Digital Sign of the Times
Even though this article from August’s VARBusiness has mostly information and specs about monitors, there’s also some good info about the direction digital signage is headed. More and more small and mid-sized businesses are turning to digital signage as a worthwhile and even crucial marketing initiative, while thousand-screen deployments for multi-million dollar companies remain rare. The key is to find a solid provider, install a few screens in high-traffic areas, and begin to measure your ROI. That seems to be the big debate: Will spending all of this money be worth it to my company in the long run? Research shows that customers respond favorably to in-store digital media, and that such POP advertising can increase sales of advertised products by alarming amounts. And, ss Chris Drynan mentions below, they’re irreplacable for getting the attention of your already captive audience, such as the guests waiting in your office entryway. This gives you an early first impression; a chance to get them interested in your products or services before they’ve even heard your sales pitch. But the real question remains: Will I make back what I spend on this massive installment? The longer your signage system stays in place, the more likely you are to earn a positive ROI. With constantly changing content, it’s easy to see how quickly you could save money on printing, shipping, and hanging traditional in-store signage as opposed to the instantaneous deployment of digital ad campaigns. DigiSignage’s ROI calculator claims an ROI of over 2,000% for a large signage system that remains intact for 5 years and is continually updated with new marketing material. While pilot rollouts and smaller systems shouldn’t anticipate that level of return, they can almost guarantee that they’ll still have an eye-catching display that will keep their customers’ interest piqued. And with the cost of monitors, displays, and screens hitting all-time lows, especially those made specifically for digital signage use (no speakers, hi-def video), it’s easier than ever to get involved inexpensively.
Excerpt, “Digital Sign of the Times”, VARBusiness, Aug 18 2006
By Shelley Solheim
“I think digital signage is more integrated into business processes than it used to be. A lot of our reps see value in selling it more than they used to,” says Chris Drynan, director of business development and marketing at En Pointe Technologies, a solution provider based in El Segundo, Calif. “We’ve seen a good spike in sales over the past six to 12 months, and we see more opportunities in the pipeline. “We see [these displays] all the time in client hallways, where we didn’t see them 18 months ago,” Drynan adds. “We’ve even started to use them internally, and we’re seeing the benefits of internal messaging for our sales reps. We also plan to put [digital signage] in our entryway in the future, so when people are sitting out there, they can get a feel for what we’re doing and what’s new that they might not have known about.”
Small and midsize businesses are warming to digital signage as display prices continue to fall, and major distributors such as Ingram Micro and CDW are starting to offer digital-signage-in-a-box solutions targeted specifically at SMBs. Just last month, D&H Distributing signed a deal with American Industrial Systems to resell all-in-one digital-signage displays to small and midsize companies.
“Historically, in enterprise deployments, you’re mixing hardware with proprietary software, then tying it to standalone PCs or to a network,” says Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing at D&H in Harrisburg, Pa. “This is much easier.”
In the future, the distributor will also offer MediaView and SmartView products for wireless capabilities and an integrated PC that allows video, pictures and text to run simultaneously.
Schwab points to what he considers an ideal application for an all-in-one display offering: a real-estate office that simultaneously offers a slide show of available houses, lists the phone numbers of local contacts and provides information about regional events such as open houses.
Industries such as health care, government and education are among other verticals that offer new areas of growth for digital signage.
“Everyone’s looking to get huge multi-thousand unit installations, but those are going to be hard, and few and far between,” says Hans Baumann, senior product manager at NEC Display Solutions. “There are a lot of smaller opportunities at universities and hospitals.”
You can read the fuill article here: http://varbusiness.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=191902339
