Jan
Digital Signage And Digital Advertising.
Digital signage used for digital advertising.
Understanding digital signage and outdoor advertising is essential for whatever application you intend on using, this will increase the ROI and the correct hardware will be used.
Digital Signage.
This primarily involves either an LCD, LED or plasma screen connected some how to a media player or computer. Now this type of solution here are to provide information and can be seen readily at colleges and universities The screens are a way to inform staff and students about events on and off campus. They also are used to issue incident alerts, such as fires, armed attack and even earth quakes.
The technology used for dynamic signage as it is sometimes called, allows the content or information to be streamed over Category 5e data cable from the media player or computer to each screen using a hub, much like a computer network.
The size of screens mainly used are from 40” to 60”, some are located indoors in halls, corridors and even canteens as well as outdoors in the grounds of the campus. The screens can be in portrait or landscape position.
The screen is usually split into zones, with a ticker at the bottom that provides the weather forecast or weather alerts.
Imagine for a second, that it is your first week at college or university and everything is unfamiliar, the screens display a map of the campus, so at any one time you can make sure you are heading the right way for your lectures. Then you can see events such as the student balls that are on the signs, perfect for enhancing any students experience of higher education.
Digital advertising.
Digital advertising is used specifically to generate income and sometimes it is used in conjunction with digital signage to market to the people who are for example watching the information throughout the college or university. Mostly businesses use digital advertising as it is a way to promote their products and build brand awareness.
Quick Server Restaurants use digital advertising to promote their “specials” or meal deals, they promote the most profitable food items that can be sourced from local producers, reducing transport costs and buying seasonal food is more affordable than buying food that is out of season.
Corporate receptions – businesses use a mixture of digital advertising from network enabled through to standalone LCD ad players, these standalone units are perfect when the content is not updated as frequently as once a week, otherwise the trade off between staff labour costs for updating the content out weigh the cost of a network media player.
Car dealerships – if the dealership is part of a reasonable size organisation, the solutions will be network enabled so that the entire group has the same marketing strategy and is controlled form head office. Here the customer can view vehicles that are in stock within the group of dealerships, they can check out the specification of a car and even see if they qualify for finance, then when all the boxes are ticked they can discuss their purchase with a car salesperson.
Transportation Companies – use digital advertising and a mix of digital signage to provide passenger information, now when you go to the railway station you can see when your train is due, what platform and even if it is going to be late or worse still – cancelled!
But the screens are also displaying adds for the concessions on the train station such as the coffee shop, news stand and deli store. Now just think for a second, how many of us have arrived at the train station to find we have a 3 hour journey with nothing to do, so we buy a newspaper, we then buy a drink and possibly lunch – I know because I have done this so many times.
As you can see that there are not many differences to either solution and the hardware stays the same – robust units using commercial grade screens that are designed to run 24×7.