Adobe is at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Lost Wages this week, and its big announcement was how the company has put the pieces in place to allow it to deliver Flash content and interactivity to residential TV.

It's unfortunate because there was a pretty good roster of ad-oriented speakers lined up, and Canadian Out-of-home Digital Association board member Peter Irwin had worked his butt off to get this pulled together with event organizer Strategy magazine. It was a Strategy event through and through, but CODA had a big influence on how it would come together. Both Strategy and CODA were prepared to shut it down if the sales and sponsorship levels weren't there.

This is a busy time of year for events, and with budgets tight and a lot of marketing directors hiding under their desks when the accountants are about, the cancellation is no surprise. Better times are ahead, but I'd imagine it's pretty hard these days to get budget approved even for local events, never mind ones people need to travel to.

It probably didn't help that MediaPost's own DOOH Forum and Expo is on next week in NYC, and I know some locals going to that. 

CODA is still busily planning its own breakfast series and there will be news on those soon.

I was just standing in Whole Foods an hour ago, watching the creative on one of the Marketplace Station screens installed in the Oakville store (outside Toronto) and busily throwing the analytics off of their standard numbers by lingering for minutes, not seconds.

The screens in the store, along with those in another Toronto location, are running BroadSign-powered (there was a time when that warranted a disclaimer ... hmmph) playlists and are now sharing information with the audience tracking data being picked up and crunched by CognoVision's cameras and software.

I saw a demo on how this worked a few weeks ago, and trade shows and other stuff had pushed back news of this until a press release came out today:

CognoVision Solutions Inc., a leading provider of automated audience measurement and targeted marketing solutions, and BroadSign, a market leader in Software-as-a-Service solutions for managing digital signage networks, have integrated their reporting modules into CognoVision's Anonymous Impression Metric (AIM) Analytics system to offer a first-of-its-kind joint application that measures campaign effectiveness based on audience numbers, viewer behavior, and ad-triggered actions.

The analytics stuff is fascinating anyway -- you get a clear, clear sense of how little time content has to engage -- but by sucking in data extracted from a digital signage software platform's playlogs, you can really get granular in terms of how many people saw what, when and for how long. 

CognoVision's AIM system processes the data feed from the optical sensors embedded in the screens and generates anonymous viewership statistics. The aggregated data is then correlated with proof-of-play reports from the BroadSign network management software using CognoVision's web-based analytics tool, which is consistent with the Out-of-home Video Advertising Bureau's (OVAB) Audience Metrics Guidelines. The reports generated in real time provide insights regarding what specific ads were seen, how long each ad was watched for, and viewer gender breakdown for each ad. 

Now this level of detail, on normal ad-driven networks, is more than enough to make a media planner's head explode. It's more than they want to know.

But for Whole Foods and their screen network partner, they get a really interesting look at how these screens are working in the environment, the changing profile of the audience, and what makes people look and keep looking.  

Neo Media Group has finally come out with formal word that they have designs on building a digital out of home footprint in the US as they have done in Europe, and to a lesser extent, in Canada.

The Swiss-based company has retail-oriented networks in several European countries and has screens in the food courts of many malls in Canada, with designs to get into the rest of the mall area.

The company announced today, after months of quiet work, that it is going after the US market.

Neo Advertising Inc., a leading digital OOH network owner in Canada, has established an infrastructure for US operations. As a result of legal restructuring, Neo Advertising Inc. has become part of a new parent company, Neo Advertising North America Holdings Inc. (”Neo Advertising NA”), which formed Neo Advertising USA, LLC to lead the holding’s activities in the US.

Neo Advertising USA, LLC has set up sales and marketing offices in New York, NY, and a production and operations facility in Los Angeles, CA.

Former CEO of Neo Advertising Inc. Benjamin Mathieu, who has brought the Canadian company to profitability two years after its inception, has been appointed President and CEO of Neo Advertising NA. Christian Vaglio-Giors, founder of Neo Advertising Group and CEO of the holding Neo Media Group, will act as Chairman of the Board.

Phil Tweedy, formerly VP of Operations at Ascent Media, has joined Neo Advertising NA as Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Tweedy is an industry pioneer who brings along extensive expertise in building and managing the world’s largest digital signage networks. “With my vast experience in the Digital OOH market combined with the great team we are building in the US, the timing could not be better for Neo to become a sector leader in the US in a very short time,” says Tweedy.

“The US market has been in our sights from the very beginning,” says Benjamin Mathieu, CEO of Neo Advertising NA. “We needed time to field-test various business models and establish a solid track record in Canada. We had also dedicated a lot of time and effort to researching the robust market south of the border. We are now confident that we can import Neo’s success story into the United States. Strategically, it is also a good moment for such a move, as entry barriers for real estate acquisitions are lower when the economy slows down.”

Various surveys suggest that digital OOH is one of the few sectors that have been growing despite the recession, while all other media contracted.

According to Benjamin Mathieu, further announcements about Neo Advertising USA, LLC’s progress are to follow later in the year. 

Mathieu and Tweedy have actually been at this for a year or so, and are well advanced in their plans and discussions. I am aware of some of what they are up to, but it is for them to announce.

They are former clients and I have particularly enjoyed chatting with Tweedy (no slight on Benjamin), as he has a really intriguing background in video and entertainment work going back to his roots in London, England. Among other things he was a concert promoter as a youngster, and toured with The Who, capturing concert footage. Cool guy. And smart.