At the Digital Signage Expo, Cisco announced the expansion of the Cisco Digital Media Creative Services offering to make it easier for customers to develop and display captivating visual content for digital signage. Building on its portfolio of digital signage solutions, Cisco is expanding its partner ecosystem of content strategy and production experts to build a large advisory network for digital signage content. Cisco's end-to-end offering addresses all stages of the content lifecycle, from business assessment to strategy formulation and dynamic content design.

While the number of digital signs across the globe continues to grow, sign owners still struggle to find a compelling content strategy to match their business goals and deliver an optimal return on investment (ROI). By expanding its Digital Media Creative Services offering, Cisco will help customers optimize their best-in-class digital signage technology with best-in-class content, with the aim that all digital signage installations achieve powerful visual impact and maximum value.

New content strategy partners

Cisco is joining forces with many of the industry's top content strategy companies, including OgilvyAction, Imperative Group, StoreStream Metrics, Alchemy (part of St. Joseph Communications) and MEDIAmobz. The addition of solutions from these new partners to Cisco's Digital Media Creative Services portfolio will provide customers with enhanced measurement, analysis and recommendations on content strategy and design. It will also allow customers more options to build content strategy with a specific ROI costing model in mind to focus their digital signs on meeting communication objectives and enhancing the customer experience

New syndicated content channels

New partners, including Blue Pond Media, BlueFox, HeadsAndTails and Virtual Scenery, will bring pre-produced, syndicated digital signage content channels to the Cisco Digital Media Creative Services offering. These channels can allow the simple selection and purchase of digital signage content to run on open playlist slots in any vertical market environment and save significant time and development costs associated with producing proprietary visual material

Expansion of Cisco Academy of digital signage

Since its launch, the Cisco Academy of Digital Signage has trained more than 500 media professionals to create and optimize media content for digital signage. Instructor-led courses have been held in six countries across the globe, including the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and, most recently, Lebanon. This year, the Cisco Academy of Digital Signage will expand into additional regions, including South America, Asia and the Middle East.

"Cisco understands the critical role that dynamic content plays in the digital signage industry,” said Thomas Wyatt, vice president and general manager, Digital Media Systems business unit, Cisco. “Therefore, we are excited to bring together such a strong group of content strategists and producers as part of our Digital Media Creative Services offering, to help ensure that our customers always have fast and easy access to high-quality digital signage content for any vertical market."