, there wasn’t any question about that.
The other thing is look at some signs out there. They may not be possible with some other 2002, 2003, but talk to some customers. I mean, one of the nice things that I like to use as references, is people that have bought multiple signs over multiple years. I think it’s okay if I say this, Sonny’s BBQ franchise here in Florida has bought 15 signs from us over five years. If they were having problems with the first sign, they wouldn’t buy the second one, if they had problems with the sixth sign… People can give you one reference sign, but if you find somebody that’s bought multiples, I think that’s a great reference point to be able to use.
But just look at it very closely. It’s the law of economics, things are priced where they think they need to be to create value. I think one of the things that a lot of people mistakenly do is, there’s a lot of risk aversion to these LED signs because people are scared because they see some that don’t work or they see one in front of a business that doesn’t work. There’s two ways to minimize risk. One is, spend less money and two is be sure of what you’re doing. So I like to take the be sure what you’re doing approach myself.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Well, we do too, for sure. I wanted to add one thing to that note though, that’s super important to go look out. We always recommend people, if they have a question they’re looking at two or three different brands, if we can at all, we’ll send them a local list of signs in their area they can go look at from those factors, when and if available. I think an important part of that is to ask if possible, find out how long that sign has been installed too. Does it fit a Watchfire or Daktronics or a Cirrus or a Vantage, or a lot, a lot, a lot, XYZ, whatever company you want to name.
If it’s been out there for 20 years, it’s going to look bad. If it’s been out there for a year and it looks bad, that’s a different story. Right? So those are variables that longer term signs… They can definitely tell you the story of what a factory is capable of. At least give you an inkling. Products, change. People are [inaudible 00:23:15] days, but it’ll at least give you a better idea than if you went in blind and… The reason why I’m bringing this up and harping on it is because I’ve heard too many times. I think it’s typically smaller signs companies that do this, maybe smaller local companies, even they don’t do a lot of LED signs. So they send people to the first one that they know that’s near them. They always send them to the one that’s a couple of years old. The one that’s still looking awesome and they know it looks awesome. So they’re going to send you there. I would ask for examples more than one and ask how long they’ve been out there. That’s all.
How Does Watchfire’s Software Work?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
So we get the question all the time about software. How am I going to operate this thing? Is it difficult? Is it easy? Do I have to take a bunch of training? How much is this going to clog up my day to day life? As a business, church, school, municipality, whoever it is. Literally, everybody is worried about that. They don’t want to complicate their life with a new sign. They want it to make their life easier. So, how important is software? Obviously, it’s important, but maybe people don’t understand why and how it’s important as it pertains to LED signs. So I thought I’d asked you that.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Okay. Alright. Well, I use the software a lot, so I probably think it’s easier to use than it is. I hate when people have four or five people controlling a sign. I mean, if it’s a church or a school, maybe that’s different, but for somebody who’s primary business, I think you really want somebody dedicated. If somebody is in charge of putting content on the sign, they will take pride in that. If it’s not their responsibility, it’ll be a nuisance. If it’s a nuisance to somebody, I don’t care how good the software is, you’ll know it’s a problem because they won’t have good contempt. There are lot of tools in the software. I’d definitely do anything in my power to avoid somebody buying a Monochrome Sign.
I mean texts and we’re in a digital world, whether it’s your phone, your computer, your television, you want pictures and graphics and texts on your sign to attract customers or parishioners or whatever you’re you’re looking to do. The more you change with the scheduling aspect of our software, or most of the softwares out there, you can program your sign ahead of time for 4th of July, and then July 5th, that will drop off the sign. You don’t have to continually logging on to the sign, changing the messages. You can add something once or change a schedule once and it will automatically take care of itself. You definitely want to… For advanced users that are creating content third party graphics, you’re really only using the software to set the schedule. I mean, if you have a very good designer that is going to create content in the right format, in the right pixel count, all you’re doing is adding an image and saying when you want it to play.
If you don’t have somebody with those skills, you want to make sure the software has some cropping and scaling abilities because it’s very easy, somebody could take a picture with their phone of a cute dog at the vet and put that picture up on the sign when the owner comes back… And it should be easy. And it is, with our product. But I mean, it’s just the cutting and cropping text box… It’s got to be user-friendly like that, and it’s got to have scheduling capabilities and you’ve got to have somebody that it’s their vested interest to keep the sign running and running good.
Several years ago, I had a subway restaurant call me up and they were very disappointed because they put 241 six inch sub add up and didn’t sell any more subs. As much as I wanted to call him a liar on the phone, I knew there was something I was missing. So I said, “Next time I’m there. I’ll give you a call and we’ll take a look at it.” Next week I went in and it was a two foot by seven foot sign that had like six lines of tiny text on it that you could read. I was like, “Okay, I believe you didn’t steal any six inch stuff with that. Nobody can read it.” So, the more you change the sign, the better results you get, the better results you get… Not to sound corny about it, if the person is interested and has some skills, I think it can actually be kind of fun.
One thing that we had done that has been a nice advancement for us, is we had a PC-based software, which was our OP software. Then we had our cloud-based software, which was OPX. Sometimes people would get confused because they were both… Your connectivity was through wireless broadband. In other words, there’s a cell modem on the sign and all you need is an internet connection either for the PC or for any device if you’re going to the cloud. The OP was a little more remedial in a sense that you could take a picture and load it on there through various means. But with the OPX software now, it’s got a message editor built in and with that, the people that aren’t doing third-party graphics and illustrator or different formats can actually create content in there. So, we’re pushing more and more people to the cloud now.
How Can Watchfire Help Clients Learn More?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
So aside from, obviously, providing tons of information like you have today to help in the buyer’s journey to kind of figure out what they should be looking at, things they should watch out for et cetera. What other ways can and does Watchfire support the end user in that kind of journey to help them understand and find new ways to kind of figure out what to do in this debacle. They’re looking at sometimes five, six different options.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Yeah, it can be a very overwhelming process. I know it’s overwhelming. You can see the confusion. Sometimes we go meet with customers and they’ll say, “Oh, well, you don’t use that encapsulation. Do you? That leads to overheating.” And you’re like, “Okay.” But the thing of it is, no matter what brand they buy, it’s going to be an expensive sign. It helps everybody involved in the process. The better idea they have of what they’re getting… In any sale process, you want your customer’s expectations to be in line with what they’re getting. If they think they’re getting… Well, I guess if they think they want to get the most for their money, but they don’t want to be surprised. If they’re getting more than they think they’re getting, it’s a good thing, but if they’re getting less, that’s not a good thing.
One of the things that we started doing and I thought that it was more dealer support in the beginning, but I think it’s really more end user support. We do have demo trucks and basically, we will go out and show the customer examples. I’ll get on their website or their Facebook page and take some of the pictures and some of the ads that they’ve done and put those on a 10 millimeter or different resolutions and let them see those. Do you like the way this looks? Is this good enough resolution? Do you need a higher resolution? Show them the software. Help them explain… Show them the module like I showed earlier so that they see, “Hey, this is different. This is better.” Show them a traffic count that.
We did a sign in Orlando, I did one with the dealer and they wanted to do all building signs and we showed them a traffic count and said, “You got 72,000 cars a day driving by here. Building signs are nice, but you want a road sign with a message center, blast, and your advertisements’ on that.” We took the price and divided it over. I mean, I’ll tell you exactly what it was. It was a $150,000 sign. There was a lot of trepidation there, as you can imagine. We amortize that out over 60 months, and it was 2,500 a month about the cost of a billboard ad, $83 a day.
Their business model was… A typical customer was going to spend $200. So they got this monstrous sign for $83 a day to get people to come in and spend $200. When you can demonstrate things like that and let them understand the value that they’re getting, let them see the quality of the sign, the resolution, the software, it makes it a better process. The customer feels better about it. It’s just good. It’s good for everybody involved. Even if they don’t buy a sign from us, you know what, they’re not going to be one of those people that think that they found a gold nugget on the internet that nobody else knows about.
How To Measure An LED Sign’s Impact?
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
How do I find out what the impact is going to be of the sign on my business, school, church, whatever. What are the variables or what are the ways that they can look at their future and kind of pick out the crystal ball and say, “Once I have the sign up, these are the numbers that I’m working with, or this is how it works.” I know it has to do with traffic obviously, but you guys got that kind of down to a science from what I understand. So I wanted to get you to give just a brief overview of that. So people understand how it’s done.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Yeah. Several years ago, the SBA did a study and I don’t really use it a lot because I actually thought it sounded too good. But they said that LED signs if used properly, would improve sales for business by 10% or 15%. I think I’d feel very comfortable with 10%. Typically, if you improve somebody’s business 10%, the ROI is going to be about nine months. We see a lot of ROIs under a year. So that’s good. But I think helping them understand the cost per month, cost per day, will… Back to a different subway guy. I’m not a big subway.
But one of the ones we sold, the guy figured out his cost per day was… It was $17. He was going to lease the sign for $500 a month. So it’s about $17 a day. He’s like, “$17 a day!” I forget what the number, he said, how many lunches or sandwiches, but it wasn’t very much. He’d have it covered before halfway pointed lunch every day. So that’s one of the things. But 10%, if a restaurant’s doing a million and a half, 10%! $150,000! I mean, I don’t know what their margin is, but there’s at the end of the day, Bob, there’s a reason you see all these signs out there.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Right. Right.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Radio, TV, newspaper, those forms of advertising just don’t really work as much. You look at online advertising, that’s expensive, but most businesses are very particular about where they set up. If they’re going to rely on traffic, people coming in off the street and after all this time, it amazes me still today, how business will be there for 25 years and they put an LED sign up and somebody walks in and says, “Oh, how long have you been here?” Frankly, the owners actually get upset. For a long time.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Right. Right. Of course. They’re like, “We’ve been here forever.” What I don’t hear though, on the other side of that, what we don’t hear, I can only speak for what we’ve seen and heard, but we’ve never heard of a company, church, school, municipality doesn’t matter the sector really, if someone has owned an LED sign for their organization, they don’t go backwards. You know what I mean? They don’t go backwards to just a regular old panel sign or something like that. If anything, they upgrade, they go to a higher definition, full color, whatever, maybe larger, [crosstalk 00:38:04]
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
Well, we actually have an upgrade program that helps offset the price. If somebody has gotten bitten by a poor quality sign, or if they just have an old monochrome sign, that’s worn out. So I think in Florida last year… I want to say between 25 and 30% of our sales was replacement signs. Although some of the people have some remorse and they’re not happy that they’re signed, doesn’t look good anymore, they spent money. They always say, “Well, while the sign worked, it got us more business.” So like you said, nobody questions whether it’s going to help or not.
Bob Norman, Guthman Signs:
Right. Right. I think that’s helpful because so many people hear the one-off stories. Everyone’s got a success story for their product. So the question is just, what are you going to pick? And how? And why? Then I think we’ve answered a lot of those questions today. So really do appreciate your time, Chris, if there’s anything that you would like to say or add to the kind of send us home, let us know.
Chris McGary, Watchfire Signs:
No, I guess in closing, all I would say is, there’s a lot of options out there. They all work. There’s a range of the effectiveness and it just do the due diligence, like I said, and make sure the expectation is in line with what they’re actually going to get. The on-premise LED advertising works. No question.
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