The Modern Hotelier #77: How Digital Signage Can Drive Revenue & Generate ROI for Hotels | with Xpodigital
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Steve Carran: Welcome to another episode of The Modern Hotelier on the HITEC trade show floor. Now we're joined with Rich O'Brien from Expedition and Michael Prici from
 from HSMS. Thank you for joining me today, guys.
How are we doing? Doing well. 
Rich O'Brien: good. Day two of, uh, HITEC out here, 
so we're, uh, in Charlotte and having a, having a, blast.
Having a great time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 
Steve Carran: great time. So, tell us a little bit more about you guys. Where did you, where'd you grow up? How did that kind of shape you into who you guys are today?
Rich O'Brien: you want me to take that one first? I'm happy to. So I grew up in New Jersey, uh, yeah, and found my way down to Florida for [00:01:00] school.
And I stumbled into hospitality. Uh, so I had a friend of mine and they said, Hey, I know someone that's hiring in the hospitality world. Uh, would you like to go? And I, I never looked back, so love it. You know, joined on the, uh, heads and bedside side of the business with the hotels. Uh, and now I'm on the, uh, technology side of the business.
So I've been doing that for about six years or so, and I will never leave the hospitality industry. It's one of the best industries that to be in. Uh, and I love working with the great partners and seeing everyone here at HITEC
Steve Carran: Yeah, absolutely.
Michael: Uh, myself, I, uh, 
grew up. 
Part of my life in Boston. Okay. Diehard Patriots fan, I just want to add that in. 
Steve Carran: Celtics 
Michael: fan?
Celtics fan 
Rich O'Brien: well.
Even 
without Tom Brady? Even without Tom Brady, we 
Michael: we stuck 
with 
the team,
we don't stick with the player. 
Um, then, uh, grew up the rest of my formative years in Santa Barbara, California.
Very nice. Um, and got into hospitality probably the same way, just by mistake. Um, I started as a PBX operator and worked my way through all the different departments in a [00:02:00] hotel and I'm old enough to be that guy that knew most about computers at the time and got into technology and it stuck. And I've stayed with it ever since. 
Steve Carran: That's awesome. 
So what types of digital investments Are you seeing properties making to increase revenue and really enhance the attendee experience? 
Rich O'Brien: Sure. So, you 
know, it's an ever evolving and changing world. Uh, so you have Things like this, these large LED walls that used to kind of be out of reach, for, most most properties and now the marketplace, it's, it's marketplace its become commonplace for that.
So we're seeing folks that are looking to do large format LEDs in convention spaces, meeting room screens, touch screens, and so that's where we've worked with Michael for, several years, uh, and putting in those technologies. 
Michael: A lot of the hotels that I work with, um, didn't have large digital digital signage.
When it started out, you know, your sign showed you, you know, what events were there for the day, and what time they were, and there were no other information. Maybe you had a little bit of advertising, but not [00:03:00] really that much. Now, with these larger video walls, crisper, clear, no lines in them, you get a whole different perspective, um, and a whole different wow factor when somebody walks into the room, of what you're getting.
And, you know, sometimes in our, uh, areas we don't have an ROI on it. Um, we're not selling it to every group, but we have beautiful artwork on it instead. So it changes the whole feel of the convention space. It makes it more welcoming, welcoming and more, um, more benefit to to the whole attendee. 
Steve Carran: Sure, sure. I mean, your booth sticks out. Like, this is incredible. It looks great. It's very crisp and clear. So, I mean, it looks 
Rich O'Brien: fantastic.
Ah, thank you very much for that. Yeah. 
Steve Carran: So, how important are things like visual storytelling, real time updates, and personalization to the attendee experience?
Michael: So It 
even starts before the attendee experience.
So, when we're, you know, some of the hotels I work with, when we're walking around the [00:04:00] facility, we can actually text a phone number and put a message on it so it can welcome you as we're walking through and selling you 
on the event 
space. So we can personalize it that way in advance, so then you, as the, um, conference coordinator, can then realize what it can do and what you can do with your attendees and bring it to a whole other level on that respect. 
Steve Carran: Very cool. 
Rich O'Brien: Yeah, and with, with having the capability to put up different content on different days of the show too, right?
So you're having the right message for the right time for the right guests that are coming into space. Uh, and then on top of that, you know, pulling in that meeting room information, the way finding and helping folks get around, uh, the properties. So, you know, there's, there's a lot of applications and there's a lot of, uh, solutions that, that digital signage solves.
And then you get the versatility to change your message and to do different things on a daily basis. And then when there's not anything going on in an event space, like Michael said, like you could put up artwork and really make it have the look and the feel of the design of the conference space [00:05:00] that you're
Steve Carran: you're in. 
Sure. Do either of you guys ever recall a time when you walked into a venue or event space and you were totally blown away by the integration of technology and design? 
Michael: So most recently, uh, at one of the hotels I work with, we've installed a video wall. And it's on a curved portion of the building. So you have an upper layer that's curved and then two curved walls that come down two pillars essentially. And the actual design of it and the clarity of it has wowed me every time I walk by it.
There's an advertisement for one of the restaurants that plays on it, um, that actually shows the dark wood of the restaurant. It's a steakhouse. And it feels like you're walking through, and that's painted with that dark wood, until it changes to the next advertisement or next message. 
Steve Carran: Very cool. 
Rich O'Brien: Yeah, and that's where the versatility of the technology lends itself to spaces like that. So you could do curved, or when you're walking sites with different properties, you're like, well, I'd love to [00:06:00] have one here, but how is it going to work? well, we could figure that out for you and have something that matches that design and that decor as you're walking into the space.
And it wows the guests every time. 
Steve Carran: Absolutely, absolutely. What are some of the creative ways that you've seen revenue or venues leverage, uh, their digital design to enhance the event experience? 
Michael: Again, it's the personalization of the event, the information 
that's on it. You know, in the event space itself, you're doing two things. You know, when there's an event there You know, the, the conference coordinator is putting up information that's going to help the attendee, right?
That's the most important thing. How do I get around? Where do I go to next? When's happy hour? All of those things kind of play together, 
Rich O'Brien: question. Yeah, the 
Michael: important questions. 
But all 
those things kind of go together to enhance the attendees experience, right? And the most important thing is that it's clear, it's clear.
That it's, and it makes it more effective by [00:07:00] being clear, right? If you have something that's fuzzy or, or not right, and, and that's not always the display's issue, that can be the content creator's issue, right? If I don't have the right content creator or the right pictures on my screen, it's not going to look as great as it can. 
Rich O'Brien: Elizabeth Haas, Pierre Gervois, AIG. To make sure that their content fits the screen, uh, has that right look and feel to it, and is giving the appropriate message.
Uh, and then the scheduling and the playlist. So our team's able to work with the hotels and the events themselves, um, to really make sure that what they're putting up on the screens has the impact that they're looking for, and has some of the best practices applied. for it. Yeah. 
Steve Carran: know, I can imagine there's some challenges. So, uh, what are some of the challenges that come 
along 
with, 
Rich O'Brien: challenges? What? I 
Michael: know, I know. I don't understand. 
Steve Carran: know, I 
Rich O'Brien: No challenges. If there weren't, we wouldn't have any
Steve Carran: No challenges, easy. [00:08:00] But what are, what are some of the challenges that you guys have when, you know, installing these and how do you overcome those? 
Michael: you know, looking at past things that we've installed, the biggest challenges I think we've actually come up with is, you know, we get the concept and you get the, you know, the video walls going up.
The hard part. that we have to account for is people touching the wall once it's up, depending on where the wall is. 
Steve Carran: I've 
wanted to 
touch 
it, like, 
Michael: since 
I've 
seen it.
Because it can be really detrimental if somebody's touching it. Believe it. Um, one of the walls, my experience of when it was being put up, you know, it's a small panels that clip, clip in.
Um, and there was a gentleman that his job was to fix the pixels. Um, and he had much better eyesight than anybody I've ever met, but he welded on new pixels that had broken off by people touching them. So that's a challenge. Um, hanging the walls are always a channel challenge, getting the electricity there, getting the cabling there, and the backing on the wall, right?
Because these do weigh something. 
It's [00:09:00] not just like throwing up a TV and you're all good. You know, you're doing large scale walls, you're putting up a lot 
of backing 
to make sure that the structure is 
Rich O'Brien: Yeah.
and then with the hardware itself, like, you know, we look and analyze those challenges. Uh, and so there is different ways that we do LEDs.
We're seeing them more and more and they're not just high up on the walls. Like Michael said, like they're in areas where, where the guests can touch it. Whoever's walking through the space, you could have a, you know, your suitcase fit into it. But now there's, there's products where you could have, it's called Glue On Board, G O B, and it actually seals the LEDs, um, so that the pixels don't fall out as easy in those high touch areas.
But, you know, you're always working with the property as a team effort to make sure the power and the data and the reinforcements are there. Uh, and we're able to provide all the design specs and the architectural drawings and electrical drawings to make sure that it gets installed the way it 
needs to be installed. 
Steve Carran: installed. 
Absolutely. Absolutely. So you talked about the personalization, the customization of How can events, or even hotels, use this to generate [00:10:00] more revenue and increase ROI?
Michael: So that's, that's a very 
interesting question, right? The, the 
answer to that 
is kind of two fold. What the conference is, you can sell it to your, you know, conference coordinators. it can be sold to 
them for their advertising 
for their group. Um, just for logos. Um, for an event like this, I could sell it to multiple people and advertise all of their logos, you know, at different times and different information and get an ROI on that.
The, the difference in a hotel for when it's not occupied by events or when the event hasn't purchased anything for the board is the unrealized ROI. There's a large unrealized ROI on advertising your restaurants. Advertising your activities at the hotel because you don't know how many people saw that and actually then went to that restaurant or went and did that activity.
So there's a large ROI that I see in the boards because of the quality of them and the pictures and the advertisements [00:11:00] of, food and different restaurants that you can really draw people in. Because nothing gets somebody going than seeing a picture of a really good steak or really 
good 
plate pasta, some great food.
Good looking sushi or anything like that, you bring them in, that kind of sucks them in to the next level of where is that restaurant, I want to go try 
that. Right. And you talked about how you had the, it looked like the restaurant and it felt like that. If it has a cool ambiance like that, you're walking through and it's like, I just got real hungry for a steak.
I'm gonna 
go check 
Steve Carran: this out. 
Michael: Exactly, 100%. What 
about 
Rich O'Brien: you, 
and and we find you know, I think with anything when we're working with with our customers and our properties, right? It is ROI. We have to you know, there's there's opex costs to running everything So when you could Have a product that you install that actually can generate revenue for you.
It's kind of a win win for all parties involved. Uh, but then also for the impact of the events that are coming into space now, right? So they could purchase, uh, a screen like this that is, you know, permanently mounted in the, uh, entrance of the convention space. And every day they can [00:12:00] work with their groups and sell those sponsorships.
So now, you know, folks like us, we come here to Hitech, we purchase sponsorships, we want people to see our name. But we could change on a digital message. Your sponsorship, your messaging, your images on a daily basis, and we can update that for you. So now you're giving versatility to your events coming in.
So the events are happy. Um, the hotel's happy that they're utilizing, um, this asset, um, to help their guests out and to also, you know, drive some revenue. And then we're happy to help out with the content management and getting things loaded. Also providing the best practices and selling resources, um, so that everyone is able to drive that, additional ROI.
Um, and then to your point with, you know, the restaurants and, you know, the different things in space, there is that, you know, um, it kind of gets you excited, uh, to see, you know, what's going on on the property, you know, different restaurants to go to, uh, and so there's really a cool factor to it. So it's a, it's a win win across the board to be able to change that messaging, drive revenue and enhance the guest [00:13:00] experience Absolutely. Absolutely. So, tell us, where can we find Expo Digital? If we're curious about putting one of these in our hotel or event space, where can we 
Steve Carran: find you? How can
Rich O'Brien: we get a 
hold of 
you? Yeah, so expodigital. com, you can reach out to me. I'm Rich O'Brien, VP of Business Development. We have our whole crew here today at Hitech.
Uh, so just drop us a line and we're always happy to help out. Uh, one of the things that we really try to focus on, uh, is those one on one conversations, the in person relationships, so that we can get on site. Every, every property's different. They have different challenges. They have different needs. We want to make sure that we have that hands on experience, uh, with our customers and say, Hey, this is our recommendation to help guide through that process, provide the best solution for the need.
Um, and so, you know, we really take that approach. And then our service and support, I, I always got to give a shout out to our operations team. they have great support. 12 minute response times on support tickets that come in is one of the probably the best in the industry, honestly, uh, and so we really make sure that, um, it's not just [00:14:00] about the installation of, of the equipment, it's the day to day maintenance management and the content management of it, and our operations team, uh, based in Orlando is absolutely fantastic.
Uh, it makes my life a 
lot easier on the other 
side of it, and hopefully our customers feel the same way.
Steve Carran: Michael, how can we get a hold of you at HSMS?
Michael: you can get ahold of me at uh, mp hsms.com. Um, I do technology consulting, uh, for all types of hotel needs. 
Cool. 
Awesome. 
Well, 
thank 
Steve Carran: you 
guys 
for having 
us. It 
was Great 
Michael: to
Thank 
you very
much. 
Great, 
great signing. 
Rich O'Brien: Yeah, thank you. [00:15:00]