3 Ways to Differentiate Digital Signage Installs

Here are three ways to make your client’s digital signage engaging, memorable and effective.

Digital signage will be a major growth sector over the next few years. The potential downside: as more and more companies install digital signage, it becomes more commonplace and less engaging.

Even Walmart has digital signage now, so really it is becoming more of a defacto standard than a differentiator.

Most of us have a personal media device in our pockets. So why would we sit and watch a screen with someone else’s targeted content when we have what we actually want to watch in the palm of our hands? Although content is key to keeping the customers attention, you have to get their attention first.

If we really want to offer our clients a solution than cannot be commoditized, we need to offer them something that gets their potential audience’s attention and keeps it. Not every company has the sheer budget to do a 10-by-10 screen wall to “shock and awe” their customers into submission.

Here are three ways to make your firm stand out and make your client’s digital signage engaging, memorable and effective without breaking their bank.

Implement New, Unique Formats
I did a digital signage system at a new home exploration center that employed a 160x9 aspect ratio screen (10 16x9 displays installed in landscape orientation end to end) around a 40-foot arc in an oval room. This type of system required some custom content and a 10 output video server that synced 10 separate video files together for playback. The effect was a system that filled your peripheral and really stood out.

Another job I did had six 9 by 64 aspect ratio arrays (four 16x9 displays each stacked portrait style). This system actually uses two dual head PCs to run the content, which is much more cost effective. Floor-to-ceiling narrow arrays of video made a huge impact in the space. Some displays also have built-in screen wall software and loopout cards that allow you to feed the first panel in the array with one device and the displays themselves process the signal from there.

If budget is even more constrained, just doing a large display with a bezel over the top that has a different aspect ratio cut out to reveal a portion of the screen can be extremely effective, and driven by a solid state media player can be very cost effective.

Make it Interactive
Put an LCD screen within reach and it won’t be long before someone touches it to see what happens. We have been trained by our tablets and phones that screens can be interactive.

There are all sorts of ways to make digital signage interactive. Most people go right to touch or multitouch technology. While that is an effective way to capture someone’s interest, those displays become more expensive as they get larger, especially in a multitouch format. It is not uncommon for a 46-inch multitouch display to be over $15,000 retail.

If you are using a large display just to trigger some basic content, it may be too much of an investment for a client. Equivalent single touch screens can be had for a fifth of that. Add a PC and your are controlling content.

To go one more level down, there are companies that make small contact closure touch screens (eight active sections of the screen) that can be used with a custom graphical menu as an interface to trigger content on a larger traditional non-touch display mounted on the wall connected to a solid state media player. These systems are the ultimate in being interactive to a degree, but can be deployed where budgets are much smaller.

Don’t Forget the Audio
Too many digital signage solutions focus on the video, leaving audio out of the equation. I don’t think we need to blast the whole area with 100dB of death metal, but adding some audio in a controlled fashion may be a great way to get and keep someone’s attention.

If you are in a fairly quiet space and want some type of focused audio, spotlight speakers reduce sound bleed in open spaces and can be played over a display. They have a narrower range, but for certain information they work fine.

Other systems can be employed that use the display to tell users to turn on their BlueTooth device and they communicate to the audience in a very private manner without the sanitary and logistic issues headphones and body packs may have.

Using audio just as an attract loop or as an attention getter can be effective as well. I am talking to a gentleman who owns a toy train store and has an actual portion of an engine in his window display. Using a motion-based trigger to flash the train’s light and deliver crossing signal sounds and a train bearing down on its whistle could definitely be used to stop folks in their tracks (pun intended) as they walk by. Having a display in the window to show specials etc., would not go unnoticed at that point.

The goal is to be a resource for our clients, helping them to create buy-in with their potential customers, and to be remembered the next time they need to make a purchase. Creating a “sticky” digital signage system can be a great way to separate ourselves from the “I hang TVs too” crowd.