Some rules of creating the content for digital signage

The content should be adapted to media and support on which it will be diffused.

There are many rules, some of them describe Bill Gerba on his site of http://www.wirespring.com/dynamic_digital_signage_and_interactive_kiosks_journal/index.html



Excerpts of "Making great digital signage content: Composing shots and scenes"

Whether you're making a five-second station ID message or a 30-minute long-form segment, sooner or later you'll have to come to grips with two challenges.

• First, most of the members of your "audience" don't consider themselves an audience at all: they're there to shop, visit, navigate, or do any of a hundred other things, but probably not to watch your out-of-home media campaign.


• Second, as a corollary to that, there are going to be a lot of people -- the vast majority, really -- who never see your piece in its entirety.

This can be frustrating for designers who count on their audience watching a clip from start to finish in order to get the gist of it. It's even worse for the viewing audience, who are left with bits and pieces of content that have no meaning without context.

Six steps to better composition, people are still over-thinking how their pieces should work. We continue to see highly complex spots that, while produced with very high production values, demand too much viewer attention for far too long to be viable in the field.

While there's no guaranteed, 100% effective solution to this problem, we've found one approach to be extremely useful: treat the clip as a series of scenes and shots. Just as a movie director composes a film from numerous small pieces, effective digital signage content can be constructed from segments designed to catch attention and relay some information quickly -- sometimes in a mere second or two.

To maximize the chance of getting your message across to an increasingly distracted audience, try to remember that digital signs work more like posters than TV.

We recommend the following procedure when going from the idea phase to the production phase of your content creation process, which is kind of like storyboarding in reverse:

• Articulate your core idea as a series of messages that are only a few words long (no more than a sentence).


• Think of a single image or visual element that goes along with each of these core ideas. (One image per, for now. Don't worry, you can add more later!)


• Now, take each message-visual combination and mock up a quick poster.

For example, think about what a movie poster might look like for the message "Tide gets your whites whiter!" Each mini-poster should stand alone -- i.e. poster #2 shouldn't depend on content from poster #1.
If you're using a voiceover or other dialog, try to segment it into sound bites that go along with each poster instead of using a single, contiguous speech.
Assemble related "posters" together into scenes with transitions and segues that link them together, but don't make them depend on each other.
Finally, assemble the scenes into your finished spot.

Viewers still want interactive TV 2008

The audience wants an interactive TV - is this a future trend for TV, Internet?

Judging by an Ensequence -sponsored study of US adults conducted by Harris Interactive in November and December 2007, many TV viewers are ready to use their remote controls for more than just adjusting the volume.
More than seven out of 10 respondents said they were currently using their remote controls with on screen TV guides, scheduling or selecting DVR recordings and for viewing content on-demand.

Respondents also indicated a desire to interact with a range of programming, including sports, scripted dramas and even advertising.

• 72% of those who watch reality TV shows want to interact with those shows
• 65% of those who watch sporting events on TV want to interact with those events
• 66% of viewers want to interact with commercial advertising
• 50% of those who watch drama TV shows indicated that they would be interested in interacting with those shows

"This study confirms that consumers have higher expectations and want to vote for contestants, get additional product information during commercials, purchase tickets for live events or get scores and statistics during sporting events—all using their remote controls," said Dalen Harrison, CEO of Ensequence.

Some purposes of digital signage

Here are the main purposes of digital signage accordingly to Wikipedia



Information – examples include flight information in airports and wait-times for the next train



Enhanced customer experience – examples include digital signage in restaurant waiting areas to reduce perceived wait-time and recipe demonstrations in food stores


Environment enhancing - such as using digital signage to increase the customer experience with the building itself, examples of this are where digital signage panels are used on the floor and react to how and when an individual moves over them


Influencing customer behavior – examples include post office digital signage that directs patrons waiting in line to automated stamp machines and retail digital signage designed to direct customers to different areas of the store, increasing the time spent on the store premises (dwell time)



Advertising related to the location to uplift sales – examples include in-store promotions in a retail establishment


Digital signage can also be used in a corporate environment, for example by disseminating information throughout a company via screens in reception areas and canteens.

Digital signage - la communication audiovisuelle dynamique

Digital signage c’est un terme international utilisé le plus souvent pour decrire ce nouveau support. On peut le traduire comme : communication audiovisuelle dynamique (CAD).

Je vais donner quelques définitions de digital signage en anglais car c’est un concept international ou pluparts des articles sont publiés en cette langue.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE (Wikipedia)

Digital signage is a form of electronic display that is installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to entertain, inform or advertise (together known as "adfotainment"). Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be exchanged more easily, animations can be shown and the signs can adapt to the context and audience, even interactively.

Digital signage advertising is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times. Digital signage offers superior return on investment compared to traditional printed signs

The content displayed on digital signage screens can range from simple text and still images to full-motion video, with or without audio. Some operators of digital signage networks, particularly in the retail industry, regard their networks as comparable to television channels, displaying entertaining and informational content interspersed with advertisements

These dynamic displays are often used to present a custom-tailored mix of informational and advertising content, including product promotions, timely news, and upcoming events.

Digital signs are frequently located in crowded public venues, so the screens and content need to stand out. With this in mind, digital signage networks were early adopters of large-screen LCDs, plasma monitors, front/rear projectors, organic LED (OLED), and holographic and 3D imaging technologies.Most digital signs are mounted on a wall, ceiling, shelf, or endcap, but the creative use of display technologies has led to innovations like polarized projection film. This lets you project high-contrast images onto store windows or displays that appear to float in mid-air

This is an example of deployment of digital signage in WalMart USA.

Digital signage in Europe keeps traditional out-of-home sector afloat

This is a summary of survey that shows OOH advertising sector, article of Nurlan Urazbaev, www.blog.broadsign.com



A new study released by Screen Digest predicts that, due to the revenues resulting from the continuing migration to digital technology, the out-of-home advertising sector will be the only traditional medium with positive growth in Western Europe in the next few years.
The preamble to the report says: “‘Digital signage’ networks of connected digital screens in public spaces (airports, stations, trains, supermarkets, hotels, surgeries, etc) are generating opportunities for traditional out-of-home contractors, digital specialists, technical enablers and system integrators, display manufacturers, venue owners and advertisers.” (Source: http://www.researchandmarkets.com).

The key findings of the report include:

• Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising revenues in Western Europe will quadruple over the next five years from 160m in 2007 to 626m by 2012. By 2012 DOOH share is expected to grow to approximately 10 % of total OOH ad revenues
• Driven by the migration to digital and the incremental revenues generated from digital sites, the out-of-home sector will be the only traditional advertising media to post real revenue growth in the next five year.
• Thanks to the increasing affordability of digital displays, digital signage networks not only conquer brand new spaces for advertising (e.g. in-store point-of-sale advertising) but also upgrade static poster format sites in a growing number of locations (airports, stations, roadsides, etc.).
• Sales of displays and other hardware for digital signage generated revenues in the amount of approximately 4m in Western Europe in 2007.
• Lower maintenance costs and higher revenues, combined with reduced hardware costs, are making a profitable business case out of upgrading many existing to digital, as well as creating new sites intended to reach audiences on the move.
• The added value of digital OOH formats over traditional OOH formats (superior impact of moving image, creative and dynamic copy, booking flexibility and scalability, etc.) allows contractor to sell inventory at premium rates.

Study: "Digital OOH Media Awareness & Attitude Study"

This study presents awareness, perception and attention paid to digital signage compared to other media.

Most adults say advertising on digital signage catches their attention - and they consider such advertising unique and entertaining, and less annoying than both traditional and online media, according to a study by OTX (Online Testing eXchange) conducted for SeeSaw Networks, reports sister site MarketingCharts.
The “Digital Out-Of-Home Media Awareness & Attitude Study" is the first to compare digital out-of-home media to other media, SeeSaw said.

Among the findings of that study:

Awareness of digital out-of-home media is high:
Some 62 percent of adults have seen digital signage in the past 12 months - levels similar to:

• billboards (66 %)
• magazines (67 %)
• and newspapers (63 %)
• That compares with 92 % for TV
• 75 % for radio
• 78 % for internet
• and 10 % for mobile phones.
  

On average, people notice digital signage in six different kinds of locations during their week, giving advertisers the opportunity to intercept people at various touch points.

Digital out-of-home advertising is engaging:
Respondents found digital signage advertising to be:

• more unique (58 %)
• interesting (53 %)
• and entertaining (48 %)
• and less annoying (26 %), than other media

Some 63 percent of those who have seen digital signage say it attracted their attention, compared with

• 58 % for billboards
• 57 % for magazines
• 56 % for TV
• 47 % for internet
• 40 % for newspaper
• 37 % for radio
• and 10 % for mobile

Some 44 percent of adults say they pay some or a lot of attention to digital signage advertising, placing it ahead of traditional billboards, the internet and mobile phones, and on par with magazines, radio and newspapers.

Reaching young people is a strength of digital out-of-home media:
75 percent of 18-34-year-olds have seen digital signage in the past 12 months and notice digital signage in seven different locations during their week.

This demographic finds the advertising on digital signage to be more unique (63 percent), interesting (57 percent) and entertaining (53 percent) than advertising on other media and rates the media even higher than the general population across these measures.