Pics In Lifts

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of tech and sales at EASTIDEA. Our organization is based in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and it involves a few pillars. The first is media buying and organizing media campaigns for international companies that want to promote their brands in China. We have good relationships and contracts with local media creators in different cities, covering different types of advertising, from subways to skyscrapers.

The second pillar is providing hardware and software for building advertising media networks, in particular, elevator ones. We provide displays, projectors, and software — all in one bundle — to build advertising networks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pics In Lifts?

We’re working in different countries with our advertising network vertical, in particular in South Africa, where Pics In Lifts is building an advertising network from scratch. It includes shopping malls, elevators, residential areas, and other places. They work with advertisers directly and independently. We had the opportunity to build the first advertising media network using advanced technologies and digital signage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The network uses cameras to generate analytics data. We’re tracking views per age and gender, including how many seconds people are watching. Our devices and software are ready for programmatic advertising. Once the network reaches the right size, we’ll connect it with demand-side platforms like Hivestack.

From our side, we provide the hardware and software as well as do all the necessary adjustments for the South African market. After that, our partner goes through trainings for installing the hardware, using the CMS, and working with the analytics.

From there, Pics In Lifts handles the physical installations, content management, and direct sales to agencies and customers. From there, they collect analytics data and provide it to their customers. It takes a while to do all of that from the beginning.

We did a lot of research to find out where we could get the devices as well as what kinds of devices and services we needed to provide to our customers. We purchased a few devices and tested the services. EASTIDEA gave us training on how to use the devices and retrieve reports. We decided that those devices would work for us, and we started procuring more devices from EASTIDEA.

We provided a foundation of how smart media advertising works. It’s not like the basic digital signage where we drag and drop pictures and video, and that’s it. The media loops and involves different strategies based on customer requirements. This requires an educational process.

Another area is technical and software support and updates. We’ve done some upgrades and modifications of the software based on South African requirements, including race in reporting, apart from age and gender. These kinds of things are an ongoing process, and this is a pretty unique experience.

What is the team composition?

There are five team members.

How did you come to work with Pics In Lifts?

We have had different experiences with huge corporations. Our team decided to work with Pics In Lifts because they’re mature and fast. We noticed that they have modern thinking and could build new concepts using new technologies. Their team isn’t afraid to use analytics or start a new advertising platform from scratch. All of these factors went into our decision to engage with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost so far is close to 500,000 rands (approximately $35,000 USD) and growing. The hardware is 100,000 rands (approximately $7,000 USD), plus software, installations, building the infrastructure, the team, and contracts.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Pics In Lifts in March 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re building our network now, so we don’t have that many client reviews.

How did Pics In Lifts perform from a project management standpoint?

We started off with our CEO, I got involved after some time. Then after more time, our partners got involved. We’ve had regular interactions with Pics In Lifts’ principal, and he’s been very collaborative. Naturally, we have had simple misunderstandings, but this concept was new to us as well. It’s a good relationship, and we see it getting stronger in the future.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re not our provider; they’re our partner. I like the style and speed of their work as well as their understanding of the future of our technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They improved the analytics a lot and pushed it to a new level. There aren’t many advertising companies that can sell advertising based on views, so it’s completely outstanding what they did in South Africa. This is the future, at least for indoor environments.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is for potential clients to call Pics In Lifts and ask all the questions they have.