Signagelive, meldCX Pair Up For Modern Take On AI-Shaped And Triggered Messaging In Retail

January 24, 2024 by Dave Haynes

That oft-used phrase “everything old is new again” comes to mind reading an announcement this morning about a software company using third-party computer vision algorithms to deliver content based on the audience and moments.

It’s something that probably goes back 15 years, but keeps resurfacing as the technology matures and increases in sophistication, and end-users buy more deeply into the concept and opportunity.

UK CMS software company Signagelive has announced a partner integration with the audience measurement technology of Australian start-up meldCX, positioning the use of anonymous sensors and AI as a way to tune and optimize content to the audience, and then develop a measured sense of the impacts on things like sales or awareness.

From PR:

When paired with either a ChromeOS, Windows media player or BrightSign device and a compatible camera, the combined solution leverages the power of advanced vision analytics to improve digital signage outcomes and deliver insight-driven content that is programmed to the preferred target demographics or pre-determined scenarios and behaviours like dwell time and/or attention. 

With meldCX’s Content at the Right Opportunity (COATRO) module, customers can monitor advertising campaigns, according to target persona groups, as well as conduct A/B testing. Through integration with Signagelive’s platform for Proof of Play data, it’s also possible to measure how campaigns perform at specific times and places by checking playback analytics against sales reports and/or other business metrics.  

These anonymous data analytics give customers everything they need to build more accurate audience profiles, and then use the combined solution to automatically trigger much more personalized content.

With Signagelive, the advanced scheduling functionality can be used to select precisely the right time and screen/s to which campaigns should be delivered, and live content is easy to update in real time, if and when required. 

The combined solution is built to have a transformative effect in any sector or application from retail and hospitality right the way through to corporate environments, and transport. 

With meldCX’s Viana Inference Rules Engine, the AI can be used to set business rules which trained to identify pre-defined factors, such as but not limited to demographic grouping, behaviour, product and zone engagement, vehicle types, journey profiling and even the items of clothing worn in the camera’s field of view. 

These rules can also be tailored to anonymously identify and be programmed to look for multiple scenarios that would feed or trigger content decisions, along with the ability to customize for a specific need – such as waiting threshold that could trigger entertainment content or messaging to minimize bulking. 

The integration of Signagelive with meldCX is, according to Jason Cremins, Signagelive CEO, the most straightforward way to harness vision AI for any digital signage strategy: “The introduction of AI has been game-changing, but so far, its power has proven difficult and often costly to harness, with no clear benefits and return on investment.

Our integration with meldCX cuts out much of the complexity of adopting AI-powered digital signage, only requiring you to have a compatible player and AI camera. Without the need for developers, you can apply it to any everyday business scenario, whether that’s to personalizing content for different workplace teams, or upselling to selected customer personas.” 

Stephen Borg, CEO, meldCX, adds, “We are excited to bring this collaboration to the market. The seamless integration allows customers to shift from programmed signage to an intelligent framework for communication, engagement, analysis and optimization across a wide range of use cases, based on the context of that moment in time and supported by accountability and effectiveness. This is far beyond gender, age and sentiment that the industry has become accustomed to which has been limited in its impact to date.

The power to understand customer conversion rates and discover actionable insights, influence AI generated content can make real differences to marketing strategies, have been the missing piece for some time and now we can address that challenge”. 

The meldCX integration will be demo’d next week at Signagelive’s stand at ISE – Hall 6, 6G820.

I was just talking about this sort of thing yesterday: the merits of using computer vision – or what’s referred to here as vision AI (I kinda like that) – to shape and trigger content based on who is in front of the screen. It is something that has been touted, I’m thinking, for perhaps 15 years, going back to Quividi’s early years and particularly to CognoVision, after it was acquired by Intel back in 2010.

Here’s a video from way back then touting all of this:

Back then, the big, big challenges of doing this sort of thing was the cost of the hardware and supporting software, and the complexity of integration. It was also long before AI was an everyday topic, and the early days for computer-driven measurement and targeting for brands and their agency partners.

This stuff is far more affordable to use now (I think in the early days the cameras alone were like $1,500), and far easier to integrate with other software and then use.

But I still think the premise of tuning messaging down to current viewers is a lot to take on, and more than needed. Understanding the characteristics and patterns of people in front of and round screens is more workable, and probably more helpful in terms of both targeted messaging and generated insights.

Other companies like France’s Quividi and Miami’s AdMobilize have standalone platforms that are also integrated with CMS partners, while Spectrio has an in-house solution via its acquisition last year of inReality (radar-based, not cameras), while Raydiant has used its acquisition of SightCorp to build computer vision into its solution stack.