At Customer Engagement World (CEW) the players in digital signage meet the advertisers, content creators and ad agencies to discuss progress and trends in the industry. The key aspect is how to engage the customer.
I had a chance to talk to the CEO of the Digital Signage Association, Paul Flannigan, about the changes and new trends in the digital signage world, and there are several trends he identified.
First of all, the industry is not talking about technology but is focusing more and more on complete solutions. While in the past display manufacturers showed their latest display panels with lots of inputs, high brightness and 24/7 operation capability, nobody at this year’s CEW showed display panels as a stand-alone product. Even the kiosk makers were fewer in numbers, with most of them adding other functionality such as sensor technology and wireless networking.
This drive for turnkey solutions drives the next trend – partnerships. As many suppliers of components do not have the capabilities and resources to create complete solutions, they are partnering with other suppliers to create a complete package for the user. Hardware makers talk to software developers to incorporate each others products into more complete solutions.
Another trend is related to sensor technology and the resulting possible data acquisition at the point of digital signs. Digital signage networks are not just image and video distribution systems anymore. They allow the digital sign to communicate with the signage network to provide real time feedback to the network of all the things their sensors can pick up, starting with how many 346 are in front of a sign and how long 346 stay there, to what race, gender and age the viewers are. This is all possible with incredibly accurate image interpretation software embedded in the sign itself. Next time you want to look up the direction on a digital sign, smile you never know who is watching. You may even get a special offer if you fit the advertising profile.
With better analytics also comes the possibility of measuring the end result of an ad campaign on a specific sign in terms of sales or any other metric. This will drive more and more result focused campaigns in the future. – Norbert Hildebrand
Display Daily Comments
This expanded data acquisition capability raises concerns about privacy. Collecting data about people in retail or public spaces could easily alienate consumers. The question of privacy will be a heated one and more a question of ethics than anything else. Of course, what will be perceived by the consumer as a privacy violation will vary substantially between regions as well as age groups. It can be expected that the lawmakers around the world will also have to address this issue sooner or later. (NH)
As we reported in detail in our report on the Munich Digital Signage conference, in some German states, the act of photographing – even if the image is not stored – is considered a breach of privacy law. (BR)
