Venue networking

Venue Networking (or, a Venue Network) is a general concept in marketing based on the idea that different venues share similar audiences. Members of the network can benefit by sharing access to their respective audiences via shared media content displayed on digital screens. Venue Network members participate by creating, sharing and publicly displaying content transmitted over the Internet. The shared content is displayed on digital screens located in venues in order to entertain, inform, self-promote, cross-promote, and advertise to specific venue audiences.
Venue Network members consist of venue operators, content producers, advertisers, and network managers.
Venue Networking falls under the the Digital-Out-of-Home-advertising segment and incorporates elements of Digital Signage, while resolving many of the limitations of that approach .
Key elements
Venue Networking combines Internet principles and social networking with publicly viewable screen displays. Venue Networking is the process of using these elements to create dynamic content networks that address specific audiences at specific locations. Venue Networks can be privately concentrated under one organizational umbrella or public, spanning many organizations. Coordination of media content on a Venue Network can be distributed across multiple venue operators, centralized by a network manager, or a combination of the two.
<li>A critical element of Venue Networking is content sharing between venues. The type of content shared includes media that is suitable for viewing on digital screens, such as text, video, YouTube, digital images, RSS feeds, etc. Venue Networks function by allowing members of the network (both the consumers and producers of media content) to post and share media content with one another, for the purpose of displaying that content to venue audiences via digital displays.</li>
<li>An additional important element of Venue Networking in the ability for members to identify and categorize venues, audiences, and content. For instance, Venue Network members categorize venue locations (address and/or geospatial coordinates), vertical industry (e.g. healthcare, food and drink, etc), venue audience demographics (e.g. male/female ratio, income levels, etc), and media content (e.g. advertisement, entertainment, educational, etc). These categorizations are required to facilitate the networking effect between Venue Network members.</li>
<li>Another key element of Venue Networking is the ability for members of the network to form subsets of the network, representing logical groupings according to their own criteria (i.e. "groups"). These groups can be permanent (e.g. all retail stores belonging to a national franchise network) or ad hoc (e.g. "all food and drink venues catering to 18-34 year olds within 10 miles of Columbus Ohio"). Groups are used to coordinate the sharing and distribution of content to targeted sub-groups of the Venue Network (e.g. advertising relevant to a specific audience demographic, educational content relevant to a specific vertical industry, etc.).</li>
==Definition of "venue" in Venue Networking==
In Venue Networking a venue is a combination of a specific location, the people (audience) who gather at that location, and the business or operation that manages events at that location.
This broad definition of venue includes places like:
<li>retail stores, </li>
<li>sports arenas, </li>
<li>auto dealerships, </li>
<li>medical waiting rooms,</li>
<li>restaurants, </li>
<li>community halls, </li>
<li>corporate lobbies,</li>
<li>bars and clubs, </li>
<li>churches, </li>
<li>shopping malls, </li>
<li>movie theatres, etc. </li>
===Scope of the term "venue"===
The scope of the term "venue" can be defined by the equation: 1 Venue = 1 audience + 1 location + 1 operation/business
This definition of scope implies:
<li>2 operations/businesses = 2 venues (e.g. a shopping mall with a many businesses "under the same roof" represents multiple venues)</li>
<li>2 audiences = 2 venues (e.g. a hospital with a waiting room on each floor of the hospital represents multiple venues)</li>
<li>2 locations = 2 venues (e.g. a franchise business with multiple locations represents multiple venues)</li>
This definition of venue is particularly important for Venue Networking. The concept depends on the granular identification of media content destinations and their audiences (e.g. sharing/distributing targeted content to targeted venues and audiences) and on the active participation of local venue operators where content is being played. This combination distinguishes Venue Networking as a dynamic "narrowcasting" medium from generalized "broadcasting" mediums.
Business value of Venue Networking
Venue Networking presents several areas of value:
Self Promotion
Venue Networks allow individual venue operators to efficiently promote their message, brand, services, products, etc. within their own venue to their venue audience. While similar to the value offered by traditional Digital Signage applications, successful Venue Networks delegate significant control of content to individual venue operators. As a general rule, the greater the centralized control of content, the lower the potential value of self-promotion to Venue Network members.
Cross Promotion
Venue Networks allow individual venue operators to share content with one another, providing the potential to cross promote to audiences within each member venue. A successful Venue Network provides a mechanism for members to achieve significantly expanded reach to target audiences at other venues in the network. The motivation for members to participate in cross promotion behaviour is similar to general motivations for participating in content syndication across the World Wide Web.
Advertising
Venue Networks allow individual venue operators to coordinate content distribution with advertisers and suppliers, to present advertising content on displays in their venues. Similar to the advantages found with collective buying groups, Venue Networking provides advertisers with an aggregation of well-defined audiences at small and medium sized venues. The ability to dynamically target specific advertising content to specific demographics is of high value to advertisers, and therefore presents significant potential value to members of Venue Networks.

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