Increase visitor satisfaction, social media followership, and the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns through the use of television. Our articles focus on TV solutions for waiting rooms, lobbies, displays and employee break rooms for medical, automotive, restaurants, retail, public and private companies.
Easy to Manage One or Multiple Business TV Screens
Do you have a business or practice with more than one location? Many managers, franchise owners, and practice managers have found it to be increasingly difficult to get a consistent message out to multiple locations.
Printing and distributing fliers or emailing announcements often get overlooked, and are hard to police. We’ve found that being able to put the messaging up directly is the best way. But how can you control all of your TVs from one place? It’s Relevant TV makes it easy.
iPhone X (Apple iPhone 10)
It’s as easy as accessing logging in to the website or free iPhone/iPad app and selecting what you want to have shown on your screens. The settings can be updated 24/7 from anywhere.
You can control one or multiple screens at once. This gives national brands dual level control. You can design ads, mix in images, change your social media preferences, and upload videos of your own. And best of all, the messages you distribute get seen! They garner more attention by being mixed with TV programs your customers want to watch.
It’s your TV, make it work for you!
It’s Relevant features more than just TV content. Custom messaging and weather from each location’s zip code are easily added and managed. The service gives you the ability to reach out to visitors in ways you can’t with basic cable. IRTV can be linked to your social media feeds, showcasing your most recent posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It’s Relevant TV’s platform boasts a number of features that make the digital signage/video service an invaluable tool for businesses. Its library of 500,000+ short-form content licensed for public display is the largest of its kind, with the videos are spread across 40+ categories – allowing you to customize your waiting room TVs in ways that just aren’t possible with basic cable. One might expect a system as innovative as IRTV to be complicated, or run the risk of being too confusing to operate – but it’s easy!
You’re Always in Control
One of It’s Relevant’s most handy features, is Competetive Ad Block®. Competetive Ad Block® does what it says, it blocks competitive ads from showing up on your TV. With it in place, you never run the risk of people in your business seeing an ad for a “better” or more enticing deal across the street. Businesses that settle for basic cable have no control over outside messaging.
The most valued feature of It’s Relevant TV is the free ad space which allows you to expose visitors to your brand and promotions. Between, and during videos, you have the option to showcase your brand on the side of the screen and inform visitors of any services or specials you want them to see. New products and services, catering, limited-time offers, members rewards, or even staff highlights, are just a few of the things you can promote.
Employees watching TV at work is frustrating if you’re a business owner, or you’re in charge of managing a business. If you have TVs in your business, you probably put them there for the benefit of your customers. But have your employees become the primary audience instead? If you fear that this is the case, follow this link and check out the solution we recommend.
Today, TVs are a utility that fewer and fewer businesses are without. A growing number of locations with sit-downs or long expected waits have a TV somewhere within sight. With all of the TVs in businesses, an important question comes to mind; who chooses what’s on?
It shouldn’t be your employees!
Where’s the Remote, and Who is in Control?
This varies from business to business. Example: in a setting like a bar or restaurant, the remote might not be available to customers- whereas in a waiting room, the remote might be there for any visitors to control. However in some cases, an employee is the one in charge of the remote. When an employee decides what to put on the TV, he or she might very well put something on the that they want to watch, instead of something that the customers, or visitors, would rather have on.
The TV is a wonderful distraction for visitors. Unfortunately, it can be just as distracting for employees.
One thing is true; the fact that people want to change the channel at all illustrates that even with thousands of channels out there, it is nearly impossible to pick one that everyone will enjoy.
What’s the Perfect Channel?
People and personality types are as diverse as a bag of M&Ms; you won’t be able to please everyone by putting on a channel that only caters to one or two colors. In order to appeal to the interests of all of your visitors, you need an all-inclusive channel that changes between content types. The greater the diversity in content, the more eyes you can attract to your TV.
It’s Relevant is focused on customer retention. The service prioritizes the people who are in your business with the intention of getting them to come back more, and spend more. Unlike cable bills that are flat expenses and give nothing back, IRTV is designed to generate revenue through its engaging features and put money into your pockets.
Are your employees watching TV when they should be working? If they’re in control of the television and you’re not around, there’s a good chance that they are. Allowing it to continue is doing a disservice to your business, and your visitors who want to watch the TV. It’s Relevant TV can help you put meaningful programming on the TV to keep customers engaged, and make you more money.
As technology grows and becomes more innovative, more and more business owners are turning to DIY solutions and beginning to explore new ways of doing things. We live in an age where reaching out and connecting with people is as easy as pressing a button – though just as easily, someone is capable of finding you and following you online or on social media – which when it comes to businesses, can be a potential client or customer’s first impression of your brand.
It’s Never Been More Important to Reach Your Visitors
A business wouldn’t be a business without people coming in and giving you their time and money. That’s why any respectable business will always invest in the comfort and consideration of the people who come to frequent their establishment. The most common means of catering to the comfort of visitors is the Television. TVs hang in the lobbies of medical offices, hospitals have TVs in their waiting areas, and bars and restaurants have them so people can watch as they eat.
Medical Waiting Room TV
With customer comfort being the priority it is, it only makes sense for business owners to invest in ways to make waiting areas more inviting. Those who run something other than basic cable tend to settle on one of a few do-it-yourself alternatives. People try things ranging from stiff looping slideshows, digital signs, and streaming sticks, to playing DVDs. While these options have no regular monetary cost, they provide no real value to your business. Certain solutions may be illegal depending upon what you are showing. (See the article: Using Netflix & DVDs in Your Business).
So what’s the solution?
When homegrown DIY alternatives fall short of providing an ideal the answer is a custom TV network for your business. A network that brings the TV programs in legally and lets you message to your customers at the same time.
With It’s Relevant TV, it’s just easy. It’s Relevant gives you access to a living network, which features short-form family-friendly content designed with business settings in mind. The service allows you to customize your TV, giving you control over which categories play and what visitors see. It’s Relevant can also be used to display posts from social media accounts in real-time. This helps you to further positively promote your brand and get people to follow you online.
Who could ever forget that line? If you watched any infomercials during the 90’s, then chances are you’ve heard of the inventor, salespersona, and founder of Ronco; Ron Popeil. Now if you haven’t watched the video and left to get a mouth-watering rotisserie chicken by this point, let’s take a closer look at that famous slogan.
Set It and Forget It.
The idea of “Set it and Forget it” was a major selling point of the Showtime Rotisserie. We’re all busy people, and the less effort we have to put in to get things done the better. Plain and simple; why would someone slave over the hassle of making a chicken when you had a tool to manage the hard parts for you? Especially when you need to focus other things.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with managing something yourself. If you enjoy doing the hard work, power to you; however if you’re a business owner, time is money.
It’s Relevant TV provides a “set it and forget it” service for your business TV. The custom channel runs on its own and pulls tailored content from a vast media library for viewers to enjoy. It lets you be busy elsewhere doing the things you need to get done. No more paying for cable and worrying about what to put on; the quick segments and broad categories are catered to appeal to a wide audience, and ensures that fewer people are disappointed by what they’re seeing.
But Wait, There’s More!
It’s Relevant does more than put original content on your TV, there’s a whole list of other features that come with it. From sharing and deals you’re offering people, to promoting your social media for all to see; it works for you. You’re in control.
With IRTV, you literally set it and forget it.
Interested? You can call toll-free: 1-855-ITS-RELE
or visit: http://www.itsrelevant.com for more information.
Amazon Fire Stick, Chromecast, and Smart TVs are steadily emerging over the horizon, more so now than ever. With access to services like Netflix, Hulu, or HBO Go and devices that allow you to stream those services on your TV, cable is on its way out.
TV has come a long way since the 1920’s, and as we get closer to 2020, looking back on the history of television during the last one hundred years and seeing how far we’ve come is pretty amazing. Today, televisions are just about everywhere you go. Everywhere. And they have been for a while. That’s because TVs are a staple of technology – we use them to reach out to one another, stay informed, and keep ourselves entertained.
If you’re a business owner who caters to crowds, or often has people waiting or sitting for lengthy periods of time, then chances are you’ve got a TV within sight for the exact reasons just listed above. Which is great, the comfort of your customers is key – but in this rapidly advancing world of technology, it’s easy to get carried away when trying to build an inviting waiting room experience.
Between all the technology available to business owners coupled with the drive to maintain customer satisfaction, the ease of putting something up like Netflix powered by an Amazon Fire Stick is second nature. So why wouldn’t you do it? The answer is simple. Because it’s illegal.
NETFLIX TERMS:
The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing limited license, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.
Using those services with a “set it and forget it” mentality without regard for the licensing terms and conditions can be dangerous for your business. The people who enforce the rules on media licenses take this very seriously. For more information regarding why you should think twice about setting up services like that in your business, check out this article on using Netflix in your business.
Personal Use is Different than Business Use
In the end, the licensing rights tied with those services only applies to personal use. Setting them up in your business is a no-go. But if you think about it, TVs and plug-ins like Fire Stick and Chromecast were designed with the home setting in mind, not business settings anyway.
So you can’t use a Fire Stick in Your business to deliver any real TV content. Up until recently, this left you with only one real choice: cable TV. And while it’s legal to run cable in a business setting, cable TV isn’t designed for the benefit of your customers and your business. It’s Relevant TV is.
Custom TV from It’s Relevant
It’s Relevant TV bridges the gaps between TV, customer satisfaction, and business messaging using unique digital sinage software – creating a more inviting place for visitors. The service provides businesses with content and control that makes for an all around better TV experience. IRTV creates a custom TV network for each business with access to a vast library of original content divided into a number of categories you can pick and choose from. On top of the TV content with more meaningful controls, your business also gets room to advertise additional services, reach out to customers, and share your latest social media posts. It’s Relevant TV turns your television into a tool for your business.
Branding has long been the First, Middle and Last reason to advertise on Television. If potential customers don’t know about you, why would they buy your products or use your services? Brand awareness creates trust, generates leads, and ultimately creates sales and the growth of your business.
For this reason businesses have used TV advertising to:
• Create brand recognition by reaching the greatest number of viewers.
• Attaining a frequency level that will promote memory retention.
• Demonstrate value through emotion and visuals
And TV ads are great at achieving all three. But TV ads have become more expensive and less effective in the last few years due to a number of changes. Let’s take a closer look at the current state of Traditional TV Advertising.
The Current Characteristics of Traditional TV Advertising
Broadcast TV ads are expensive.
Television advertising is broadly targeted and ad buys usually include a lot of “waste” (the ad reach you pay for that is not relevant to your message).
Clutter Ridden – Television is overflowing with advertising. 25% to 35% of the broadcast airtime is now being filled with commercials
Ads are purchased based on ratings. Ratings are based on a small sample of the population and cannot guarantee how many people actually tune into any particular program.
TV ads are sold on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis.
Audience delivery is impossible to measure, as ratings are estimations and it is impossible to track what percentage of viewers stay tuned during your ad’s playback.
Under-delivery is fairly common
Reporting is horrible and slow. Actual run time/placement is only available by requesting a program log. It is nearly impossible to receive a log in a timely fashion. Especially from a Cable Operator.
Return on investment is very hard to calculate. Direct marketing messages are the only surefire way of seeing true ROI and actual effect on purchases based on the ads
Modern Television Advertising from It’s Relevant TV
It’s Relevant TV allows advertisers to forge brand recognition with pin-point accuracy and benefits. Unlike cable TV that targets channels and times of day, IRTV goes deeper.
1. Reach screens that are located in businesses in specific categories.
2. Market through televisions in specific zip codes.
3. Your commercials are shown in single ad breaks. This means that your ad is the only ad in a break, so all attention is on it.
4. You can target location types that have screens near point-of-purchase, allowing product owners to push their products in areas that they can be immediately purchased.
5. Reliable and immediate reporting. You can see the exact screens and the minute and second your ads have played on them.
6. Affordable at just $0.30-$0.50 per play per screen.
7. Extremely scalable with 24/7 controls. You can concentrate your ads when it makes the most sense for you, and scale back when it doesn’t.
8. Multiple ad messages. You can run multiple video ads at the same time and It’s Relevant will automatically distribute the messages evenly.
9. Ads are associated with family-friendly programming displayed in prominent public places.
For more information on this new advertising platform please contact John Lunghi by emailing him at: john {at} itsrelevant.com or by dialing the main office at: 203-588-1689.
If you print a sign to promote a new service, and then you never hang it in the business, you’re missing an opportunity, right? That seems pretty clear, and yet business owners think nothing of buying a TV and filling it with useless programming. But how is that helping your business and customers?
Reality Check
There is an important reality about including a TV in your business location: your business is not the customer’s living room. They have a TV in their own living room and they have complete control over that one. Having a TV in your business with the remote freely available is not going to draw anyone off their own couch to come sit in your waiting room.
You may have a television in the waiting area of your doctors office or automotive service center. And you might leave the remote out for your customers to pick what they want to watch, but why? Did a customer ever say “I feel like watching the Steelers game, so I’m going to the doctor’s office”? Of course not!
Additionally, leaving the channel selection to your customers poses some risks. What will they choose to watch? Will they be annoyed by the preferences of the other customers? Some business owners who hold the remote at the desk or behind the counter complain that dealing with changing the channel wastes time and frustrates employees also.
Customization is your Right and Duty
The truth is that you designed your business location with purpose. The paint color, the flooring, the lighting, the furniture: you selected these to create a certain feeling in your space. Until now there were very limited options to customize your TV with that same care, but now you can.
Your TV can influence your customers to spend more money, come back more often, and follow your business on social media. Choosing the right programming is all you need to do to make your TV worth something. With It’s Relevant TV, your TV is an asset that helps drive greater sales.
Magnetic Television
Whatever channel you have on, your customers will look at the television at least once – it’s human nature. But how can you keep them looking without giving them the remote? Keep changing the type of content every few minutes automatically!
If you have national news, sports, travel, gardening, food/cooking, fashion, kids programming and more available to mix at all times, you’ll have something for everyone. It’s Relevant TV is the subscription service that provides you this flexibility. The system automatically mixes content from categories you choose so your customers are never bored or frustrated with what’s on the TV.
And While You Have Their Attention
When your customers are looking at something, you put your brand on it, right? Custom water bottles, notepads, refrigerator magnets, this is a pretty common practice. With your TV, you have the opportunity to do so much more! Put your logo on the screen, add your own informational videos, and add your own marketing messages and specials as images next to the broadcast. Show off your social media posts to gain followers. All of that would be impossible with cable TV.
It sounds like a promotional dream, but it’s very easy to achieve with It’s Relevant TV. Get your customers to look, keep them watching, and harness their attention to grow your business.
Are You Using Cable or Satellite TV in your Business?
Cable TV and Satellite TV costs are on the rise, while they continue to offer little benefit for your business. Business owners are finding a better way to utilize their TVs, to not only entertain their customers, but to make the business more money at the same time. Why only spend money on cable/satellite when you can be making money with It’s Relevant TV?
The Top 10 Reasons to Switch (Video)
1. Cable TV COSTS Money, It’s Relevant TV MAKES you money.
It’s Relevant TV is designed to make your business money by integrating your own promotions, videos and social media into the programming. These integrations lead to an increase in the average customer spend, social media followership and return visits/referrals. Traditional TV doesn’t give you any customization, while IRTV lets you customize every part of what’s being delivered to your customers.
2. Competitive Ad Block®
Cable and Satellite TV have a ton of commercials, often 16-22 minutes an hour. And while everyone expects to see commercials on TV, the one thing you as a business owner shouldn’t tolerate is a competitor to advertising in your location.
If you own a Mercedes-Benz Dealership, would you want a BMW commercial being played to your customers? Of course not. That’s why It’s Relevant has Competitive Ad Block®. It comes with all IRTV systems, and automatically blocks out ads from your industry competitors.
3. No Repetitive Loop & Better Content
If your TV is tuned to a news network you’re likely showing the same content over and over on repeat all day long. A repetitive loop just makes customers feel like they are waiting longer, and no one wants that! It’s Relevant TV is different. The programs never loop! Instead, we bring in fresh content all day long and switch between different content types to keep things interesting.
TV has a lot of channels, and you may find your staff and visitors having to change between them during the day. It’s Relevant TV has just as many choices, but instead of picking one channel, you choose all of the categories of content your visitors will enjoy most. We change the channel for you throughout the day, switching up the programming types every few minutes, increasing the number of touch-points you have with your customers.
4. Display Your Own Ads
Short of buying expensive advertising spots, Cable and Satellite offer no way to get your ads and messages across to customers. It’s Relevant TV makes it easy to feature your messaging next to the programming. You can create and upload images right from your computer or smartphone. IRTV handles the rest, rotating through your ads constantly throughout the day.
You can even set specific days or hours of the day to show specific ads. So for instance, if you run a restaurant, you can have breakfast specials shown until 11am, lunch until 3pm, and dinner for the rest of the night.
5. National News & 5-Day Weather Forecasts
Cable and Satellite TV offer a variety of weather and news channels. But you have to be tuned to one of the channels to get the information. As we all know, any extended viewing of news or weather leads to viewer boredom.
It’s Relevant TV allows you to mix in news and weather information seamlessly throughout the day amidst other more entertaining programming. So you can have food shows, travel programs, celebrity interviews, and news/weather all together instead of being stuck on a single repetitive channel for hours.
6. Real-Time Social Media Display (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
Is your business on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? How do you encourage people to follow your accounts? Are you getting real customers to follow you?
It’s Relevant TV will display your posts in real-time, showing your most recent photo and text updates to your customers. This is great because it encourages people that have been to your location to follow you. People that have physically been there are more likely to return when following you than someone that’s never been to your location before.
7. Display Your Own Videos
Cable and Satellite TV offer no way for you to display your own videos. You’re just stuck with the channels they provide. It’s Relevant TV is different. If you have a TV commercial or two, you can run them on your TVs. If you have a video message from a staff member for your customers, you can have it displayed for them. It’s as easy as uploading a video from your computer, or recording one on your phone. It’s Relevant TV takes care of rotating your messages evenly throughout the day, and even adds subtitles to your video productions so that they can be displayed on the TV without sound if you desire.
8. Sell/Barter Your Ad Space
Are there businesses in your area that might want to advertise to your customers? It’s Relevant TV provides you with a platform to display the ads and make direct revenue from them.
Let’s say you run an office, and across the street there is a restaurant. As people wait in your office they could see an ad for a special deal at the restaurant. You could charge the restaurant $50 or $100 a month to display their image ad on your TV, however much you choose – you set the price. And you keep all of the revenue.
9. All Family-Friendly Content
Unlike Cable and Satellite TV, It’s Relevant TV only provides content that is prescreened and family friendly. It’s far too often that cable channels have a tame piece of programming one minute and something disgusting, offensive or inappropriate the next. It’s Relevant TV gives you as a business owner piece of mind.
10. Easy Installation
Cable and Satellite TV require long installations, large windows of time for an installer to come, complex wiring, drilling holes and a lot of headaches.
It’s Relevant TV comes as an easy self-install kit. It takes just 5 minutes to get going, and you can do it on your time, when it’s convenient for you. No holes to drill, no shady installers to have to deal with- Just the TV programming your business needs on your terms.
Consult with a TV Expert
It’s Relevant TV offers a free consultation with business owners. You can reach TV specialists by emailing retail {at} itsrelevant.com or by calling (855) ITS-RELE between 8:30AM and 6:00PM EST, Monday-Friday.
Businesses Need to Have A Presence on Social Media
The vast majority of consumers are on at least one, if not multiple, social media networks. For this reason, it is obvious that your business should be there as well. Every B2C business owner, no matter their industry, size, or location, has to think about using social media to reach their customers. But, using social media for your business is different than using social media for yourself. Business owners need to strategize how to best reach the people that are the most likely to utilize the business.
Social Media Followership Starts in Your Location
For a long time, businesses have focused on getting more people to “follow” or “like” accounts on social media. They target people on their computers and phones to get a “like”. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have ad platforms designed with that goal in mind. The problem that we’ve heard from our clients who have tried these ad platforms is in conversion (making those new followers into customers). In fact, the vast majority of the new followers you gain online never turn into actual customers.
We’ve found that getting existing customers to follow you is a much better goal. These people are more likely to purchase from you in the future, and to tell their friends about your business. Plus, they have already found you! They know how to get to your business, and they have enjoyed being there in the past.
Gaining Real Followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
But how can you get your customers to follow you from your physical location? Up until now social networks like Facebook have been promoted with physical signs and stickers. While it lets people know you have an account, it doesn’t give them a real reason to follow you. What will “liking” your business do for them? What kind of posts will they be seeing? A static sign just doesn’t show it.
Static Facebook sticker in a store window
It’s Relevant TV has the answer. Built into the TV service is an automated display of your most recent posts. Having all of our most recent real posts leads to more customers following your social media profiles. The service syndicates your posts from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to your televisions, in between TV programs. This lets customers not only see that you have social media profiles, but also gives them a “free sample” of what they can expect to see when they follow you. It’s a gentle way to prove to them value in following you.
Get a Demonstration
It’s Relevant TV offers live online demonstrations of the social media TV system. For more information, and to book a consultation please visit: www.itsrelevant.com
Regardless of who you voted for in the presidential election, your decision was influenced by television. Between the constant TV news coverage and the paid ads that ran, everyone formed judgments and impressions based on what they saw and heard. TV makes a lasting impression. Let’s take a look at what this means for broadcast television, and for TVs inside your business.
24/7 News Networks Care About Their Businesses, Not Yours
Today’s 24/7 news networks turn a 1-day event into months of drama. They take the normal “coverage” and inject scrutiny, conspiracy theories, and sex scandals to bring viewers on a rollercoaster of ups and downs before the grand finale (election day). News feels more and more like entertainment, and that’s not by accident. Plenty of intelligent people have already pointed out that networks do this to boost ratings and generate greater revenues for the crowded networks. And while I would agree that revenue is a driver, I feel that the larger problem is a growing laziness among the people that design the format of these shows.
The News used to be a place that you would come for facts and knowledge. It was the work of large teams of people that spent days or even weeks to bring you researched programs that included quotes from actual experts and your trusted newscaster. The best part was that you left each broadcast better informed than when you began watching.
Trusted CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite
Things have changed. While the basic format of having a news anchor inside a studio reporting on the day’s top stories has been constant for decades, the pressures to do more with less money is changing the face of it.The fact of the matter is it’s much easier and far less costly to put a few people around a table to argue about a topic than it is to research and report on a news story.
News reporting can be extremely costly, especially for TV. I ran a video news company in the Northeast for almost 4 years, and we put a lot of work into each story the staff produced. From sourcing a story idea to setting up interviews, cross checking facts, recording the actual video, finding b-roll (cut-away shots), editing the video, fact checking, publishing and distributing the story – it took hours just to produce a minute or two of content. It’s hard to sustain a business with the kind of effort needed to do news reporting right.
Replacing the Reporters & Experts
Taking a look at most prime time cable news shows you see a familiar pattern these days. At the top of the hour you have the team of reporters and experts that are unbiased and reporting the facts of the day without forming judgments. All sitting or standing in the beautiful professional studio.
Then a few minutes later the professional journalists and experts peel away, and a panel of professional-looking people start to share their opinions – in the same space. Panel members can say whatever they want to say and their statements appear to be researched, authoritative and official. It feels like you are hearing from other experts when in reality you are hearing from surrogates (people that will stand by the candidate they support no matter what).
If you recognize any of the people below, then you have come across exactly what I am writing about:
Some of the many 2016 Election Surrogates
This Would Never Happen Anywhere Else
Imagine a doctor’s office for instance. You schedule an appointment with a well-established practice. You go to the office and sit down with someone in an exam room. The person gives you their opinion on your physical condition and makes recommendations on things you should do once you leave. It feels a lot like you just sat down with a doctor and got a medical opinion.
But what if the person you sat down with isn’t a doctor at all?
What if he/she wasn’t a nurse, or even in the medical profession?
What if you found out that the person you saw and heard from is merely someone that knows of the doctor, nothing else? Their medical opinion would hold absolutely no weight.
This is exactly the problem with the overuse of surrogates and non-experts in news programs today. They have the appearance of authority and are happy to share their opinion even though it’s not necessarily in your best interest.
Unbiased vs. Balancing Bias
For years the news industry has strived to be fair, factual and unbiased. However, in this election season we took one of the most noticeable turns away from that. The strive now seems to be more towards “balancing the sides”. Instead of sticking to the facts, these broadcasts allowed people to share their opinions much like facts, just as long as someone on the opposite side of the argument could do the same.
This created some real distractions within the campaign. Ultimately it may have created some single-issues for voters that moved them one way or the other in the election. Hearing that Trump “sexually assaults women”, or that Hillary “will be put in jail for deleting her emails” creates serious concerns for voters. But all of these kinds of things were being spoken countless times a day by people who looked to be authorities on what they were talking about.
You know it’s bad when the news broadcast has to fact check itself.
Television has Become Bad for Businesses
While television as a whole has more offerings than ever, and is seen in increasing numbers of stores and public places, it’s not helping businesses as much as it should. With endless channel choices at our fingertips, TV is great for the home. You can easily tune from one channel to the next when faced with something you don’t like, but not in a business. More and more stores, offices, and public places are installing televisions simply because they can. Unfortunately, the programming the businesses choose to display on the screen often does more harm than good.
The bottom line is: even with endless channel choices, you can’t control what appears on any given channel at any given time. You could watch CNN for instance and enjoy a heartwarming story about one of the CNN Heroes. But just one minute later you’re faced with disturbing images of war and terrorism half a world away. This can be off-putting and depressing to customers as they watch in a business.
Even when the topics aren’t disturbing in nature, they are often exhaustingly overplayed. It’s hard to forget the months of nearly non-stop coverage of missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370. With no new information CNN had to constantly improvise, bringing up new theories, even having anchors use toy planes.
It’s not just news stations that cause stress, discomfort, boredom or other negative feelings. I’ve heard complaints about even the most neutral of channels like The Food Network and The Weather Channel. People have different tastes, and leaving them with only one programming type for an extended period of time is a surefire way of losing their attention or worse: becoming a bother to them.
Take Control of the TV in Your Business
As a business owner, it is up to you to make the right choices for your business. You may have spent time choosing the colors of your walls, the hours you are open, the people you want representing your business, the type of music that plays, and the kinds of refreshments you offer to people when they visit. All of these examples are things that have some influence on the way people perceive your business. It’s the interactions your customers have with each element that dictates their overall satisfaction of your location.
TV has arguably one of the greatest abilities to shape how people feel. The combination of visuals and sound leave a lasting impression on people. What impression do you want your customers to leave with? How do you want them to feel when waiting at your place of business? What do you want them to know about your business, values, and offerings?
We’ve found that the happiest customers are the ones that get to see a variety of content. They don’t want to feel like they are being bombarded by advertisements. For this reason, we created a platform called It’s Relevant TV that provides an ever-changing assortment of short-form television shows. The service blocks out competitor advertisements and gently brings the business’ own messaging and real-time social media onto the screen. The custom networks can operate with or without sound; all of the video content can be overlayed with optional subtitles.
An experienced editorial team screens the included licensed TV programs before delivery to the businesses. All of the programs that we distribute are family-friendly. We keep all political coverage short, to the point, and truly unbiased. It’s Relevant gives each business 50 categories of video content to choose from. This ensures that the programming isn’t just risk-free, but is topically oriented to visitors of the specific business. The business easily controls the messaging and social media syndication.
Learn from the Election
This election season, one thing was obvious: the campaigns understood the power of television. They knew that messaging seen on TV will stick in people’s minds and influence their decisions. This is why we saw the campaigns push their surrogates to TV. The lazy TV networks were happy to invite them on because it saved money and filled their airtime.
TV has tremendous power over decision making. Don’t be lazy with yours. Make sure your TV is working in your best interest as a business owner.
Written By: Jonathan Krackehl, President & CEO of It’s Relevant TV
Magnetic Television
