3 Lessons for Digital Signage Champions from Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is the most popular female comic-book superhero of all time and after June’s performance, it could be easily labeled the most popular female superhero movie of all time.
The movie earned $100.5 million in the United States during its opening last weekend, nabbing an additional $122.5 million worldwide.
Patty Jenkins’s film edged out the previous record-holder, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which boasted an $85.2 million opening weekend and was directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson.
The “Wonder Woman” audiences also didn’t follow traditional superhero film audience demographics, with 52 percent of its viewers being women. Normally, as the Hollywood Reporter noted, 60 percent or more of a superhero movie’s fans are male.
Though the movie is being applauded for its messages of hope and empowerment, Digital Signage Champions can take inspiration from it too (who is a Digital Signage Champion?).
Take Risks
In the last few years, Superhero movies have become very common. However, some moves to capitalize on the trend e.g. “Suicide Squad,” “Fantastic Four” and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” were squashed by filmgoers and film critics.
Films that transcend complaints about the excess of superhero movies are exploring characters in different contexts.
Tom Bacon wrote in Movie Pilot:
As mentioned before, Logan was a superhero Western. Deadpool was a superhero comedy. Wonder Woman was a superhero mythological war movie. Studios are beginning to realize that these characters work best in new and unexpected contexts.
This insight is as relevant for digital signage champions as it is for producers and directors.
Go beyond regular messaging and explore creative digital signage strategies that will increase audience engagement.
Instead of simply displaying announcements and weather on your screens, try displaying trivia or a pop quiz. To make them contextually relevant, the quiz could be about new company developments or new products, interspersed with celebrity or movie trivia. Reinforcing announcements in such a fun context will improve information retention and audience engagement.
Changing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated.
Chris Evangelista wrote in Slash Film:
… [T]here’s a very clear three-act structure at work here, first introducing us to Diana’s world, then introducing Diana to our world and concluding with Diana becoming the iconic hero she was meant to be. It’s a simple, effective structure that calls back films like the Indiana Jones series and The Rocketeer.
For digital signage champions, this could translate to spending the time to uncover the content that your audience craves instead of displaying messages full of jargon and no compelling offers.
Be the Champion
Wonder Woman’s Diana struggled to save the world, despite people’s actions.
Evangelista wrote:
“Be careful in the world of men,” Diana’s mother warns her before she leaves the island of Themyscira. “They do not deserve you.” Diana becomes the hero she was destined to be once she realizes that it’s not about “deserve.” “It’s about what you believe,” she says. “And I believe in love.”
“Love can save the world” may instantly seem like a hokey cliche to some, but Jenkins rejects that notion with her film. In the world of Wonder Woman, love really does have the power to save the world. And who wouldn’t want that to be true? Why instantly reject such a notion as cheesy when there’s great strength in embracing it? There’s nothing to be gained from fear or cynicism. There’s everything to be gained through hope.
Diana had to find and remind herself what she believed in to continue fighting and be the champion. In the same way, digital signage champions need to believe in the role of digital signage as an important tool in the company’s overall branding and communication strategy and fight to promote its inclusion in strategy discussions.
To make digital signage the champion of your company’s communication strategy, find common beliefs, pain points and desires that you can use to relate to your audience and show them how digital signage addresses these needs. That’s the path to building digital signage ambassadors in the management team and your audience e.g. employees..
Don’t doubt the math
Diana still doubts herself and her mission despite her training and strength and the eventual discovery that she’s a goddess. She only finds her power again after she faces an invincible obstacle in No-Man’s Land.
Erik Davis wrote for Fandango:
The sequence features Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman bravely marching across a stretch of unoccupied land in order to reach a village on the other side and rescue its people from German forces. It’s an incredible scene and perhaps the highlight of the movie, but [the film’s director, Patty] Jenkins admits it was kind of a hard sell because Wonder Woman wasn’t fighting anyone or anything.
“I think that in superhero movies, they fight other people, they fight villains,” she said. “So when I started to really hunker in on the significance of No Man’s Land, there were a couple of people who were deeply confused, wondering, like, ‘Well, what is she going to do? How many bullets can she fight?’ And I kept saying, ‘It’s not about that. This is a different scene than that. This is a scene about her becoming Wonder Woman.’”
That decisive scene and the focus on Diana’s character and growth add a notable element to her story arc.
Another Example
Alex Yarde wrote in his blog, The Good Men Project:
In the filmmaker’s capable hands, Diana questions her place in the world and at her lowest point, if mankind deserves saving, but she never questions her inherent identity. She’s at her core an unapologetically good, confident, martial woman, raised by good, confident, martial women. And that makes all the difference.
Digital signage champions face obstacles with communication campaigns, engagement efforts, management pushes and measurement tasks. Digital signage is still a relatively new technology with new trends and best practices popping up often, and there is still no standardization between different products and providers. Being involved in such a new commoditized market and keeping up with changing communication needs can be a little overwhelming
Expect to be at times overwhelmed and frustrated.
When it happens, don’t doubt digital signage, just the strategy. Digital signage as a communication tool works but the wrong strategy will derail it. When you get frustrated, evaluate what strategies are not working and make changes to move ahead more effectively. That might include changing your campaign’s messages to better resonate with your audience or crafting more specific, measurable and realistic goals, but a truthful look at what’s working and what’s not can help set you on the right path.
