RMS unveils its own freebie offer

March 19, 2008 by Dave Haynes

I was just writing the other day about Indian companies releasing “free” DS software and how this was going to happen more and more, when Florida-based content shop RMS Networks released its own, called rVue.

RMS Networks, the leading internet-based, digital media and marketing agency, launched rVue, a digital signage software offering on Wednesday that helps operators sell advertising faster and fill unsold slots on their networks.

rVue, which RMS said has already been field tested by many businesses, is designed to streamline how ads are placed on digital signage networks and generate performance reports detailing how successful those ads are in playback, including click through-rates by the outlets and revenue paid by the advertisers for those clicks.

Click-through rates??? On a digital screen???

RMS said rVue’s main purpose is to ease some of the problems that come with a quality exchange between operators and advertisers on a digital signage network. The service, hosted by RMS, allows advertisers and operators to access it through the Web.

Other software management companies charge for similar applications and management services, including Broadsign and Scala.

Well, that’s a little cheeky.

rVue is flexible enough to let operators sell their own advertising, RMS said. For ad space they can’t sell, operators can opt to use rVue’s keyword matching system to fill unsold slots.

RMS’ rVue platform delivers full motion video advertisements that are matched with the relevant digital signage outlets. RMS will let advertisers upload their spots for free and allow the outlets to create a playlist with the approved spots and receive value for doing so.

As has already been noted, my masters have the audacity to actually charge a small fee for its services. But then it also comes with 10 years of R&D and 15 full-time developers and testers, so maybe it’s not quite the same thing.

What this is, once you look a little closer, is a basic platform that looks very much like a way for RMS (which is a content production house, and well regarded for that) to distribute its content and those of clients. And build a network for little cost.

Having done a lot of work, for years, in the auto sector, the rVue product is geared towards that. Users who sign up can choose from some 800 content segments and built their own basic playlists, or choose from some 25 canned playlists.

There is also the option to upload your own spots and bake them into a playlist.

On even closer examination you can sort out that the rVue software platform is really a way for RMS, if it gets the take-up from dealers and other auto sector people, to build a screen footprint and ad spot distribution network without taking on any of the capital burden or business development grief.

rVue, the website says, provides access to outlets and targeted customers at the time of purchase, and rich analytics to track performance, ROI and results. rVue is the ultimate medium that allows you to reach your targeted audience at or near the time of purchase. Interested in advertising on rVue.com?

So … Here’s our software, free. Here’s our content, free. And here’s our advertising content, also free. You get a marketing medium and a slick-looking professional reel, with upsell stuff driving people into your service plans and so on. If you’re good you might make some money on local ad buys.

We get a screen network without spending much real money. And a way to tap national ad buys, and maybe content production budgets.

Clever.

I still don’t get how the screens are going to track click-throughs, since this isn’t the Web and these screens don’t likely have mice attached.