Digital signage

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Digital Signage in IKEA at the Edmonton, UK store.

Digital signage is a form of electronic display that is installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to entertain, inform or advertise (together known as "adfotainment"). Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be exchanged more easily, animations can be shown and the signs can adapt to the context and audience, even interactively. Digital signage advertising is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times. Digital signage offers superior return on investment compared to traditional printed signs.

Market and applications

While the world is embracing digital signage as an emerging market, China currently leads the world in the number of digital signage displays deployed and number of NASDAQ IPOs with over 100,000 displays installed and a collective market capitalization of over $10B.

The content displayed on digital signage screens can range from simple text and still images to full-motion video, with or without audio. Some operators of digital signage networks, particularly in the retail industry, regard their networks as comparable to television channels, displaying entertaining and informational content interspersed with advertisements (see also Retail Media).

Digital signage is used for many different purposes:

1. Information – examples include flight information in airports and wait-times for the next train
2. Advertising related to the location to uplift sales – examples include in-store promotions in a retail establishment
3. Advertising by third parties – digital advertising companies that sell advertising space to local merchants/service providers, media resellers and national advertisers.
4. Enhanced customer experience – examples include digital signage in restaurant waiting areas to reduce perceived wait-time and recipe demonstrations in food stores
5. Influencing customer behavior – examples include post office digital signage that directs patrons waiting in line to automated stamp machines and retail digital signage designed to direct customers to different areas of the store, increasing the time spent on the store premises (dwell time)
6. Brand building – examples include Niketown stores where digital signage in video form is used as a part of the store décor to build a story around the brand
7. Follow through campaign information to store manager - examples within chain establishment
8. Environment enhancing - such as using digital signage to increase the customer experience with the building itself, examples of this are where digital signage panels are used on the floor and react to how and when an individual moves over them.

Digital signage can also be used in a corporate environment, for example by disseminating information throughout a company via screens in reception areas and canteens.

Technology

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Digital Signage in the Warner Village Cinemas in Taipei

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Digital Signage in the Showcase Cinema de Lux in Derby, UK

Digital signs may be scrolling message boards, LCD or plasma display panels, electronic billboards, projection screens, or other emerging display types like living surfaces or Organic LED screens (OLEDs) that can be controlled electronically using a computer or other devices, allowing individuals or groups to remotely change and control their content (usually via the Internet).

While the term "digital signage" has taken hold throughout North America and most of Europe the same technology in the Netherlands is often referred to as Narrowcasting or Narrowcast networks. There are some companies who prefer screen media, place-based media, digital merchandising or "digital media networks" or in some cases "captive audience networks", or "CANs". The large number of terms that have emerged to describe the nascent industry led Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) to form a digital signage standards group in 2005. This group was tasked with assembling a list of standard terminology for describing digital signage technology and business models and was expected to release a final list of its recommendations in 2006.

Content Management

Content scheduling and playback can be controlled by a number of technologies ranging from simple, non-networked media players that can output basic loops of MPEG-2 video to complex, N-tier player networks that offer control over many displays in many venues from a single location. The former is ideal for small groups of displays that can be updated via sneaker net (the practice of physically transporting data to each location on a disc or CD-Rom, usually by walking), while the latter allows digital signage network operators to either push content to many players at once or have each player pull content from a server as needed

Developments in web services have meant the APIs for some digital signage software (such as Scala) has added more breadth to the potential for content management.. Customised content manager interfaces (such as Autograph) allow end-users to manage their content in a way which suits their requirement.

The recent introduction of free digital signage software may further expand the "pool" of potential users of this technology. It will now be attractive to smaller businesses (that may have otherwise found this technology too expensive), as well as to "non-profits" such as schools, universities and churches.

Digital Screens

Rapidly-dropping prices for large plasma and LCD screens and wide availability of Internet connectivity have caused digital signage deployments to gain in popularity, and displays can now be found in such diverse locations as retail outlets, transit hubs (like airports or bus stations), doctor's offices, fast food restaurants and even gas stations.

Another price related benefit that is allowing a larger group of businesses to install digital signage is the increasing availability of newer LCD and plasma display brands in the market. Many locations have opted to forgo more expensive brand name displays for more affordable non name brand displays. A recent study shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between price and the display size. The same study also shows that there is a significant relationship between whether or not the display is a name brand. These two variables actually account for 77% of the price in displays.

Network Infrastructure

Digital Signage networks are typically made up of an internet access, a media player, a distribution network to the displays, and a network management component. The internet access. or broadband internet access connections are either wired or wireless. A hard wired connection is usually through a DSL, Cable, or T1 modem, and wireless internet connections are typically through a mobile broadband modem or a Satellite internet access connection. Mobile Digital Signage networks (such as buses and trains) would use a wireless connection for dynamic updates. Wireless connectivity also provides flexibility in temporary installations.

Media Players are computers that play content through the use of content management software. Content is loaded to the media player through the use of an internet connection, USB stick, or DVD.

The content is then distributed to the displays through a series of wired network connections (such as Cat 5 cables) or wireless connectivity through the use of wireless adapters.

The overall network is then managed from a central location using a Network Management application. In the industry companies such as CISCO (wired) and I.C.G. (wireless) provide complete end-to-end network solutions

Other Technologies

A further development is the use of mobile media, mobile or wireless phones. By combining mobile media with out of home advertising, print or digital, either the mobile phone becomes the digital signage display or the media becomes interactive. By various means, messaging, scanning a barcode or taking an image with a phone cam, a user can interact with a print advert or digital signage media. This enables a user to obtain further or even local information about an advertised product or subject on the go.

Content

While all the evidence makes it easy to conclude that digital signage has an important place in the communication grid, that doesn’t guarantee that an individual marketer, network or screen will succeed. Where the technology has proven itself, it is the content that often fails, because marketers don’t adapt their thinking to produce content that matters.

This is not a startling revelation: each of the previous screens has either succeeded or failed in a particular case because of the content and how it was presented. The beauty of the digital signage is that its heritage comes from the previous four screens. Digital Signage, like the latest iterations of the TV screen, utilizes HighDef video, and like the PC and Internet it uses Flash generated content. And like the mobile phone, it is personal and can be directed to an audience of one.

Digital Signage must stand alone in the creative media process as it is produced, but the content must have continuity with the other four screens to echo the message across the digital landscape of screens.

In this communication grid Digital Signage requires special attention to a number of unique details that are all distinctive within each and every network type, whether it is Point of Sale, Point of Transit or Point of Wait. The messages change as we arrive closer to our point of decision to make a purchase. The message on the billboard may be brand driven where at the shelf it will be product driven, all the while keeping creative elements intact to remind the viewer of the familiar billboard advertisement.

The elements from the highdef video shot for TV or the Flash and Digital Artwork from the PC and Internet can be reworked and pre-purposed for effective content for the Fifth Screen; content that is different from any of the other media and unique to its own.

We can build upon the visual cues that have been developed since the beginnings of film, whereas color can drive an emotional cue and graphic forms can give perspective. These cues are a familiar visual language, just in a new setting the Fifth Screen.

Refreshing content for the Fifth Screen is no small task, but when utilizing creative assets and then slightly changing the content with the same assets will keep the messages fresh in the mind of the consumer. There is however other considerations such as dwell time, frequency of visit that directly affect how often the message is refreshed.

By adding the time of day into the mix, the messages can be altered to fit the exact targeted audience, at the exact time, in the exact place. Fine tuning content to match the audience will also add to the creative workload.

When objectives include interactive content the first inclination is to the pull the content from the internet content already created. Fortunately design assets and graphic elements do translate, but the interaction for Digital Signage requires larger buttons and single purposed actions on the screen at one time.

Interactive also includes interaction with mobile, here Digital Signage is designed to promote and cause a call to action, the content downloaded or browsed on the mobile screen will share some of the same assts, but the context and messages will be different.

Managing content needs to be automated in such ways that make it easy to deliver the right content, at the right time, to the right screen and to the right audience.

And that is the power of Digital Signage, to allow the delivery of creative compelling content that is relevant in more ways than any other medium ever invented.

Issues and progress

Digital Signage in a pharmacy store.

Digital signage in the broad sense has been in use for decades in the past in the form of LED ticker signs and LED video walls. However, it has yet to become a major public medium, mainly due to the following negative factors:

1. Uncertain ROI – the costs of deploying digital signage can be high. Not only are large outdoor screens expensive - for example, the LED sign in front of the Las Vegas Wynn Resort cost $15 million - but the much more common, and much cheaper, digital signs based on LCD screens can still represent a significant investment when a large network is planned: the cost of installing one screen in, say, each restaurant in a large fast-food chain could run to millions of dollars. Any investment of this magnitude has to be justified by a clear ROI plan before receiving approval.
2. Unproven advertising effectiveness – like the Internet in the early 1990s, the digital signage medium has not yet been widely accepted as an effective advertising medium when compared with traditional means (TV, radio, flyers, etc.).
3. Lack of interoperability – digital signage products today are mostly closed, proprietary systems. It is impossible to advertise across digital signage networks running different solutions, making the emerging media inferior to nationwide advertising media such as the television and the Internet. Due to the lack of a common communication protocol, products from different vendors do not mix, making digital signage systems expensive to build and hard to expand.
4. Complex value chain - a digital signage network can involve at least the following vendors: displays, media player, management software, project planning, installation, field service, network connectivity, bandwidth, content creation, and advertising sales. Managing such a complex value chain is a daunting task and all parties involved may introduce risk factors to fail a project.
5. Lack of understanding - despite considerable media coverage there remains a general lack of understanding about the requirements for the successful use of digital signage. This relates to brands and retailers but also, disappointingly, to some vendors. In particular many people responsible for content do not, as yet, have a clear idea as to what works most effectively.

The issues are being addressed today in the following ways:

1. Understanding the ROI – studies have shown digital signage to be effective in aiding customer recall and retention of displayed information in large-scale merchandising applications, especially taking into account the downward trend in LCD panel and playback device prices. Today a small-scale retail or restaurant digital signage installation can be implemented for just $4-6,000, whose ROI may be realized immediately.
2. Outdoor advertising picking up momentum – advertising dollars have been consistently shifting from traditional media such as TV and radio into outdoor advertising, creating a double-digit-growth new advertising segment which includes digital signage. However, ad agencies are still slow to explore the potential of out-of-home TV.
3. Development of open standards for digital signage – industry organizations including the POPAI (Point-of-Purchase Advertising International) and OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association of America) are actively developing and promoting technical standards that will make it possible to communicate across digital signage networks made by different vendors. Interoperability across systems and media players will increase competition in the supply chain, significantly lowering costs and making the ROI on building networks vastly more attractive.
4. Value chain consolidation - new business entities are being formed to consolidate segments of the long value chain. System vendors are providing integrated displays that feature built-in media players and software that support open standards. Digital signage service providers (DSSP) are supplying standards-based management software, project planning, installation, maintenance, connectivity, and bandwidth costs. Advertising services companies are providing content creation and advertising sales services. The consolidated value chain reduces project risks and makes the value chain vastly more efficient.
5. Understanding the industry - there are a significant number of trade shows with conferences as well as specialized conferences and also more informal training and briefing sessions all focused on aspects of digital signage. Many of the related online publications for digital signage provide updated events calendars.

See also

• Advertising
• Digital Signage Broadcasting
• Out-of-home advertising
• Retail Media
• Narrowcasting
• Digital Signage Product Comparison

References

External links

• Digital Signage Association
• The Screen - UK trade association dedicated to the digital signage industry
• In-Store Marketing Institute
• Dr. Jonathan Sterne defining Narrowcasting
• Narrowcasting: Using Digital Media for Selective Marketing and Advertising
• The digital signage blog
• Signage Info - News and Information on Digital Signage
• Digital Out of Home - Insight, Knowledge and Opinion