Show it big on a digital screen

Wednesday, April 19, 2006 I wrote "The show must go on" and the Mood: bright Now Playing: On the road and the Topic: Webcast

A digital display has the power to grab your customers' attention and draw them in. The hardest thing for most people to realize about digital signage is that it should not be a TV commercial.

Odds are your audience will look at your screen - but only for a few seconds. I got back to this posting after and exhibition in Helsinki. Big screen signage isn't doing a very good job at all. My initial plan with the VT Road Information System was to show:

1. location - information about a tourist service
   
2. content - should be short and clear (visual information and graphics)
   
3. screen size - big enough for the room, ambiance
   
4. digital storytelling - using visual means
   

Digital signage is one of the fastest growing communication and advertising mediums in today's retail market, allowing retailers, brand managers, and employers to talk directly to a responsive audience. However, marketers need to meet consumers' needs by enhancing the shopping experience rather than force-feeding messages to an unreceptive audience.

So it is extremely important to get your message across quickly, and the best way to do that is to make sure your message appears on the screen throughout the entire duration of the ad. Moving images have a greater impact and lasting effect than static signage.

Digital signage has shown to be more cost effective than traditional displays and other in-store signage.

• Digital Display presentation management powerhouse
• No need for servers or dedicate networks
• The media controller

I was in a supermarket recently (meaning April 2006). In the produce section, directly above some fruit, was a 40 inch screen suspended from the ceiling. Not a very good location while people don't have time to look at the screen message. They have to be seated

• Coffee shop
• Restaurant
• Fast-food corner
  

The screen was showing the news on the bottom, ads for local companies on the right-hand side, and the main section of the screen was content describing how to cook some type of recipe. I could have cared less.

Promote your goods:

- what's the product,
- what's the price,
- where can I find it
- the content must be relevant for the location

Wouldn't it make more sense to use these screens in the open areas of the store to get people to actually buy the products in the aisles?

You can change your advertising message quickly and efficiently and distribute it to locations around the world.

- we help to deliver the content
- scheduling

Use the tools that digital signage provides:

- add in some movement
- make it dynamic
- make the word "Sale" flash,
- promote a few different items on the same screen

I've seen a lot of digital signage installations. There were some good and bad ones in Italy we were looking at a few weeks ago. Some are great, some are ok, and some are terrible.

And of course, there are ways to retain this attention on the screen a bit longer, namely by using the news and weather.

Today, I finally got the first Large Screen Display / Signage podcast edited, but it want be published until the end of next week.