Why is now the right time for companies to get involved with Digital Signage?

By Andrea Waldin, Director of Marketing, Scala

As the Director of Marketing at Scala, I’m so excited to be working in an industry that’s growing by leaps and bounds. But I have to ask myself, if Scala has been around for more than 20 years, why is it that all of a sudden digital signage is really taking off? So I set myself down to come up with an answer. I did some research and came up with dozens of reasons that go into that explanation, but there are four primary market drivers that are the underlying cause for the seemingly sudden growth of the digital signage industry.

• The Technology Window has opened - Displays are getting less and less expensive each year. The cost of internet bandwidth is decreasing while the availability and speed of bandwidth is increasing. The start up costs of a Digital Signage network are becoming more and more affordable. As with all technology trends, this reduction in costs of displays and bandwidth and their wider availability is expected to continue unabated in the next few years.
• The End of Passive Media - People no longer sit idly by and allow marketers to push messages to them. Customers have become more and more savvy and now have DVRs (to skip TV commercials), commercial free satellite radio, do not call lists, and internet based TV programming (YouTube). Advertisers are struggling with ways to present their products and services. Digital signage offers a cost-effective way to get highly targeted messages to the right audience at exactly the right time.
• Information Overload People around the world are targeted by marketing of some sort at nearly every moment. It is an unavoidable part of life in the twenty first century. People are bombarded with messaging and tend to ignore it if it does not relate to them. Digital Signage offers marketers the ability to target and interact with potential customers based on location, time of day, RFID inputs, available merchandise, and the weather just to name a few. The relevancy of a message has to be high in order for an audience to pay it any mind.
• Money Talks Many businesses using Scala digital signage software have reported materially significant increased sales due to Digital Signage, with variations depending on industry and product type. In addition to increased sales, businesses have also reported lower expenses when compared to the production and distribution of printed materials, and increased effectiveness of signage. Marketers are realizing that the need a better, more cost-effective way to get their messages out and that better way is Digital Signage.

So it seems that the planets have aligned for the digital signage industry and for Scala, and now really is the right time for companies to get involved. The time is fast approaching when Digital Signage will become just as much of a standard business expense as pay-per-click internet campaigns, employee intranets, and print advertising. Now is the time for business to use digital signage as a competitive differentiator because before long everyone will be doing it and companies who aren’t will have to play catch up. Might as well strike while the iron is hot!

Comments

[andrew]

An Insightful post

[Dikran Tawitian]

Nice post. You pretty much got everything there. And i do agree with basic innovation "chasm" concept of competitive advantage reason to buy turning to "proven case scenario" and later towards catching up.

[Dennis]

Nicely put!

Also, I'd say now is a great time to be investing in these digital signage companies. After all the future is digital.