Kelowna Digital Signage - Cost Effectiveness

Businesses are moving away from printed signs to more dynamic, flexible, and customizable digital signs, often referred to as digital signage (DS). Marketing and advertising budgets are now being directed to this new affordable electronic medium. There are many benefits of digital signage over static signs:

• They grab a customer’s attention and influence their purchasing decision right at the point of purchase. Over 75% of decisions are made in-store and DS can increase impulse purchasing.
• They eliminate the high cost of creating and distributing print ad campaigns.
• They shorten perceived wait time.
• Content changes are easily made and can be customized for various products of customers. Think about menu changes, in store promotions, emergency announcements, facility information.
• People remember them. DS advertising shows that retention is much higher, up to 37%. People recall seeing advertised products. Nearly half of all shoppers could name at least one brand they saw advertised on the video screens that day without any prompting.
• People remember product ads better than they do television commercials. More consumers recall seeing products (diet soda and a jewelry retailer) in commercials on the video screens in the mall than during the television show they just watched.
• Digital signage systems can display a combination of text, images and video and are used to:
• Convey key information - for example new products, offers or waiting times, current weather or sports stats, emergency messages
• Advertise – for example in-store sales promotions
• Third party advertising – advertising the products or services of local companies, usually for a fee
• Enhance customer experience – providing interesting information, for example food recipes in a butcher shop
• Aid brand building – develop a brand identity customers remember

Content can be changed more easily while being programed to automatically occur at certain times. Web pages, RSS feeds, video, images and power point presentations can all be combined and incorporated in DS. Signs can even interact with their audience through touch screen technology such as those seen in kiosks. They can display wayfinding and directional information and emergency announcements. DS can offer superior return on investment compared to temporary and/or promotional signs with other products.

DS can provide different functions in different venues. Financial and retail organizations are taking advantage of digital signage to promote products and services in their branches and stores, and to create richer, more interactive experiences for their customers. Other industries, including government, education, healthcare, sports, entertainment, and transportation, are also implementing digital signage as a tool to enhance customer’s and end user’s experiences, resulting in new uses of and demands on organizations' network infrastructures. You have probably seen digital signage in many of your favorite stores, malls and business offices. In airports for example they are fairly static, displaying arrival and departure times and updating as required. In retail they may show on sale items, videos of their products, store hours, live TV or a combination of all.

Digital signage usually includes an LCD, plasma screen or projector to display the image. Connected to that is a small box called a media player which is basically just a small computer designed to run 24x7. This stores and delivers the content to the display device. In more complicated DS installations all the media players are connected via a network so that they can be centrally managed and the content automatically pushed out from a central computer.

The LCD’s or plasma screens used in digital signage are specially designed to run in a commercial environment. These displays are typically on up to 16 hours a day and sometimes 24 hours a day. The front panel controls can be locked out and they can be programed to turn on and off at specific times. These are not your average consumer home TV sets purchased in your local electronics store and have therefore slightly higher costs. However they better standard warranties (2 to 3 years) and will have a longer lifespan for your business.

For more information on digital signage and how it can help your business please contact our sales department.

- Dave P, Senior Account Manager

Northern Computer - Your Trusted Partner #1 - 495 Banks Road Kelowna, BC V1X 6A2 Phone: 250.762.7753 Fax: 250.861.1861 Toll-Free: 1.877.257.2896 Email: sales@northerncomputer.ca or service@northerncomputer.ca http://www.northerncomputer.ca/