Passive signage: it works at times, but it can be SO yesterday.
Digital signage takes on many forms, depending on its purpose. The most common is a passive advertisement such as an ad for retail products or the latest branded slogan that reinforces an overall ad campaign. It may be signage in a museum telling you of upcoming exhibits, or even digital food menus at a coffee shop. You'll see examples of these hanging high in the rafters and out of reach to keep people from tampering with the electronics. Occasionally you'll see them at eye level in hotels and casinos but behind safety glass in a wall or freestanding enclosure. This is probably the easiest form of digital signage for consumers and marketers to get their heads around, but there is so much more that is possible.
My favorite form of digital signage is active, not passive signage — signage that entices you to touch and engage, not just passively view. Being a company that focuses on kiosks and digital signage, we try to show our customers that digital signage can be just as interactive as kiosk software. You can even think of it as a large screen kiosk, and you'll start to understand the possibilities. Digital signage can educate your customer on your products, survey their opinions on your brand, reward them with coupons or sweepstakes entries and entertain them. Digital signage can even become transactional.
Whatever the application, the advantage of interactive digital signage is that the guest actively controls their experience instead of passively viewing a message. Bring those sign panels out of the rafters and down to eye level. Let the customer touch your brand.
Another advantage of interactive digital signage is that its effectiveness can be easily measured.
Measurement of signage content can be extremely difficult when you’re working with a passive system. Advertisers have an ad or commercial that they want to enable across signage networks, but how do they know that the audience is being reached? Often they build their measurement on how many "eyes" may have seen it, or fluctuations in store sales (think Wal-Mart TV which can directly show sales increases during the weeks you advertise).
But imagine if you tracked fingers instead of eyes. You would do this by having signage content combined with a bit of software, and software is ultimately measurable as proven on the web. Take into account the number of interactions, the time of day at which those interactions take place and the content that is displayed during those interactions. By examining this data, you can quickly determine when and how your signage deployments are most effective.
For example, if you are Victoria's Secret and you want to reach a particular group of women, you could have touchable signage that shows the latest glossy ad with an incentive to touch for discounts on the latest innovative bra you are promoting. If you think of a Web page with an incentive to "click here for a coupon" it’s the same except you say “touch here” instead, as there is no mouse. The screen can then split and be part signage and part interactive to show the latest bra in its various configurations and assist customers in determining the proper product. You could also provide them with a coupon for 20% off as an incentive to buy. While they’re there, use the signage to ask them a few quick questions (very few to keep them engaged) such as "Do you own this product already?", "Have you purchased from Victoria's Secret within the past 3 months?" or other information you may want to know about the particular consumers who look at the signage. After they’ve answered the questions, give them a reward. Print a coupon next to the sign or send it to their cell phone or email. You can even link that email back to your web site to have another touch point to further build a profile on this digital signage customer.
I think you get the idea. The signage can now measure many aspects of the eyes that are viewing the content and the fingers that touch your brand.
But hold the horses. Not every digital signage project should be interactive. Passive is sometimes the right media method. You may want a larger number of people to see your message, and having it too low and blocked by a crowd would reduce the number of eyes. Your goals may not include a measurable component. You may just need to entertain and extend your brand. This goal — and many others — would be better served in a traditional manner. You can overcome the height difficulties by putting a portion of the sign higher than the average person's height and have the screen split with the interactive touch portion in the lower half. That will keep some of your messaging in the upper half that is viewable to the surrounding crowd while your guest interacts with the lower half. Sometimes a combination of passive and active media is the most powerful combination.
Another issue when considering interactive signage is the cost. Hardware costs are much higher because the screen now has to have a touch interface and perhaps a more powerful PC driving functionality. That hardware is lower to the ground, and is in some ways more vulnerable to vandalism — or at the very least — will need occasional screen cleaning, so your total cost of ownership may include a few more service calls if the signage is in an unattended area.
And of course, there are higher costs in the design and construction of the functionality. The rewards however can often outweigh these concerns when you consider a measurable increase in sales and the ability to engage your customer. Every project should be evaluated independently for feasibility and value.
There are many different ways to bring interactivity to your signage. You'll commonly see examples of interactive digital signage such as way finding tools that allow guests to navigate your office, tradeshow, hospital, or mall. Others include advertising for restaurants that can provide menus and take dinner reservations at the same time, or real estate signage that shows video clips while allowing consumers to preview listings at the same screen.
Think about your product and then think about your customer. What would be of value to them? Determine if interactive signage would add value and solve a problem. Do the proper due diligence and then pick good vendors that have both the design capabilities and programming capability to turn your passive ho-hum experience to an engaging active experience.
Tim Burke is on the board of directors for the Digital Signage Association and owner of Electronic Art. His blog can be viewed here. You can meet Tim at the Digital Signage Expo on February 27th & 28th showing touchable applications in DT Research’s booth #442. Stop by to discuss this article and see examples.
