Digital Signage 101: What It Is and How It Can Transform Your Business

Business as usual isn’t so “usual” anymore. In today’s fast-paced world, businesses that thrive are the ones that adapt, embrace new tools, and stay ahead of the curve.

Enter digital signage: the secret weapon your business didn’t know it needed. Think of it as the evolution of “just another screen.” This isn’t just a glorified TV playing videos in a loop. Digital signage is dynamic, interactive, and unforgettable. It can incorporate 3D elements, create a halo effect, and make your message impossible to ignore.

At its core, digital signage is simple: a digital screen that displays content using visuals, audio, images, text, or videos. But in practice? It’s a game-changer. It raises brand awareness, drives sales, improves internal communication, displays real-time information, and turns your social media feed into eye-catching gold.

Ready to go from bland to bold? Let’s break down what digital signage can do and why it’s the next big move for your business.

What Is Digital Signage, And How Does It Work?

Digital signage is a network of interconnected displays that shows content such as images, videos, and text. Technically, It is a combination of hardware and software wherein, for the latter, there is a CMS (Content Management Software) to manage content. Meanwhile, for hardware, they use screens like liquid crystal displays and LCD or LED screens and display content at kiosks, touchscreens, OOH displays, and even video walls. 

A CMS allows users to create, manage, and deploy content. It can connect to wired and wireless networks, wired being the HDMI cables, whereas wireless connections use Bluetooth or wifi. Digital signage uses LED walls, OLED screens, LCD monitors, projections, and e-paper. Zoning features allow users to send the same content to multiple screens. It can be managed from a central location, allowing users to adjust messaging for different audiences. 

Digital signage is often used in advertising to display weather data, restaurant menus, and even wayfinding. Other industries that use it to display information include entertainment, merchandising, company updates, calendars, and event schedules.

Public transportation systems, museums, Social Walls in stadiums, retail stores, hotels, restaurants, corporate buildings, educational buildings, and lobbies are popular and regularly used examples.

Benefits Of Digital Signage For Businesses

In this digital era of 2024, where everything has been transformed by audio and visual means, businesses have also adapted to Digital Signage, leaving behind paper billboards, which are way more expensive. Apart from that, here are a few other benefits that digital signage carries: 

1. Capture attention in-a-go

Display a digital screen to grab the eyeballs of your customers in one moment. Watch everyone turning their heads from their phones, pausing, reflecting, and spying attention on the screens. This attention-grabbing method is sure to attract more visitors who have the potential to turn into customers. 

2. Maximum Optimization of Your Content

Utilize all of your produced content before it goes to waste. Collect content from your social media using a hashtag or a public account and curate a feed on your website using this already-produced content. 

3. Lower creative costs

Use your now-saved money on other business needs. When you use already-created content, the production cost of creating content decreases. Thus, it wouldn’t cost you much regarding your advertising budgets, including printing, shooting, set designs, scripting, etc., and you can utilize this now to save money on more digital signages, maybe. 

4. Make the most of Impulse Purchases.

Impulse Purchases are purchasing without adequate planning or consideration in response to emotional triggers such as excitement, boredom, or stress.  A study by InfoTrends found that 42% of customers have purchased a product they didn’t intend to buy because of digital signage. Bank upon this feature and maximize it to your advantage. 

Types of Digital Signage Displays

These are divided into further subtypes; divided in the form of Indoor Signages as well as Outdoor Signages : 

Indoor Signages : 

1. Digital Displays 

These are displayed on walls and stand as images, videos, or texts on electronic screens to make them more visible in the area. 

2. Interactive Displays

Although they share some similarities with digital displays, they are made more interactive with the help of touchscreens and touch sensors. 

3. Kiosks 

These are standalone units with an interactive touchscreen. Their main aim is to collect information from customers. Popular examples are TMs, digital menus, and self-checkout counters. 

4. Video walls 

Video walls can be considered a mosaic of screens, with multiple display screens arranged in a grid to create one large display. Their main aim is to capture attention, and they are usually found in retail stores, airports, and stadiums.

Outdoor Signages : 

Before we move ahead, one significant difference between indoor and outdoor signage is that the latter can withstand weather conditions, such as rain, extreme temperatures, and snow. 

1. Digital billboards

These are placed to capture attention and are mostly found in high-traffic areas. They feature full video and animation. 

2. LED Displays

These are considered the best examples of digital signage as their brightness makes them visible even in bright sunlight. 

3. Mobile Displays

Several Digital trucks and carts are phenomenal examples of digital signages for businesses building buzz and driving marketing. 

Many Industries are Leveraging Digital Signage Would you like to know which ones? Let’s have a look. 

1. Healthcare

Hospitals and clinics worldwide use digital signage to display necessary information such as patient wait times, details about health services, and appointment schedules. 

2. Retail Companies

Digital signage displays have made retailers’ jobs easy and as simple as that. They can quickly and smoothly display regular-use content such as product information, promotions, discounts, etc. 

Digital signage also helps draw shoppers’ attention and provides a more engaging atmosphere that encourages sales. Here’s how Social Walls helped this Automobile Brand. 

3. Banks and Financial Services

The finance industry has benefitted multifold from the advent of digital signage. These displays display up-to-date market data and currency exchange rates, allowing customers to make informed decisions quickly and driving business and engagement. 

4. Restaurants 

Using digital signage for your marketing campaign can help you display information such as digital menu boards, promotional offers, seasonal delicacies, discounts, and even moments from special events. Here’s a real example of where Social Walls helped Jack Astor’s Bar and Grill achieve double social media engagement.

5. Transportation 

Not talking about the aviation industry would be like sinning when god knows how many customers have been saved from missing their flights, all thanks to the streamlined boarding process due to Digital Signage for businesses. 

Now That We Have Established The Multitude Of Benefits That Digital Signages Offer. 

Let’s look into how these Can Transform your Business : 

1. Garner their Attention

Moving texts, graphics, animations, and videos hold viewers’ attention for longer durations than traditional marketing tactics, and hence, they can also be measured in terms of analytics. 

2. Increased Brand Awareness

What better way to raise awareness around your brands than using constantly changing/ captivating visuals, videos, and animations to showcase your brand’s personality and values? Upselling and cross-selling are much easier digitally than with pamphlets, etc. 

3. Cost-efficient 

Save on hordes of marketing expenses and make your campaigns come alive digitally while changing content occasionally. Update your content digitally with a simple tap and save big on printing and distribution expenses. 

4. Real-Time updates 

Which customer doesn’t like being kept up to date with industry developments? Showcase instructional videos, product information, and FAQs in real time and provide them with these benefits.

5. Measurability

Track the performance of your content and measure its effectiveness across various channels with in-depth knowledge, such as the number of visitors, CTAs, etc. 

Let’s look at the Brands that set the benchmark too high.

Some Examples Of Successful Digital Signage Campaigns Are : 

1. Coca-Cola’s Times Square Spectacle

An interactive billboard permitted passers-by to customize their virtual Coke bottles displayed on the massive screen. Imagine having your and your best friend’s name up on the bottle and getting that displayed on this gigantic screen. This generated buzz both online and offline, and their sales skyrocketed. 

2. McDonald’s dynamic menu boards

Suppose you walk into McDonald’s and you have a menu there for breakfast. This menu changes by the time you go for lunch at the same place and then changes again for dinner. There are no stale-old dishes to choose from, but rather a whole new array of delicacies changed according to time of day, weather, and popular items. 

3. Airbnb’s Community Stories

The first rule of business is that people love listening to others, and Airbnb identified this. They bridged the gap between customers by installing interactive displays where local hosts shared their stories and recommendations. This approach helped guests explore new cities, and the hosts saw many bookings, too. 

4. Spotify’s Music Mosaic

In cities worldwide, Spotify brought people together with music by installing interactive displays wherein passersby contributed to a collaborative music playlist. This was curated by each person selecting their favorite songs, and the result was a lively music mosaic. It worked as a great way to bring people together and discover new music. 

5. Samsung – See the Extraordinary

Samsung has paired extraordinarily at the Times Square Billboard, which showcases the brand’s innovative spirit and transforms mundane advertising into an immersive visual experience. Vibrant colors, moving visuals, hold-your-breath-away animations, and larger-than-life imagery offer a glimpse into the limitless possibilities of modern displays. Tech + art = Magic!

Future Of Digital Signage: Trends to Watch

1. Interactivity

We already know that Digital signage is no longer limited to static images and videos. The invention of touchscreens, motion sensors, and camera-based applications now allows users to interact with the content on screen. This has been happening so far, but its potential is limitless, and it will change how consumers interact with digital signage. 

2. Artificial Intelligence

We live in the chatbots, AI assistants, robots, and cloning era. The next task will only be more significant and more prominent. We won’t get into the whole human v/s. Machines debate here, but as we have already seen, much of the manual labor we do today will be delegated to AI.  

3. Immersive Displays, AR and holograms 

Using large-scale immersive installations in high-traffic locations will be the future of dazzling potential customers, creating a memorable environment while promoting products and services.

One example of such a Hologram or Sphere is in Las Vegas, shaped like this:

Conclusion: Our Final Say

We have established how digital signage can transform your business and has the potential to do so. If you’re not convinced and rather have information that could be eye-opening for us and is starkly opposite to what we had and established, well, in that case, we are more than happy to hear from you. What the future holds is neither in your hands nor ours. But one thing is there: Digital Signage isn’t going anywhere, and you shouldn’t either.