PMA 09 REPORT: FINAL DAY, Thursday, March 5

FINAL DAY, Thursday, March 5

Well that's it; PMA Vegas is over for another year, and what an event it was!

As previously reported, numbers were up at the DIMA conference and everyone I spoke to (and those of you who know me will know that was a lot of people!) gave the sessions a big thumbs up.

Clouds and silver linings

Frankly, I expected the mood of the conference to be a sombre one with the "GFC" and the filing for Chapter 11 of Ritz camera. I was, however, pleasantly surprised as people seemed to be rolling up their sleeves and deciding the best way forward was to work hard and look for ways to be innovative in their stores.

Stores with more of a hardware focus felt that the demise of Circuit City will give them new opportunities to target a whole new range of customers.

Walking out of the DIMA conference and heading to the PMA show, one couldn't help but feel enthused about the possibilities awaiting our industry.

The trade show itself, while quieter than most years, was another positive experience with most stands reporting that the lower numbers enabled them to spend more time with their contacts and really cement relationships. I know from personal experience working on the Mack Camera Booth that we had a constant influx of new clients looking for ways to add profit to their hardware sales.

If you chose not to attend this years show, or haven't been to one, then I can highly recommend that you start planning now for the 2010 event in Aneheim. If you don't come back from that event with at least five ways to really improve your business then it can only mean you spent too much time at Disneyland.

The cute, the classy and the clever

Let's have a look at a few more cool products that caught my eye during the show:

Looking for something uber-cool to pull out at parties and wow everyone? Check out Minox's remake of the classic spy camera as a 5-megapixel digital camera.

How about a portable hard drive that automatically backs up your photos onto the drive every time you connect it to your computer - check out www.goclickfree.com.

It looks like Kodak is entering the video camera market with th announcement of the Zx1 - a pocketable digital video camera that records HD. Similar in size to a mobile phone , it sure looks like a cool gadget for the You Tube set! There are virtually no controls outside of a Go button!

KIS announced an interesting development in not only kiosks but photo books too - the first fully dedicated kiosk for making photo books in MINUTES! The books, about the size of a DVD and holding up to 90 pages, are fully created inside of the kiosk while the customers waits. Is this the product that is really going to launch photo books at a retail level?

Speaking of photo books, Digital Foci ( www.digitalfoci.com) launched a new electronic photo book comprising of an 8-inch LCD screen encased in a nice leather-look case; think of it as a battery operated portable digital photo frame and you'll have a fair idea of what it is like.

A final cool product for stores looking to increase their accessory sales is the R-Strap from Black Rapid (www.blackrapid.com ). What's so cool about a strap? Check out the video on the website. These straps retail for US$58 and are walking out the door - when was the last time you had customers more than willing to pay such a large amount for a camera strap? Yet another product to increase your average order value and increase your profits.

Well that's it for me from Vegas. And start planning for PMA Anaheim 2010 now - you won't regret it!

Singing off from Vegas,

Glynn Lavender

 

 DAY 4, WEDNESDAY, March 4

This morning in one of the final sessions for the conference, PMA announced the winner of the International Win Big 2008 Photo Gift Promotion Marketing Competition. The winner was Gaby Mullinax from Fullerton Photo in Los Angeles. (www.fullertonphoto.com).

The winning prize was US$20,000, and anyone looking for ways to promote this category in their store should visit Fullerton's website and get some inspiration.

The trade show today had a lot more buzz, with more people hitting the floor looking for the next profit-making opportunity.

Dry in Las Vegas

Minilabs, as always are a key part of any PMA as stores look at replacing aging equipment or simply want to know where the technology is headed.

Fuji has announced two new Frontier dry minilabs, the Fuji DL430 and DL42SD. The DL430 features both 6-inch and 8-inch paper cassettes, meaning stores do not have to switch out cartridges to switch paper sizes. Noritsu has a similar machine, the D703. The DL42SD features duplex printing and looks to be an ideal product for producing high quality photo books for the wedding market. Noritsu's take on this machine is the D502, which will be at our show in Sydney.

Dry labs were the products gaining the most interest with HP showcasing the ML1000 dry lab, which can produce 15 different sizes with no change of paper, and Kodak showing its modular APEX dry labs, that Kodak claim offer an unparalleled portfolio of profitable retail solutions.

On the software side of things there was an interesting product from Info Trends that looks ideal for those stores who shoot passport photos. It is called "Shine Off" and as its name implies it reduces the shine off faces with the click of a button - a great time, and therefore money, saver.

Princa are showing a new digital photo frame with a built in printer, a great idea when Aunty Mary comes for a visit and loves a photo on the screen; simply press a button and out comes a print. This is a great integration of existing technologies.

Speaking of frames, Sony is showing a new 10-inch wireless LCD screen. Sony says the DPF-X1000 boasts a 15 times sharper screen and is also 13 percent brighter than previous models.

The internet has become a place where everyone has a "voice" and it is not unusual for customers to complain on the net if they are unhappy rather than complain to the store. A cool website for checking your business' online "rating" is www.whostalkin.com, a site that searches Blogs and forums and other social sites to see what people are talkin' about. It's always interesting to see what is being said about your service and policies.

If you who have a more creative bent, then the new range of Lensbabies (Maxwell International Australia & www.lensbaby.com) are a big hit with people looking to get that funky retro look on their images, and the new Optic Swap series is giving greater flexibility to these incredibly cool photo tools.

Talking books

Anyone interested in the trends of photo books may be interested to see the first Audio Photobook announced by Color Centric Corp (www.colorcentriccorp.com) This book lets you play an audio track or music soundtrack on each page simply by pressing an icon This is an interesting development and really shows the potential future of photo books being able to show all media content from still images, audio and video using ePaper.

Well, I managed to keep today down to under 19 hours, and on a final light note for tonight I have vowed never to complain about the price of a pie at the footy ever again after having the pleasure of paying US$15 for a soggy salad and meat roll at the show's cafe today.

It's the last day of the show tomorrow and it's already shaping up as big one, as visitors make their buying decisions and head back to the stands.

 

DAY 3, TUESDAY, March 3

Today was the first official show day of PMA 09 following on from a very successful DIMA conference.

While the DIMA conference had numbers up over last year there is a noticeable reduction in the trade show crowd. The usual crush of bodies as the doors opened was only an orderly procession. In a first for me, I am spending the next three days working on the trade show floor - helping staff the Mack Camera booth. It is a very different way to view the show and it gives you a far greater opportunity to "interview" people and get their thoughts on the show.

First thing to mention is the "sneak peak" that HP gave selected customers of the new version 4.0 software for their HP Photo Studio - a DIMA Award winner for 2009.

After an impressive demonstration of this new software the reaction from the attending retailers was very positive with the consensus being that 90 percent of their wish list has been fulfilled. HP also demonstrated 27 new output options for the system, giving retailers a great new range of products to add to the mix.

A key point made at the presentation was that the consumer photo market over the next five years is expected to show a moderate growth, while at the same time the "Digital Publishing" side of the industry (photo books, calendars, photo gifting, etc) was expected to grow by nearly 80 percent. This of course will give us many opportunities to grow our businesses - be it with HP or another supplier.

Another interesting point to note from InfoTrends is that "Net to Retail" fulfilment of Digital Publishing is the fastest growing segment, with it expected to achieve a 50 percent share by 2012.

Now that the trade show proper is open, let's have a quick look at a couple of cameras that are catching people's eyes: 

There is the new Panasonic DMC-GH1 a new Micro 4/3rds camera that records High Definition video and features "Face Detection" that allows you to store people's faces by name in the camera. That information is recorded into the images EXIF data. Couple this super small camera with Panasonic's new 14-140mm lens (28mm-280mm equiv) and you have a terrific travel SLR.

Notably lacking at the show however is any announcement by Olympus of their first foray into the Micro 4/3rds format. Olympus did, however have the new and very lightweight E-620 on display.

Samsung's new NX sensor series of cameras has also gained its fair share of attention.

Fuji has been making waves with the introduction of the Fuji Instax 200 camera and instant film. As most retailers will attest, since Polaroid got out of the instant market there has been a surge of demand for cameras and film, and Fuji looks set to reap the benefits of this demand.

Most of the new release compacts - from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, et al - were announced well before the launch of PMA and this has left the a few people feeling that the lack of major releases at the show has made for a less exciting event than usual.

In a twist on digital photo frames, FaceCake (www.facecake.com) released a series of frames that change images via software from 2D to 3D and allow for moving elements such as snow, wind on water, falling leaves and a feature that is somewhat disconcerting - subjects with moving eyes, blinking, moving heads, and waving at you! That's right, and all from a single photo. Looks like the concept of moving artworks as seen in Harry Potter movies is now a reality.

New, portable digital frames have also been shown that are packaged in nice leather wallets and takes the photo keyring to a whole new level. These frames could become the digital equivalent of the old photo flip books.

Day one of PMA is often the run around day , to get a quick idea of the stands you want to investigate further over the coming days.
So at the end of a 20-hour day we'll be back at the show tomorrow with fresh eyes and looking for what's hot at PMA 09.

PIN Online, and I'm sure the readership as well, are grateful to Glynn for sacrificing sleeping hours to keep us up-to-date!

 

DAY 2, MONDAY, March 2 

Day 2 of DIMA saw a new influx of attendees to the conference as flights resumed out from the east coast after a 30-hour delay due to bad weather.

Every session was standing room only, and ideas were flowing from not only from the speakers but from the session attendees as well.

The person who seemed to have his finger on the pulse of "what's next" was Mike McNamara of the McNamara Report. http://www.mcnamarareport.com/ Mike is the former Popular Photography magazine executive technology editor, and he discussed some of the possible features the next generation of cameras may have. Be prepared for technology like:

- Blemish and facial enhancement;
- Face identification - the ability to register faces into a camera's memory so that the person's name can be tagged into the EXIF data and searched;
- Localised ISO - where only certain pixels increase their ISO for the darker areas of an image and maintain low noise ISO in the brighter areas;
- Advanced, in-camera cut-and-paste - don't like Uncle Larry in the middle of your family shot? Simply cut him out and the camera's processor simply fills in the gaps.

How about built-in PICO data projectors to project your images? Built in Polarising and Grad filters and special effect buttons that produce "Photoshopped"-looking images. These are all technologies that are being developed NOW!

An Ansel Adams in every home

But, in what may be another revolution for our industry, the big buzz is surrounding the potential of "open architecture platforms" for digital cameras. What does this mean exactly?

Well, check out the downloadable applications available for the iPhone and you may get an inkling about what may be getting downloaded into your customers cameras in the near future. Imagine being able to download an application for your camera that mimics any photo style you like - we can all become Ansel Adams!

Cool ideas were also flowing from the floor in McCurry's Ideas Exchange. This can be heard in an upcoming DIMACast, so I won't steal all the thunder, but here are two very cool ideas I feel are worth mentioning: One store set up a broken computer in their display window of their store and hung a sign offering a $20 Prize to the person who can guess how many photos are stuck on this computer! What a clever way to get people thinking about their own images on their computers - funnily enough this store also had a solution for backing up these images on display next to the computer!

Another cool idea for a promo was "FREE CAMERA WITH EVERY PURCHASE'". Sounds extravagant? Check out www.corbis.redymech.com....Free, downloadable PINHOLE cameras for your customers to experiment with and have FUN with photography! Not only that, these cameras use FILM! What a great way to spark interest in photography - these are especially great fun with kids!

The trade show starts tomorrow (Tuesday, US time) but for those wanting to get an early heads up, check out www.dpreview.com for their extensive "Sneak Peak" review - I'd love to go on, but we haven't the space here.

Tomorrow I'll be reporting from the exhibition hall floor, where my "day job" is working the Mack Camera and Video stand. This will be a great opportunity to interview people and see "what's cool", or alternatively, "what's hot!".

As usual the biggest surprises will probably come from the smallest stands - let's see what tomorrow brings!

 

DAY 1, SUNDAY, March 1:

DIMA 2009 kicked off today with attendance slightly up on last year, a feat that the organisers feel is exceptional considering the current economic climate.

The stand-out session for the day was "Aussie Phil" Gresham and Gaby Moulinax's presentation on creating and marketing photo gifting in store. It proved so popular that it had to be moved to a larger room and it was still standing room only.

Back to the future
Gresham likened the take up of in-store gifting to the early days of the minilab, where the ability of the store to create a customer's images fast made them king. The speed of service provided by the in-store minilab soon became an expectation for our customer base and became the cornerstone of our businesses for many years.

In a similar vein those stores that have actively embraced in-store creation of photo gifting and marketed their service speed advantage have seen similar trends and feel the potential market for these products has only just begun.

In "Wacky Ideas for Photo Stores" Amit Gupta (www.photojojo.com) brought home to the audience the importance of connecting with your customers in fun and interesting ways. The key to this is
1.  Do something different
2.  Bring People Together
3.  Experiment - don't be afraid of failure.

Running events that get customers into your store or talking about your store is a great way to build community. Events such as photo walks and in-store photo exhibitions of customer's images are great ways to connect with your customers.

Camp idea
Another interesting concept Amit discussed was "Photo Camps" - mini conferences where stores meet for a weekend and each attendee has to run an information session on a cutting edge idea they are either working on or have already run with success. These sessions, where everyone learns from each other, are not dissimilar to a McCurry Ideas Exchange, but on an expanded level.

Imagine 20 retailers getting together for a weekend with the intention of sharing and learning and finding ways to enhance their business. Is there a place for a Photo Camp with our progressive Australian retailers?

Social networking was talked about by many of the DIMA attendees as stores were looking for ways to connect to their customers. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter were seen as terrific ways to grow awareness of their company. Experiments on these sites are being tested by many retailers to see if they can get their customer base to get more involved in their business. Several stores are now paying their young staff members to blog about their stores on these sites and to attempt to get viral marketing working to grow their customer base. Time will tell how successful these experiments will be.

It's all about community
In a session co chaired by new DIMA president Chris Lydle and myself, the benefits of running Photo Classes and Photo Workshops were explored. Once again the themes of community and giving customers experiences was seen as the greatest value these events could bring to a business.

Educating our customers was seen as a great way to continue the growth of sales after a DSLR was purchased, as well as a terrific way to build community around stores.

So the first day of DIMA has concluded. The underlying theme has been the need to develop a new relationship with our customers. Those stores that are actively seeking new ways to enter their customers' lives are quickly finding that it differentiates them from their competitors, as well as giving them opportunities to grow their business.

Despite the economic gloom there is a strong feeling among attendees that crisis produces opportunities, and now is the time to start looking for opportunities rather than battening down the hatches and hoping to weather the storm.

• Very nice site!
  Very nice site! on 03-Mar-10 02:39 PM

• Glynn did a great job and is to be congratulated on filing a really good summary.
  Peter Rose on 09-Mar-09 11:36 AM

• Very interesting and good reporting - congratulations to Glynn Les Brener
  Les Brener on 06-Mar-09 05:26 PM