The latest release of AerWave features:

HTML5 Widgets
The AerWave content library has been updated with our most popular HTML5 widgets! These include new versions of our Text, Clock, RSS and Weather widgets, as well as Social Media integrations with our powerful MoApp platform.

Synchronization Improvements
Player synchronization has been optimized. Content transfers are more reliable and efficient with the latest software updates.

Playlist Features
Playlists now support the ability to restrict content by days-of-week. Other changes include support for player tags and start dates in the preview options.

BWE was Able to Socially Activate Their Event, Engage Attendees, and Promote Their Sponsors Using Aerva’s Real Time Social Media Integration

Aerva and the Boston Wine Expo teamed up to socially activate and engage audiences at the 2016 Boston Wine Expo, the 25th anniversary of the event. Aerva’s cloud software powered the big screens at New England’s largest food and wine festival.

The two screens in the venue displayed advertisements, user-generated content from Expo attendees, and photos of the wines that were “trending” in popularity throughout the event. By integrating with the event partner’s, Drync, mobile commerce platform for wine, Aerva was able to display the wine actual users were scanning, drinking and enjoying during the two-day event.

The Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center hosted the sold-out event where wine lovers could sample an array of wines, watch demonstrations by some of Boston’s best chefs, and attend seminars on a variety of topics. Using the hashtag #BWE2016, attendees shared their pictures from the event on Twitter and Instagram which were then shared on the screens using AerWave.

“We needed something that would allow us to promote our sponsors, provide visual interest and to integrate real-time social media feeds,” said Craig Cunningham, the Vice President of Marketing at Seaport Companies.
Though they had never used this type of technology for an event, the Boston Wine Expo chose Aerva because the real-time social media feeds helped animate the displays to engage the attendees.
“Both our sponsors and consumers on the show floor noticed and liked the large screens and the content,” Cunningham said.

BWE’s goal in using Twitter and Instagram was to spur buzz around the event outside the venue as well as engage the audience at the event by showing their pictures on the screen.
Additionally, BWE used AerWave to broadcast event schedules and content from their sponsors.

Cloud-based digital signage platform provides centralized content management with real-time dynamic content across 83 BP Connect Convenience Stores to drive sales.

Cambridge, MA — (January 12, 2016) — Aerva (www.aerva.com), a pioneer in cloud-based display network management, today announced BP New Zealand selected Aerva’s Customer Engagement platform for driving dynamic, real-time content to digital retail screens across their 82 store locations.

The BP digital network is managed and monitored by Aerva’s partner, Ngage Media, using Aerva’s cloud-based AerWave Enterprise platform. In addition to being an effective communications platform, this dynamic customer engagement network provides BP a new revenue stream via media advertising from both trade and external advertisers.

BP’s retail display network has proven to be an effective promotional sales driver. In a one-week test, Doritos onscreen advertising in BP Connect locations throughout New Zealand:

• drove a lift in sales of 171% week-on-week
• increased Doritos category share within chips from 6% to 15% week-on-week
• improved their salty category sales by 8% week-on-week

The results to date have encouraged BP to move forward with digital development into the existing network at other consumer touch points at POS and on pump displays in New Zealand. The Aerva platform allows network operators, like Ngage, to centrally control screens individually, serving geographically or day-parted marketing initiatives across the national network or on an individual station screen.

“The BP digital media network is effective because it provides consumer volume with day, time and regional targeting — you can catch people en-route, with a cost effective medium that drives sales. It’s one of the best out-of-home methods of advertising,” said Ngage’s Scott McDonnell.

“The Aerva players and software have proven to be incredibly stable and reliable, and the advanced functionality is still yet to be fully harnessed across this burgeoning customer engagement channel.”

The BP Connect network is a captive market with an average audience of 3.6 million customers each month (around 1.6 million unique visitors according to Nielsen research).

Aerva’s cloud-based AerWave Digital Retail Engagement platform will be demonstrated at the National Retail Federation Show, Booth 2546, January 17-19, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

Aerva and Ballpark Village teamed up to socially activate and engage audiences at the largest New Year’s Eve bash in St. Louis. Aerva’s cloud software powered the centerpiece of the event: the AerWave photo wall.

The 40-foot screen at the center of the venue displayed ads and user-generated content throughout the night. Ballpark Village, a sports-anchored entertainment district located next to Busch Stadium, hosted 3,500 guests to ring in the 2016. Party goers shared their pictures from the event on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #NYELiveSTL.

“Using the Aerva technology, we could track that hashtag and approve each photo before it displayed on the big screen,” said Kelley Farrell, the social media coordinator for Ballpark Village.

Ballpark Village’s goal in using Twitter and Instagram was to spur buzz around the event outside the venue as well as engage the audience at the event by showing their pictures on the screen. Millennials in particular were targeted for their high level of social media activity and engagement.

“The photo wall was very effective at the event because we could display hundreds of guests’ photos in real time, and expand the use of our event hashtag,” Farrell said.

Additionally, Ballpark Village used the screens to display their internal promotions and purchased advertisements in between user-generated content.

Located just North of Busch Stadium, Ballpark Village spans across seven city blocks and is the premiere entertainment destination in downtown St. Louis!

APN Outdoor last night held their first annual digital Outdoor creative challenge, with Pixel361° coming to fruition in Auckland. The evening kicked off to a great start at Seafarers Club on Auckland’s Quay Street, where representatives from the 53 registered teams gathered to find out their fate, with the top teams ultimately battling it out for the top spot.

Having had limited time to register and submit finished artwork in response to last week’s briefing, the APN Outdoor team have been overwhelmed with the response from market and the callibre of admissions received.

It was no easy feat for the illustrious judging panel that was chaired by Colenso’s Nick Garrett and included Damon Stapleton – DDB, Richard Thompson – Contagion, Phil Clemas – APN Outdoor and Sanjay Manandhar from Boston-based digital software developer Aerva, who were tasked with cutting down the entries to just six finalists who were to present their campaign.

The finalist pool of teams including representatives from DDB, Us&Co, OMD and Contagion Ltd, were invited to pitch their ideas live with an allotted time slot of three minutes only. With the subject matter ranging from tugging heart-strings to tech-savvy concepts, the judges had a difficult task to determine which teams met the brief best and whose campaign most aptly communicated the Men’s Health Trust goal to provoke men to make healthier lifestyle choices starting today.

Phil Clemas, General Manager- APN Outdoor commented on the event “We had high hopes for the competition, but have been truly blown away with the entrants’ final artwork. The process of judging was challenging, with so many campaigns demonstrating the vastly untapped potential of great creative executions in our digital environments. The concepts truly embraced the mediums’ unique attributes of immediacy, contextual relevance and integration and we are very excited to share them.” Top spot, taking home the coveted prize of a trip to SXSW held in Austin, Texas in March 2016 went to Nick Dellabarca and Liz Richards of DDB. The prize includes travel and accommodation for two as well as $500 spending money with the winning campaign also being granted $100,000 worth of APN Outdoor’s media space to bring the winning campaign to life in 2016. Overwhelmed with the win Nick said, “It’s a great prize for an even greater cause”.

Highly Commended and People’s Choice Award was awarded to Aaron Carbines and Mike Felix of Us&Co who will each take home a $500 travel voucher and a Canon digital camera.

Pixel 361° was developed in-house by APN Outdoor and invited creative minds from across the industry to design a campaign for the high profile charity Men’s Health Trust, using APN Outdoor’s suite of Digital products.

APN Outdoor would like to thank all those who entered and participated as well as the judging panel who helped to make the evening memorable and are very much looking forward to making Pixel 361° an annual event.

Watchfire Signs, a leading manufacturer of LED signs and digital billboards, announced today that it has acquired Aerva, a pioneer in cloud-based display network management that enables real-time interactivity, dynamic and social media integration, and mobile engagement across digital displays. 

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Aerva offers leading-edge cloud-based software for creating, managing and delivering compelling content and experiences across multiple digital media channels. The company’s platform for driving multi-screen networks allows for the execution of engaging digital experiences that span mobile, social, digital and interactive display channels. Clients include Anheuser-Busch, APN Outdoor, the US Navy, Beats-by-Dre, HTC, Taco Bell and Northeastern University.

“Dynamic and interactive content is the lifeblood of compelling marketing and advertising, and increasingly is integrated on a growing number of digital channels,” said Steve Harriott, CEO of Watchfire Signs. “Aerva’s technology will allow Watchfire to broaden its offerings in this area. They’ve been a part of shaping digital content delivery from Times Square to your local convenience store, and their technology platform is world-class.”

Aerva will continue to operate as an independent company from its Cambridge headquarters location.

“Watchfire’s LED signs and digital billboards are second to none. By joining Watchfire, Aerva amplifies its ability to build leading-edge cohesive digital display solutions for brands, retailers, and enterprises and provide clients best-in-class capabilities for engaging your audience, boosting your brand and extending your reach through digital displays,” said Sanjay Manandhar, CEO of Aerva.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

About Watchfire Signs

Watchfire Signs designs, engineers and manufactures the best looking, most durable outdoor LED signs and digital billboards to help businesses and organizations increase visibility and drive growth. Headquartered in Danville, Ill., Watchfire has manufactured outdoor electric signs since 1932 and LED signs since 1996. The company has created more than 50,000 Watchfire LED signs and has more digital billboard customers in the U.S. than any other manufacturer. For information, go to www.watchfiresigns.com.

About Aerva

Aerva’s cloud-based software platform offers a suite of easy-to-use capabilities for creating, managing, delivering compelling content and experiences across digital media channels. Aerva helps retailers, media networks, brands, and enterprises engage audiences by enabling dynamic and real-time interactivity between mobile, social platforms and digital display networks. For more information, visit www.aerva.com.

Aerva, a leading software platform for managing dynamic content across digital media channels, today announced they’ve partnered with A2aMEDIA to drive Philadelphia’s first advertising-friendly digital billboard, located on Market Street East. This unique, 5,000-square-foot dual-display will provide an aesthetic upgrade to the property and result in high-impact advertising opportunities for a variety of local, regional and national businesses and providing alternative revenues to the city as well. Straddling the corner of 7th and 8th Streets at 701 East Market Street, the high-profile media installation offers a modern yet iconic cornerstone to revitalized East Market Street.

Using Aerva’s leading-edge Cloud software, advertisers can engage their customers through creative and beautiful real-time, dynamic and interactive content to maximize the installation’s regional impact and relevancy to consumers. From a network management perspective, Aerva’s platform also enables easy management of the content workflow to monitor and update the screens – anytime and from anywhere and recover real-time proof-of-performance.

“We are thrilled to a have a prominent building like the rebranded Lits Building as our first-ever retail/office venue installation,” said Andrew Melton, president of A2aMEDIA. “The application of this unique technology will transform this already remarkable building into an icon of architectural and digital media harmony.”

“Digital media for architectural enhancement is a powerful channel for engaging audiences and revitalizing a neighborhood. In addition to beautiful content, incremental advertising revenues, on a state-of-the-art screen like this will make a significant impact in this community and become a well-known landmark throughout Philadelphia,” said Sanjay Manandhar, Founder and CEO of Aerva. “More property owners are starting to realize the untapped potential of using digital display networks for increasing efficiency in managing their assets as well as creatively engaging their customers.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, set out to provide an improved customer experience that would increase brand-affinity and generate sales lift in retail stores across the country. To accomplish this, Anheuser-Busch wanted to leverage their in-store Cooler assets to creatively engage customers and facilitate their intent to purchase A-B products. A-B required a unique solution that could display various content formats, provide centralized management control for the entire network, and convert the static Cooler product display into an engaging and differentiating digital retail experience.

Anheuser-Busch partnered with Aerva to use its AerWave software platform to manage content across the entire network of 1,000 Digital Coolers in retail locations. To appeal to customers and improve brand-integration at the point of purchase, Anheuser-Busch’s Digital Coolers display branded videos, graphics and animations catered to each region. Wholesaler and regional messaging for market-specific promotions can be added and modified, as needed, by Anheuser-Busch to augment the screens’ branded content.For powering the network, Anheuser-Busch selected Aerva’s cloud-based digital engagement platform, which provides seamless integration of dynamic and real-time content as well as the capabilities for managing large networks through a browser-based interface.

“Being able to showcase beautiful digital content across our Cooler network is a extremely valuable and versatile touch point for connecting with our customers. These Coolers are excellent for capturing the attention and engaging shoppers when they’re about to buy,” says Anson Frericks, Senior Director of Brand Activation at Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“Aerva’s software allows us to easily and effectively manage the network at scale and activate our brand across an exciting new retail channel.”

Anheuser-Busch’s retail Digital Cooler network provides a powerful in-store experience by showcasing fun and enticing content that engages consumers at the point of purchase, reinforces the Budweiser brand, and drives sales.

Aerva’s digital engagement platform helps the Broad Institute provide a consistent enterprise-wide brand message and communicate their employees’ creativity, accomplishments, and diversity. As a result, Broad’s employees are better informed and the institutes’ culture of collaboration and communication is re-enforced throughout the institution.

In 2010, the Broad Institute, a leading biomedical and genomic research institution affiliated with Harvard University and MIT, needed a digital display solution for communicating to a diverse audience throughout their state-of-the-art facilities in Cambridge, MA. Broad wanted a strategic solution that fostered collaboration, creativity and culture among a varied group of students, fellows, scientists and faculty.