everything you always wanted to know about digital signage but were afraid to ask

Hello, and thanks for coming to Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Digital

Signage But Were Afraid To Ask, my name is Bruce Goldstein and I am a digital signage

consultant. My company Designage offers digital signage consulting services to resellers

and end users interested in using digital signage. For resellers like sign makers or point

of purchase display manufacturers, Designage teaches them how to sell and market

digital signage and services best suited to their company, that helps grow their business.

For end-‐users we’ll establish objectives and requirements, and recommend solutions to

install to meet those needs as well as help them with the install and operation of the

solution. Now the reason for the title of my presentation, aside from growing up a

Woody Allen fan, has to do with the anxiety people feel about technology, in this case

digital signage technology. By the end of the day I hope to give you a basic

understanding about what digital signage is and how it can help grow your business, as

well as to answer any questions you may have and to eliminate any anxiety you may feel

about digital signage.

I’m going to cover a variety of topics about digital signage that I think you will find

interesting including:

What Digital Signage is and what it can do

-‐ Market drivers and trends causing digital signage to grow and become more popular.

-‐ Digital Signage compared to static signage, or Static On Steroids, since they are cousins

not competitors.

-‐ I’ll show you a couple of popular uses for digital signage, and also

-‐ Show you what you need to know to make a digital sign work

-‐ I’ll also talk about content, or the messages displayed on the screen, an area were

there is a lot of opportunity for sign and print makers to prosper

-‐ And in closing I’ll run through some numbers to show costs and sales results possible

with digital signage.

Let me start by defining digital signage. Simply speaking, Digital Signage is an electronic

sign. Kind of like an upgrade to existing sign, but because it is electronic it has some of

the following capabilities. It can…

Change quickly and easily

Deliver content or messages based on the time of day, for example breakfast lunch and

dinner

Deliver content or messages based on the day of the week, for example a 2 for Tuesday

promotion

Deliver content or messages based on a promotional schedule, for example a holiday

sale

In addition you can change the sign based on shopper demographics that frequent a

store in the morning as opposed to those that frequent it in the evening.

Or change the sign based on its location

Or the season were in, promoting more hot beverages than cold for example

And because a digital sign has the ability to make these kinds of changes. It can help…

Increase sales, average spends, gross revenue, etc. of a particular business using digital

signage.

Optimize the variety of kinds of products being sold. Perhaps 20 brands of mustard isn’t

necessary?

And without giving away free candy, but by educating customers with informative

content or messaging, it can increase the frequency of their visits.

Overall, it can provide customers with a more enjoyable and exciting shopping

experience

And if a hometown team just won a championship, you can honor them the next day

without any priority shipping charges incurred,

In addition to these capabilities and improvements, the digital signage market will

continue to grow as a result of the following market drivers or trends…

Technology innovation continues to charge ahead. Everything in technology continues

to get Bigger Better Faster and Cheaper as this chart illustrates.

A large up front cost of a Digital Signage system is usually the display. Less than 10 years

ago a 30” display debuted at $8,000 dollars. Today you get one with better picture

quality, almost twice the screen size for less than 1/3 of the cost.

This charts illustrates how much digital signage costs per location have dropped. They

are now more than half what they were in 2004 (based on the installation of a 100

screen location network).

As cost becomes less a barrier to entry, more digital signs get installed, and more results

get documented.

And leading market research firms analyze these results and trends, and release healthy

industry forecasts as a result. A few notable ones are shown here…

Another notable trend contributing to the growth of digital signage is the availability of

Good Enough Technology. No longer does the newest hottest product mean it’s the

most expensive and advanced product available. How many $99 LCD photo-‐frames used

as digital signs have you seen in use that were good enough?

Immediate access to information is wired, Seeing it this evening on TV is tired. More and

more of us get information from the new media triad (internet websites, from our

phones & other digital out of home products like digital signage), especially the Gen X

and Gen Y consumer, they want information available instantly.

And lastly, more then a trend, but a regulation that will need to be followed is menu

labeling. Because digital signs or digital menu boards can be updated instantly, Digital

Signage will help companies comply with this regulation and any others that follow. To

start, Menu labeling will mandate that restaurants with 20 or more locations display

menu item calorie information.

Even without regulations, using a digital sign to display nutritional information is

something that 65% of Americans would like to see*. *According to a 2009 Guiding Stars

Survey

This next set of slides highlights the advantages and capabilities digital signage has

compared to regular signs...Keep in mind, static signs and digital signs are

complimentary business partners, they are cousins not competitors. Having the ability

to offer digital signage strengthens a companies product and services offering, it does

not cannibalize it. And if you can also offer value added services like content design for

digital signage, it will give you a clear advantage over most other companies already

selling digital signage products into the marketplace today (I’ll talk a bit more about this

later).

As mentioned previously, the content or message on the digital sign can change, based

on a pre-‐programmed schedule for timely information. This increases viewership and

increases sales revenue.

Also the use of motion gives a digital sign a great advantage compared to static signs.

Used properly it gives a sign more attention grabbing ability than signs that don’t have

motion.

The ability to distribute digital signage content using a network reduces logistical costs

associated with shipping and installing a new static sign, and it uses less energy too.

Lastly because you have the ability to transfer content using a network, it makes

updates quick efficient and dependable.

The next several slides will highlight several popular applications or ways digital signage

is being used today.

Corporate Communications

Foodservice, from restaurants to food concessions in arenas to corporate cafeterias.

Note the integrated custom enclosure design. Another value added service opportunity

for sign companies offering digital signage too.

Hospitality examples here make use of two things in particular to note. Display sizes

vary from small to large and orientation, either landscape or portrait.

In large public spaces digital signage is primarily used for advertising networks or

wayfinding.

In retail most digital signage is used to increase the average spend of their customers

and to improve effectiveness of limited time offers. Note again display sizes in use vary

as well as orientation.

Now I’ll dig in a little deeper and review the 5 main areas of what makes a digital

signage solution work.

Keep in mind that this is an area where a digital signage consultant can get involved to

help educate you about all the different possibilities. If this is something you don’t

have the resources for, or you would rather not do yourself a digital signage

consultant can assist you.

The display is one of the most expensive up front costs and there are many products to

choose from. As a result, manufacturers use specifications primarily to have better

numbers then their competitors. Unfortunately, no standardized testing exists for things

like contrast, response time and brightness. So rather than getting caught up in these

numbers think more about things like reliability, screen size and resolution.

There also exists a large variety of inexpensive consumer grade LCDs too. Their prices

are appealing, but keep in mind they are different then commercial grade LCD.

Consumer grade can work though. If the amount of hours of use per day is low, and the

product is being used in a well ventilated space, and priced right, they can be almost

disposable. Meaning, if replacing it for your client 12-‐24 months later is not too costly,

then go with consumer. However commercial grade LCDs are used for most digital

signage solutions and here is why…

Commercial grade LCDs come with a 5 year on-‐site warranty and are built to withstand

extended use (24/7/365) in harsh environments and in landscape or portrait mode. They

also recognize more TV and PC output resolutions, have outputs and can disable or lock-‐

out the use of any external buttons.

If the display puts the “sign” in digital signage, then the media player helps put the

“digital” in it. The heart and brain of digital signage technology resides in the media

player and whether it is a PC media player or a Dedicated media player, it is responsible

for receiving and outputting the content onto the display.

Depending on your digital signage software, you’ll find media players available in

compact form factors for several hundred dollars as pictured here, to large rack

mountable boxes costing a couple thousand dollars.

PCs and Dedicated media players contain the digital signage software that plays

different media files. PCs are usually more compatible with a variety of digital signage

software and offer a variety of configurations while Dedicated media players are

optimized for a specific type of software. One is not necessarily better than the other,

and it is best to let the software you decide to use determine which type of media

player to use.

While there are hundreds of digital signage software solutions to choose from, most all

offer the core capabilities, to create a playlist, a playback schedule and the ability to

distribute this information along with the content over a network or with a removable

storage device to the media player. So how to compare? Now keep in mind as I

mentioned earlier, If this is something you do not have the time or resources to do,

bringing in a digital signage consultant to assist you here could be a good idea.

Concentrate more on researching the reputation and growth of the company that

makes the software instead, by doing some of the following…

Kick the tires and test the software. Make sure the features you or your client need are

available. Evaluate things like ease-‐of-‐use and the software companies customer service

and support.

Check their track record as well…It’s not just about their latest big win or pr campaign,

but also about how long they have been around, what is the size of their installed based

and what kind of reputation do they have?

Work directly with them...are they easy to work with, responsive, dependable, well

organized?

Get References and contact them…Find out more about the company from actual end-‐

users. Sometimes things are not always as they seem. Being well informed about the

company and how they support the product you want to use will ensure you are making

a wise investment or not.

The next area to discuss is distribution. Getting content or messaging along with its

playlist and play back schedule from point A to point B.

The simplest least expensive way to get digital signage programming from point A to

point B is with a memory stick or removable memory card of some kind. If the

information needed to show on the display does not need to change on a moments

notice, and the playback schedule can be fixed for a week or more at a time, this could

be a good way to go. It’s inexpensive and reliable. If not, there are several connected

network distribution configurations you may want to consider instead…

With a master slave configuration, digital signage programming software resides on a PC

and connects to the media players over a network to distribute programming

information. You typically pay a one time perpetual license fee for this type of software.

You may pay support fees, and you usually manage the network from you or your clients

own PC.

A Connected On-‐Premise set-‐up uses a server PC between administrator PCs and the

media players. Administrators connect to the server PC through a web browser to

upload content, create playlists, schedules and distribute programming to the media

players from the server PC. You typically pay a one time perpetual license fee for this

type of software that can be set-‐up like this. You may pay support fees, and you usually

manage the network from you or your clients own server PC.

A Connected SaaS (or Software as a Service) set-‐up is similar to an On-‐Premise solution

set-‐up, but the server PC is located remotely, managed by the digital signage software

company (instead of you or your client). You typically pay a monthly fee for this set-‐up

which can be more costly, but support and management services are usually handled by

the software company and it is included with the monthly fee.

The fifth area of a digital signage solution and perhaps most important is the content or

messaging designed to appear on the display screen. Often times having a content plan

and creating professionally designed content is the difference between success and

failure. If your company has the ability to do creative design, this is an area you should

consider offering as a value added service to ensure the success of the solutions you sell,

and to increase the amount of revenue you can generate with digital signage.

Developing content that meets these objectives and incorporates the values and

techniques that follow will increase the effectiveness of the digital signage content you

create. To start, digital signage content needs to captivate the viewer and control their

eyepath, provoke thought, arouse emotion and encourage viewers to act in some way,

like for example, to purchase a product or service.

Remember to incorporate the following values when creating digital signage content.

“C-‐cubed” or clear, concise, compelling refers to the use of graphic elements in the

content layout. Like using fonts that first and foremost are easy to read, perhaps have

some motion characteristics, and are styled appropriately to create the overall image

you want to portray.

With the exception of long dwell times associated with digital signage used in places like

waiting rooms or at banks, most viewers only glance at digital signs for only a few

seconds at a time, so the shorter and simpler the content run time and message the

better, so Keep It Simple.

And with short viewing time and attention spans for that matter the larger fonts and

images you can use to visualize the message the better and more effective. Bigger Is

Better.

Now a little about techniques you can use to help meet the objectives of successful

digital signage content.

Attract and engage viewers with interesting graphic elements that capture their

attention and make them think twice…

Use contrast to focus your viewers eye and attention, not like this, but like this…

Bleeding images off of the edges of your sign makes images feel bigger and more

dynamic, and food more scrumptious…

Placing text in open areas of a layout and or with little background noise ensures it will

be easier to read…

Fix your focus. Draw your viewers eyes to the area of a layout you want them to by

playing with focus, like this…

Placing the focal point of your image or layout along the intersection of an equally

spaced 3x3 grid can help create more energy and interest in the total layout. So, instead

of going with something like this. Try this instead…

Working within these pixel dimensions will ensure your content layout will scale

perfectly with the display. The higher the pixel dimensions or resolution you can work in,

the crisper and clearer your content will look.

If this is the aspect ratio of the image you have to work with and you need to fill the

space, do it creatively, but don’t do it like this…

Skewing and distorting graphic elements and images, cheapen content quality, and

decreases effectiveness.

The final topic today is related to numbers. Costs, revenue opportunities and return on

investment. The revenue opportunity here being digital signage content creation

services.

Why are Content Creation Services a revenue opportunity? There is a lack of companies

selling digital signage that have visual communication skills. Most companies selling

digital signage are IT firms. Furthermore, most end-‐user businesses require simple

digital signage solutions that require little IT support.

There is a need for designers who have the ability to translate objectives and needs into

compelling visual messages, or content for digital signage. These services offer high

value and are in demand. Some of those services are mentioned here. Consider

partnering with firms selling digital signage or offering your own digital signage solutions

along with these content creation services.

Now for a look at some estimated costs…A simple digital sign does not have to be

expensive. For example, a countertop digital sign, placed in front of the customer at the

point of sale can cost $2,000. $500 of which is generated for 1 years worth of content

creation services (or $42/month).

A little more expensive solution with a larger LCD wall mounted in a retail store can cost

around $4,000, with a $700 content creation service fee for 1 years worth of content

creation services (or $58/month).

Now justifying the cost with a simple ROI. This one has been created based on achieving

a very reasonable 5% or $12,500 gross sales lift/year, through the use of the inexpensive

$2,000 countertop digital sign. At that rate the sign could pay for itself within 8 months

($250,000 divided by 360 days = $700/day) (based on a $5 average sale, 140 orders/day,

operating 360 days/year). (Gross sales lift equals $12,500/year, $35/day, $.25/order).

So you see how a quick return on your customers investment in a digital sign can be

achieved, while also achieving a recurring revenue for your business through digital

signage content creation services.

So to summarize in brief in closing. keep in mind some of these key take-‐aways:

-‐ Digital signage is complimentary to existing sign products and businesses, it is not a

competitor

-‐ Like existing signs you create today, digital signage content must be clear, concise and

compelling too. And should always change and be kept up to date.

-‐ If you’re thinking about offering digital signage, consider offering digital signage

content creation services as well.

Thank you for your time and please feel free to contact me to discuss how I can assist

you with any of your digital signage needs. Designage offers creative as well as technical

expertise to help develop your digital signage business. My email address is

[email protected] or you can call me at 201.400.8373.

Please feel free to give me one of your business cards if you would like to receive a copy

of this presentation along with all of my notes. Thank you.