Digital Signage: The potential of digital signage and advertising

Traditional advertising in large physical panels or static diverse signage, as we knew it, is already part (and increasingly) of the past, especially due to the evolution of technologies and the greater scope of the so-called Digital Signage.

Mainly for this reason, it has been interesting to incorporate the Digital Signage as a theme in the program of the 3rd Edition of the Master in Digital Marketing at the University of Salamanca, in which IME Business School, the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca and Join and whose pre-registrations are open.

Multimedia or dynamic digital signage consists of displaying content and advertising messages through screens or tactile panels located in public places to surprise and attract the audience, so that it can also interact with our brand, and not simply see it exposed passively, as it happens with static content. This concept, to many, will remind us of the well-known film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg, and those more moviegoers, Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson and directed by Rupert Sanders. Do you need bomber jacket, worn by Tom Cruise in the film Minority Report.

And is that this type of advertising does not exist only in movies: we find it already present in multiple Spanish cities, European, and globally. It is only necessary to remember the best-known examples in Times Square, Picadilly Circus or practically any corner of the city of Tokyo. However, now that we have these cities in mind, it should be noted that their importance does not lie in the support of advertising, but in the context of the environment where they are located and the impact it causes on the audience.

This technology seeks to capture the attention of the public directly and actively, with dynamic content adaptable to multiple environmental factors, such as weather, atmospheric phenomena, and user interaction through their movements, facial gestures or voice, among others. To explode. The Digital Signage is the evolution of traditional physical advertising.

This type of digital advertising, in addition, ends with some handicaps of static physical advertising: it is novel, daring, improves the user experience before, during and after the purchase, facilitates conversion and purchase, and even outside it , promotes greater visibility, image and brand recognition, and allows the measurement of results in almost real time, as content changes are implemented dynamically and remotely in multiple different locations at the same time

And there are many companies that are implementing it: since digital marketing came into play in our lives, brands have understood that there is no turning back, and that they must know how to adapt to new trends. This is what happened to Orange, just a month ago, in the expansion of its Digital Signage in-store network with the incorporation of an innovative digital marketing system in its stores.

The sectors that most demand this type of advertising at present, however, are not only the physical stores and the retail sector (with those known as digital testers, already present in Spanish stores of brands such as Mango), but also sectors such as finance, tourism and insurance, in addition to shopping centers and public spaces, as we see in the following video of a public transport station:

The transparent LEDs, curved, double-sided, rotating, and of course, its high brightness and sharpness in this type of ultra-thin and light screens, are small samples of this new type of supports and windows (possible thanks to the technological advances in the connectivity and the Internet of Things or IoT), where the most used and valued options are the interactive catalog and the management of shifts, followed by the possibility of being able to buy through the touch screens in the online store if the product was not available. Available in the physical establishment.

With these examples, it is easy to imagine a present (and future) increasingly related to technology and digital marketing. And with it, an increasingly digitalized environment, with the development and improvement of SmartCities, the associated Digital Intelligence and its integration with mobile devices to offer more attractive content, more useful and more adapted to the public and their needs or interests in a specific environment, in search of less intrusive advertising and a better user experience that impacts on the success of the brand.