I have decided the term "Digital Signage" does not really convey the true power these public display networks are now starting to enable. Perhaps "Community Display Systems" or "Public Interactive Displays" gets closer to the true value proposition. This epiphany was brought home by a recent press release that describes how McDonalds is using a newly installed digital signage system in 67 restaurants in Singapore, with 40 more slated to come on line soon. The in-store network is now available to over two million McDonalds patrons a month.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

The McDonalds deployment is a result of a partnership between global digital signage provider C-nario, Singapore-based content provider At-Life and ABI Digital, an integration and operations company. C-nario is a provider of comprehensive, software-based platforms for the deployment and operation of digital dynamic
signage, messaging, advertising and infotainment networks.

According to Rami Bahar, C-nario’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, part of McDonald’s rational for installing the signage network was to "….not only enhance patrons’ dining experience, but establish a sense of community in McDonald’s restaurants." This seems to be ground-breaking stuff to us. Here is how it works.

At McDonalds, diners can now interact by sending text messages from their mobile phones for all to see on an array of 42" screens strategically deployed throughout the chain’s restaurants. In the digital-signage enhanced McDonald’s environment, guests can engage one another in chat-like conversations, respond to running content or live feeds, and even generate classified ads that run on a news-like ticker. Every Saturday and Sunday, sports fan patrons can watch a five-hour long video and audio stream of sporting events in better-than-broadcast-quality.

More that that, C-nario’s digital signage technology will be used to feature advertising rotated at intervals to maximize exposure based on the measured average times spent in the restaurant’s sitting areas. Touch-screen kiosks linked to restaurants’ points-of-sale will issue coupons to eligible customers notified via the digital screens. Points can also be redeemed and gifts retrieved later at the cash register. Music, based on predetermined parameters, will be streamed across various locations.

It ain’t just about advertising - it is about establishing a community. Can this work? I don’t know, but I suspect McDonalds did a lot of research to validate every aspect of this program before pulling the trigger, so chances are it will trigger a response in the community. This one bears watching as it has the potential to get creative minds thinking about new ways to use these digital signage, err, community display systems in new and novel ways.

Reply to the author