What is digital signage?
Digital signage is displaying any type of media on a digital screen. While many are not familiar with the term `digital signage`, we all see it around us: when we shop in the supermarket, when we are in an airport, while waiting in queue at the bank, when we eat in a restaurant, even when we drive on road trip or when we wait for our medical appointment. Whoever use it, malls, restaurants, hospitals, universities, it’s a great solution to market products or services, or to create brand awareness, in a nutshell communicate with and engage customers / employees / students.
Digital signage is today’s most effective tool that you can use to communicate with your audience in the physical world. Regardless your location or business area, digital signage is definitely an attention grabber.
Digital signage is an emerging industry still having miles to go up on the development curve. Digital Signage market is hard to ignore with over $10 Billion growth expected for 2020 (from USD $15 Billion to over USD $24 Billion by 2020). The best of what digital signage has to offer is yet to come, its improvement is determined by the appearance of new technology.
Components of digital signage solution
- Software: the content management system allows showing your content on your display(s); it is paid as monthly or yearly services; Some CMS’s only supports certain types of content, while others support various content such as text, images, video, webpages and more.
- Hardware: the physical parts such as screens, media players, wall mounts
- Location: most providers host digital signage solutions in the Cloud as it offers quick access and increased security while ensuring easy integration with existing business apps
- Connectivity: Remote digital signage is usually connected via a Wi-Fi 3G/4G LAN router
- Content: content is what you display on your screens; it can be anything from text, images, video to webpages and others as long as it is attractive and engaging for your public
How it works
Most innovative digital signage is software uploaded and managed in the Cloud. So, everything is automated which makes it easier for you. This means less worries about the technological effort and more resources to invest in your creative content strategy.
Once you receive access in your platform, using a digital signage platform is so simple. Basically, it’s like new toy / gadget and it works like this:
- Login in your account using the credentials provided;
- Upload your content be it text, image or video
- Schedule the displaying of the content per campaigns and groups of media players
- Request report per time range. optionally, you can appoint users and roles.
Digital signage costs
Just because it’s digital it does not mean it costs a fortune. On the contrary, based on the emergence of new and more efficient technologies, the overall cost of digital signage has been on a steady decline year by year. There is usually an upfront fee followed by a monthly fee. Digital signage prices differ depending on the platform complexity.
