Before they had to compete with the lure of the smartphone screen, businesses and retail outlets could put their faith in a simple printed sign to entice potential customers. Nowadays, it takes a little extra to grab our attention! Aside from being eye-catching, animated and easily updated, digital signage is proving useful in some surprising ways – such as helping people find their way around large airports and shopping malls. We take a look at the latest.
Digital Wayfinding
One of the biggest advantages of digital signage over traditional signage is its ability to adapt. As machine learning and AI continue to become larger parts of our daily lives, there’s huge potential for digital signs to recognize, engage and interact with passersby and visitors. Its adaptability means that in settings like airports, where passengers may speak any number of different languages, they can choose their language and alphabet of choice to find the information they need.
Many shopping malls already make use of “You are here” style digital signage and kiosks to help shoppers find the store, product or service they're looking for, and display the right path for them to take to get there. They can also be exceptionally helpful in large hospitals, where patients who are already feeling anxious, worried and unwell can be spared the additional upset of getting lost!
Digital Signage And The Arts
Just because the items you're displaying are hundreds or even thousands of years old, there’s no reason the very latest cutting-edge technology can’t find a spot right next to them.
Famous museums and cultural organizations like the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Madame Tussauds in Hollywood, and the Cleveland Museum of Art have already tapped into the power of digital signage to enhance the visitor experience.
As the cost of digital signage solutions continues to come down, there’s ever more opportunity for smaller organizations, from small town museums to Community Theater groups, to get in on the action too. The more immersive and engaging the experience, the more likely visitors are to recommend the establishment to their friends or leave a positive review online – helping to get more feet through the door and bring in much-needed revenue to preserve our shared heritage.
Benefits For Businesses And Retail Stores
While the use cases we’ve discussed so far show the ability of digital signage to add value and improve user experience, businesses are understandably more interested in what it can do for their profits. Measuring exact ROI when it comes to digital signage is relatively tricky, as it’s not always possible, for example, to tell whether someone entering a store was persuaded by a snazzy digital sign, or whether they would have come in anyway.
On the whole, however, retailers who invest in suitable digital signage solutions perceive a significant and highly noticeable increase in sales. One study in grocery stores, for example, found that products promoted with in-store digital signage showed an increase of 33% in sales. In addition, 8 of out 10 shoppers say they’ve entered a store because a digital sign caught their attention. In restaurants, digital signage can increase the number of diners who make unplanned purchases to a whopping 80%.
Aside from being eye-catching, digital displays can provide a lot more information than a static sign – especially in the case of video displays - and that information can be updated and modified extremely easily. Running a promotion for one day only, or just released an innovative new product? No problem.
The low cost of digital signage in comparison with other forms of advertising (including online, print, TV and radio commercials) makes it an attractive marketing option for small as well as large businesses. There are even projects in the pipeline aiming to turn unused television screens into interactive digital displays.
Digital Signage And Sports
From ‘traditional’ sports to the incredible rise of eSports, digital signage is taking the spectator experience to a whole new level. The Dallas Cowboy’s interactive photo kiosk, which allows fans to enjoy the next best thing to a real in-person photo opp with their favorite players, is a prime example.
Other intriguing developments include touch screens which allow spectators to view the game action (whether it’s live on the sports field or in a virtual video game environment in the case of eSports) from several different camera angles.
One thing’s for sure – when it comes to digital signage use, the future is bright – quite literally!
