Sign of the Times

FST. What applications specific to the financial services industry can digital signage be put to?

DD. Digital signage serves three primary purposes: to promote, to entertain and to inform. The financial industry is using digital signage to display the current interest rate, current promotions and new products. There is a term being used to describe one of the benefits of digital signage: ‘wait warping.’ While customers stand in line, digital signage can be used to promote, entertain or inform and take customers’ minds off the wait.

FST. Can you tell us a little about current innovation in the digital signage space? What new developments are you particularly excited about?

DD. Interactive digital signage is very exciting – this could utilize touch screens, audience recognition or mobile integration (such as text message interaction). Interactive store windows allow people to touch the window to get information after hours or entice people to enter during store hours. Audience recognition technology has advanced to the point that you can measure how many people are viewing the screens, for how long, their gender and even if they are smiling. Some digital signage has the ability for viewers to engage with or control the content using their mobile phone.

FST. What opportunities for upselling and cross selling can digital signage present?

DD. Customers are increasingly difficult to reach with advertising, but digital signage represents an opportunity to reach them at the point of decision. A good digital signage deployment will do all three things I mentioned – promote, entertain, inform. Not many people want to watch nothing but advertising, but they’ll watch ads if they’re entertaining or if the content that follows is worth staying tuned.

FST. How different is the reaction from customers to digital signage as opposed to the traditional static kind? Do measurable results from the use of digital signage make up for the increased costs?

DD. Digital signage is much more exciting than static signs since the images are moving and can be updated in real time. Measurable results are still being debated and defined. The industry is working on a method everyone can agree, but some big players are getting involved such as Arbitron and Nielsen. There are several research reports out there based on consumer surveys that demonstrate the effectiveness and high recall of advertising on digital signage.

FST. In an age when people are doing more of the banking and spending more of their time online, what does the future hold for physical signage? Can digital signage compete with the web for the attention of the internet generation?

DD. Digital signage can make the retail environment more like the web with targeted information and advertising. I don’t believe that digital signage will completely replace static signage. Cost is one factor. And some signs are intended to be temporary. There is, however, a very strong trend in the billboard industry where many static signs are being converted to digital. Second only to the Internet, ‘out-of-home’ is the fastest growing sector in advertising today. Customers are using TiVo, satellite radio and pop-up blockers to bypass advertising and newspaper and magazine subscribers are down. So advertisers are looking to reach people where they are when they are away from home – at the store, gas pump, bank, post office, fitness club, elevator – even in the back of taxis.

FST. How can digital signage integrate with other forms of technology to help drive product awareness and sales?

DD. Umpqua Bank, in the Northwest US, for example, uses RFID tags on brightly colored coffee mugs that, when lifted off the table, cause the digital signs to display information about a particular product. As mentioned earlier, the use of SMS text messaging is also being used by some organizations to engage the customer. Others are using digital signs to drive usage of self-service kiosks.

David Drain is the executive director of the Digital Signage Association and the Self-Service & Kiosk Association. He is also SVP with NetWorld Alliance, a business-to-business publisher of news and information for the technology, retail and foodservice industries.