Stop Your Digital Greige Pitch

I wandered through an exhibition of the latest business audio-visual kit. Instantly dazzled by looped kaleidoscopic footage teeming forth from every conceivable size of flatscreen magic.

I discovered the sector’s concept of “digital blindness”. This is the problem of when every vendor or area in a retail space has a shiny tv, what do you actually see?

In a homogenised mass of similar promos, no-one stands out. All that expense, without an edge. Each vendor now looks the same and moan that in fact, ‘digital’ hasn’t helped the sales process one bit.

You can take this a step further. Why bother anyway with the flashy telly screen, if all it displays is a high def triple-colour quadro-soaked still image? How is this an improvement on a (whisper it) good old analogue poster?

An American industry vet called Bob Kronman divulged his own term for this, citing the example of New York’s Time Square.

Digital waterboarding.

You could hear the audience collective sharp intake of breath when he revealed that label. Even the panel moderator commented he wouldn’t forget it.

Despite the possible miscoinage, the topic reminded me of the ubiquitous 90s wall paint shade, magnolia. Which today appears to be born again with the rise of greige.

When the trend becomes the standard, where do you go next?

Are we reaching such a saturation with solution selling?

Is everyone solving the exact same problem? Using slidedecks or social media tempts indistinguishable from one another? Cost of ownership spreadsheets that without the name of the vendor visible could be confused for any or all that bid?

Thankfully for us, there’s plenty of scope for the focused to use each tool in a distinctive way.

Are you doing so? Can you do the greige test to make sure why you’re uniquely suited truly comes across?