There is no denying the fact that digital signage is poised to change the way we will interact with content going forward. The cost of the solutions has been falling thanks to the lowered cost of acquisition of the hardware and service offered in the cloud in the form of Software as a Service, SaaS. Thus, the future for all types of businesses to have their advertisements running on digital signage platforms, is finally possible.
With this possibility, the sector is set to explode, and the industry is worth a whopping USD $ 15 billion dollars as of 2016, and it forecasted to be worth a staggering USD $ 24 Billion by the year 2020. Understanding market trends and navigating your businesses future based on new technology, is key. You need to start positioning yourself for the on-going changes, and that may mean finding out all that you can about this digital medium and its potential to reconstruct your business, whether you are an SMB or a service provider.
Flexible Solution
Digital signage can be allocated to many uses, and one of these is providing way-finding at large conventions or institutions, in exhibitions, during marketing events, and for outdoor advertising. The range of uses is only limited by the imagination of the creative marketer. The type of content which can be displayed are many and varied from text to images, videos and a mix of both. Digital Signage is truly is a transformation in the way advertisements are run and will be run in the future.
Digital signage solutions are usually managed from the cloud, and thus, all you need to access your user dashboard is a working internet connection and of course the digital displays. With these key elements, you can run your digital content from anywhere in the world at any location and consequently implement the concept of a portable digital signage. This means that with all the proper equipment, you can quickly set up a digital signage at the most diverse of locations.
Let us explore the interesting ways in which you can use portable digital signage to enliven your event:
- Low cost - Back in the day, you had to consider breaking the bank if you wanted a digital signage solution. The market was skewed to cater to the high-end businesses, where a few highly trained technicians install all the required software and hardware on site. Since installing signage required technicians, costs increased as well.
Over and above this cost, you also had to request the service of a digital content creation specialist to create the ad. This contributed to high costs and inefficiencies. For example, if your custom content was not compatible with your business or platform, you had to make costly corrections to have the new information display properly on your devices.
These days, to have a fully functional digital display solution, you simply have to invest in commercial or consumer use digital LED HD displays which are reasonably priced. Additionally, you will need to purchase a media player, or hardware if you plan on running your system from a remote location or use an internet connection which is how cloud-based digital signage systems are managed. The costs are affordable with some solutions costing only $349 for a lifetime.
- Easy - The Software As A Service (SaaS ) solutions have an added advantage as they come pre-bundled with templates that require just a little customizing to convert them into personalized advertising solutions. This means that you do not have to work on a second budget of hiring a graphics designer to create content for you, as you can easily make the required changes right from the online dashboard.
Accordingly, these SaaS systems are designed to make it easy for you to set them up at your event without requiring extensive technical know-how. The templates combined with plug and play media players make for a compelling product which makes it that much easier to set up for your outdoor event.
- Multimedia - A key factor to consider when you are creating an event signage solution is to make sure that you have a solution which takes full care of the changing circumstances of the audience. For example, you should have a way in which you can alter the contents on display in an easy way, in response to the needs of the particular crowd or event.
The great appeal of a portable digital signage solution is that you can choose to change the content on a whim without having to consult another professional or a user manual. You can switch between custom content playing on the digital media player, modify the feed to the internet, and stream content directly from social media feeds simultaneously.
- Custom - We have highlighted the fact smart digital media is not only device-indifferent, but it is also managed through the cloud. The ability to remotely manage digital signage content means that you hardly need to install custom software or media players for your adverts to go live. This feature saves time and removes the extra technical layer, making the solution useful to anyone across the board.
The digital smart signage software has a dashboard that is helpful in managing the content. It also allows you to do some editing and further customize the templates already presented in your software package. Because your content is ever-changing, you can take into consideration your audiences feedback to alter the content, types, and styles of your advertisements in response to your customers' or audience's requirements.
As mentioned earlier on, this is the wave of the future- the ability to run a sophisticated digital campaign from anywhere in the world where there are a power source and access to the internet. This is thanks to the provision of digital signage as a web-based solution from servers located anywhere in the world. As the statistics above prove, this paradigm shift is the final impetus that is going to change the way we interact with information. It is the time that you as a business make this giant leap in the competitive world of sales and advertising.