If you’re a business owner you’ve probably been a little overwhelmed with the available choices regarding digital media tools. Digital signage, proximity marketing systems, social media marketing, local search engine marketing and the current emphasis on the push towards mobile marketing is making the average person’s head spin. In this article we’ll be specifically concerned with digital signage; how it works and the infrastructure that you’d need to have in place to take full advantage of it.
Firstly, to answer the question what is Digital Signage?
Digital signage is any form of business communication where a dynamic messaging device is used to take the place of, or supplement, other forms of messaging. . The eye-catching nature of a multimedia presentation on a large format LCD or Plasma display enhances delivery of important messages, is far more captivating than static posters, and is a particularly appealing form of communication for teens and young adults.
Virtually any place that has printed signage — bus shelters and payphone booths, shopping malls, the tops of gas pumps — has the potential to improve its worth with an upgrade to digital, dynamic messaging.
Digital signage is a business process that will become a daily part of operations the moment the screens are turned on. Companies thinking about implementing digital signage need to carefully lay the groundwork, and this chiefly consists of asking the big-picture questions: Why do we want to do this? What do we want the screens to accomplish? How will we judge whether they are working?
Most digital signage installations fall into one of six broad categories:
1. Sales uplift: These screen networks take specific aim at increasing sales using digital messaging. Examples include “sale on aisle four”- type messages, countdown discounts (i.e., sales that will expire in a certain number of minutes), cross-sell messages located in strategic parts of the store and direct calls to action. While this type of display network is of primary interest to retailers, it is used in other verticals such as banking and foodservice.
2. Brand messaging: These networks concern themselves with extending the business brand and enhancing the customer’s opinion and experience of that brand. Examples include the in-store network at Target, which continually beams lifestyle messages (animations of happy people using and buying Target products). In the case of large retailers like Target, those messages usually are planned to work in tandem with other advertising, chiefly television.
3. Third-party advertising: This business model probably has received more attention than any other because it speaks directly to ROI. Under this model, businesses that own or host the screens sell some or all of the screen real estate to third parties. Convenience stores may allow candy makers and beer companies to buy ad space on a rotator or a crawl; screens in public areas often are subsidized by ads for local restaurants and attractions.
4. Entertainment/customer engagement: Customers hate waiting in lines, and retailers long have known that if you give those customers something interesting to look at, they’ll feel as if the wait is shorter than it actually is. Digital signage can be used to accomplish this “wait-warping,” providing entertainment and lifestyle content to catch the customer’s eye and improve his mood.
5. Internal communications:
Digital signage also can be used for improving internal corporate, government office or institutional communications. This “inward facing” signage can be used to boost morale, recognize achievements and improve business or organizational processes. Get real-time, supply chain-related info to employees through screens near the assembly line or in break areas. In the manufacturing setting, where loud machinery drowns out a voice over a PA system, large screens can be placed above an assembly line to communicate with workers more effectively.
6. Public messaging: Keep the general public connected with the services they need, whether it’s at way-finding visitor centers, kiosks in town centers or at bus terminals or subway stations.
Some Unique Benefits of Digital Signage
Place is known. Because the location of any display will be known, this information can be used to make the content more appropriate to the place. If a display is near one particular product, the content on the display can be crafted strategically with this in mind. For example, the content could promote that product or its benefits, create an appropriate mind set ambiance, reminder) or promote a complementary product or service available elsewhere. Another aspect of “place” that is quite relevant is the fact that often a display is near the point of purchase. A great deal of research has shown that advertisements near the point of purchase are far more effective. Although the size of this effect and the explanation for why it happens are both controversial, it is clear that point-of-purchase information has a massive impact on behavior.
Time is known. Because a digital signage network is controlled by a networked content manager, content is “served” as a function of time of day. For example, content aimed at morning coffee drinkers might be shown at a coffee house in the mornings and content for the midday lunch crowd might be shown in the afternoon.
Events are known. Information related to the fusion of time and place also can be known. For example, current weather conditions can be known. The traffic flow can be known. The specifics of an event can be known (concert, sale, and flight delay). Such information — and its use — is limited only by the creativity of the digital signage network designers.
Audience is known. Because the time and place are known, audience demographic and psychographic information can be well specified. This allows for highly relevant “narrowcasting” that should speak directly to the audience at that moment.
Content is dynamic. Dynamic digital content has numerous advantages over other forms of advertising. Compared to print, the content creation/distribution process is more rapid and less costly. Also, the content can be customized and tailored “on the fly” to each display device separately. Finally, the medium allows for animation and, in the case of kiosks, interactive opportunities.
The Components of a Digital Signage System:
For the uninitiated, a digital signage system consists of a media player or pc, a network, software to produce the content and a display(s) to broadcast the created messages. But there’s more to it than initially meets the eye.
In sorting out the real costs of starting and running a digital signage network, operators need to think about the costs and implications of maintenance, network operations and content.
Maintenance
Mainstream consumer electronics are everywhere, their prices fixed in deplorers’’ minds from shopping trips and advertising. But big flat-panel TVs that may be perfect for a man cave at home are entirely wrong for just about any digital signage network.
Consumer-grade flat panel LCDs and plasmas are designed to operate for a few hours each evening in a home. They are not engineered to operate around the clock or even most of a day, every day.
Professional monitors are engineered to withstand much more intense usage and environmental conditions, but they typically cost at least 20 percent more than consumer versions. For a network planning to roll out, for example, 10 screens, saving that 20 percent by using cheaper consumer LCDs could bring an initial capital expense down by $2,000 or more. But that decision will likely cost the operator far more — in service and replacement dollars, lost opportunity and credibility — through the life of a project. Using consumer grade equipment in a commercial setting also voids the manufacturer’s warranty in most instances. Commercial sets offer additional features not found on consumer versions
• Vertical, as well as horizontal, mounting settings
• Multiple-display video wall configuration
• Dust-resistant, fan-less design
• Built-in, hidden speakers
• Tamper-resistant control locks Versatile inputs for HDMI, DVI, Component and RS-232C terminal
• Longer Warranties
When designing networks, operators should be thinking about the Mars Rover; that is, choosing technology that can be deployed and managed from great distances, without ever sending anyone on-site. That means purchasing hardware designed for high endurance, and with the ability to be managed and monitored remotely with a robust digital signage software package.
Consider this common scenario: a network deploys consumer HDTVs in hair salons across a country. Screens go off at shops for any number of reasons, and while salon staff notices this, they don’t do anything because it’s not their problem. The network operator doesn’t know there’s a problem because the PC on-site doesn’t know or report that screens are off. No alarms are raised until advertisers complain they’ve been at salons lately and seen black screens. The operator must subcontract field services teams to go on-site and turn screens back on, paying $250 per team to “roll trucks.”
The $200 saved with the cheaper LCDs now costs $50 more to get those units back on, never mind those that die from overheating. Advertisers are reconsidering future buys and salon operators are questioning the value of being on the network. By using commercial-grade screens that allow remote management, and an appropriate software platform, the screens would never have stayed off.
The same holds true when choosing the media player that will manage the selected content. Anyone who has been around the Windows environment knows that inevitably there are going to be screen freezes, hang-ups and blips, hard drive failures and unexplained blue screens of death. While a pc may appear to be more cost effective, it could eventually be the machine that eats itself and your business along with it. There is nothing more disconcerting to a potential customer than to see non- working tools of the trade when they visit your business it looks sloppy and non-professional and who wants to do business with someone like that.
Regarding Content – And the software that will be used to produce it. In some instances this choice is made by your vendor of choice. For small non-tech savvy companies a PowerPoint presentation may be sufficient to get you started. But for those who want their content to be more dynamic and entertain while at the same time displaying the core message a Flash based system may be more in line, with your own server or a hosted option.
Operations
Digital signage networks need care and feeding every day and there’s a long list of tasks that can quickly equate to one or several Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs. The tasks include proofing, scheduling and distributing content, generating reports and watching and troubleshooting deployed equipment.
The right software choice can mean the difference between paying a single person, or a whole team. A basic package might save $25,000 in software purchase costs, but could actually add $40,000 or more in annual staffing costs because it lacks all the workflow efficiencies of a more sophisticated platform.
Our next article will discuss measuring ROI and how the end user can get the most bang for the investment when deploying a digital signage system.
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