Retailers Go Ga-Ga For Digital Signage

A recent addition to GlobalShop is Digital Signage Day (in its 2nd year). It's a full day of conferences intended to give retailers the scoop on digital signage (DS) - one of the hottest forms of media today. During Digital Signage Day, retailers explore:

-Market trends.
-Enhancing in-store messaging.
-Case studies of successful DS campaigns (think iPhone).
-Connect with audiences through out-of-home networks.
-Other retail success stories.

So, of course, I needed to know more. I slyly stalked the DS-4 session, "Retailers Embrace Digital Signage" to get the 411. Fortunately, people at GlobalShop are nice and obliged me.

I chatted it up with John Kallmeyer, vice president of sales operations with Vista Color Imaging.

Q: How helpful did you feel the DS session was?
A: It was extremely helpful and provided a good general overview of the concept, taking all of the technology and messaging to make it more interactive for consumers. The session generated a lot ideas for me, I took a lot of notes. In fact, I even hatched an idea for a niche market I want to pursue.

Q: Why did you sign up for this session? Are you looking for DS or technology ideas to use in-store?
A: I'm more of a producer of static signage so I'm looking for the ability to display different content at different times as costs of plasma and other networks decline.

Q: Did you find any technology you plan on implementing?
A: I'm actually headed to the show floor right now to see what I can find. I have an idea so now I need to find someone to partner with to make it happen.

Q: Where do you see DS technology in the next 5 to 10 years?
Ultimately, I think it will displace static signage and move into the forefront.

Then, I was able to connect with Maurice Chu, a research scientist with the Palo Alto Research Center.

Q: How helpful did you feel the DS session was?
A: It gave real-life examples of how digital signage can be used in today's environment.

Q: Why did you sign up for this session? Are you looking for DS or technology ideas to use in-store?
A: I wanted to get a feel for what's happening in the world of digital signage. 

Q: Did you find any technology you plan on implementing?
A: I actually came up with some ideas on technologies that can be added to digital signage to make it even more effective, especially for niche marketing.

Q: Where do you see DS technology in the next 5 to 10 years?
A: It's going to be far more pervasive, because you can target advertisements, making them less annoying and more effective. Eventually, I think we'll see digital signage popping up on our personal mobile devices. It's really exciting!

What's your take on digital signage? Is it the wave of the future? Leave your comments here.

-Heather Strang

Comments

[Lena]

Could not agree more with SignageGuy! The future is NOW in terms of digital signage and I think that traditional DS is already transforming to address the digital lifestyle and personalization demands of the typical shopper today.

We are all used to immediate access to information on the Web to research exactly what we want for our purchase decisions, but retailers are starting to realize that they need to bring the research and browsing process of the buying decision back into the retail environment. Therefore, DS is starting to move beyond the one-way communication of wall-mounted screens or displays hanging from the ceiling of a retail store towards interactive, touch-screen systems that move shoppers through the browse, comparison and final selection shopping experience. Thanks to innovators like Apple, with their iPhone and iTouch products, consumers are becoming very comfortable with touch-screen, interactive technology.

Intava is a top provider of interactive touch-screen signage to telecom and other industries, recently announcing a new type of projection signage for Cellular South. They created a huge floating phone that captures the key branding and features of CellSouth's handsets - an impressive way to draw in and engage shoppers.

I'm very excited to see how DS will continue to evolve and which large and smaller retailers will adopt these technologies to bring the full shopping experience back into retail stores.

[Joe M.]

Interesting article on digital signage. There seems to be a great deal of press this week in this space and seem to be an industry that is growing. US-based RMS Networks just launched rVue, their free to download software offering - something retailers are used to paying a subscription for. This is certainly an arena to keep an eye on.

[Digital Signage Universe]

"What's your take on digital signage? Is it the wave of the future?"

It's not a wave...It's a Tidal Wave!... and the future is NOW!

The US is only starting to catch up with the rest of the world when you measure the number of deployments that have already happened in other countries. The UK, Germany, and Canada have been using digital signage for some time now. We're only getting started here.

In fact, here are some statistics (Based on 2007 information from LG Electronics) that will help to illustrate how much growth is ahead for this medium in the United States:

• There are over 47,000 locations for “big box” retailers in the US and only 4100 installed screens—that’s less than 10% currently installed.

• There are over 2403 shopping malls with only about 150 installed locations— that’s less than 7% currently installed.

• Grocery stores have more than 17,600 locations with only 3500 locations currently installed—that’s less than 20% of the available sites.

InfoTrends, Frost & Sullivan, and ISuppli have all made projections that value the industry in the next few years in the billions of dollars, so there certainly is reason for optimism regarding growth for the digital signage industry. Digital signage is rapidly moving onto Main Street as a mainstream medium.

SignageGuy
Digital Signage Universe