They're calling it the “fourth screen.” If the first three screens are your television at home; your computer at home or at work; and the portable screen (iPod, Blackberry, Palm Pilot, etc.) you carry with you; the fourth screen is the one that greets you in the store or mall -– large, high-definition and loaded with store information, product enticements, special offers, ads and the like.

There's little doubt that in-store digital media are making their way throughout stores and malls across the world, with a great deal of promise to reinvent the retailer-customer connection. Is that promise always met? Unfortunately, while there are soaring success stories, there are also enough tales of woe – blank screens, pointless content, enormous investments, shopper ennui – to make retailers wary.

At the same time, retailers are heartened by the stories of successful implementations, powerful content, mesmerized shoppers, better customer service and resultant sales lifts. As such, they'll be interested in the winners of the second annual Digital Retailers of the Year awards, presented by VM+SD and ExpoNation and handed out at the Digital Retailing Expo in May in Rosemont, Ill.

The six category winners all demonstrated understandings of what they need to tell customers, how best to tell those stories and how best to integrate the infrastructure (wiring, placement of screens, etc.).

Design Integration

The winner in the Environmental Design Integration category was Movado Group (Paramus, N.J.), the international seller of watches that wanted to enhance the customer experience at its new flagship store in The Short Hills (N.J.) Mall, one of the more upscale shopping centers in the country. This included nine LCD screens of various sizes in custom wood enclosures, intermixed in three in-wall display cases. Content, which is the promotion of the retailer's premium lines, is driven from a single player PC with three video outputs and a series of high-quality video splitters.

Three different streams of video content are coordinated in the three screens of each showcase, producing separate but synchronized images. And, as per intent, the focus was to have a dynamic way of changing the feel of the environment without changing the overall atmosphere of the store's design. And Movado is able to monitor, schedule and update content from any web-enabled PC.

The software and system were developed by Nanonation (Lincoln, Neb.). idX Corp. (St. Louis) produced the custom wood enclosures.

Interactivity Innovation

Winner in the Interactivity Innovation category was Nygard Intl. Ltd. (Winnipeg, Man.), the apparel retailer that introduced smart tables from GFX Intl. Inc. (Grayslake, Ill.) in its new Toronto store. The merchandised tables, equipped with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, sense a shopper approaching. Before she does, a loop is running with pleasant generic content. But once she nears the table, the RFID sensors switch the content to specific promotional material about the merchandise. And when merchandise is lifted from the table, content switches again to imagery and information specific to that particular SKU.

The patented, double-sided LCD screens are called Dupli-View, which mimics the form and function of a traditional retail signage fixture. The proprietary software driving the RFID functionality can also be programmed to report on customer interaction with the table and the merchandise on it. Antennae, readers and CPUs are all integrated into the table, not interfering with the fixture's design or function, so the table can be placed anywhere in the store environment.

Creative Content

Winner for Best in Class Creative Content: Retail Store was Chicago fashion designer Lara Miller, who wanted to create a runway fashion dynamic for her fixtures in specialty stores and boutiques. Dynamic signage allowed them to show the dress on a model in a variety of ways of tying, flipping and otherwise altering the garment. GFX Intl. Inc. produced the software, fixtures and content (including art direction, video, editing and music production).

Best in Class Creative Content: Transportation went to an escalator installation in the London Underground Rail Network by Viacom Outdoor Intl. (London), a unit of U.S. display company CBS Outdoor (New York). At the core of the system are synchronized 23-in. LCD displays with built-in media players using technology from Digital View Ltd. (London). As the 3 million daily passengers descend the long escalators in London's Tube stations, cascading images ride down the side of the escalator, from screen to screen, on rugged, vandal-proof displays, providing travel and safety information and product advertising.

Best in Class Creative Content: Hospitality went to the interactive kiosks deployed by Carnival Cruise Lines (Miami), to provide wayfinding, answer travelers' questions and offer some entertainment. Carnival installed 15 individual kiosks on six of its vessels. Onboard locations – in the casino, photo gallery, shore tours desk and pursers information area, directly opposite customer service desks – were carefully evaluated as areas of greatest passenger interest.

So was the design of the kiosks. Large buttons and bright colors accommodated older guests. Positioning of buttons accommodated tall and short, adult and child, passengers. Some kiosks had content only in the bottom third of the screen. And the kiosks were designed to be sturdy, as befitted a moving-vessel location.

Information is updated remotely over satellite networks. The provider of the Actalyst interactive digital signage was Smart Technologies (Calgary, Alta.).

The award for Best in Class Creative Content: Financial went to HSBC bank in Dubai International City (a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings, London). Digital screens from Specialized Software Services LLC (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) with software from Scala Inc. (Philadelphia) were used to enhance internal communications between bank management and staff on matters of product, procedure and strategy. “A well-informed staff understanding the bank's objectives is a key goal for us,” says Ahmed Maher, IT regional manager for HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd. “Our aim was a modern paperless communication tool that catches employees' attention and is flexible and quick to deploy.”

Based on the initial success of the employee communications program, HSBC has begun the second phase of the project: installing additional screens in the customer facing area.

Entries for The Digital Retailer of the Year Awards are nominated exclusively by exhibitors and sponsors of Digital Retailing Expo. To be considered for the 2007 awards, DRE exhibitors and sponsors should email their nominees to Chris Gibbs at chris@exponation.net. An official call for entries will begin in January 2007.