By Paul Barnhart, Marketing Coordinator, Scala
Media and information have become so accessible in so many ways that viewers can leapfrog advertisements at will. In some cases, there are not even any commercials to leap frog. For example, a user can spend $0.99 on an application for their phone if they don’t want to see scrolling ads on their game or record a sporting event or TV program and skip through the commercials when they watch it at a later time.
Society has clearly seen the effects of this with newspapers folding or being made available only through the internet. When was the last time you picked up an honest-to-goodness newspaper? The one that is black and white and read all over…
Perhaps your morning and lunch break routine of visiting your staple websites give you no reason to have or renew a newspaper subscription. Along with the new environmental push to “save, save, save,” it is apparent that many static ads are on their way out.
In all honesty, there’s a lot of truth in how digital signage is keeping businesses and advertisers happy and on par to get in front of many eyes as possible. Ever since a boxer was paid to have an advertisement etched on his back for a heavily watched bout, it became obvious that little by little advertisers would be finding new and inventive ways to get their products in front of you.
With the digital and on-demand boom, money has been reallocated for commercials on the internet to play before and during the news stories you are seeing and hearing, but not reading. Digital signage gives publicity hounds access to captive audiences around the world on casino floors, in hotel elevators, leafing through an old magazine in a waiting room and even riding in the back of a taxicab.
Digital signage provides advertisers access to the hurried executive en route to a meeting or the tech savvy youngster that is the digital consumer epitomized. As society continues to find faster and more inventive ways to manage and access news and media, digital signage is the marketing model that will be able to keep pace.
Digital signage evolves with technology. It makes the advances in software so live feeds reach the targeted demographic and can be updated with the touch of a button. Digital signage highlights the most profitable item in the food court. It notifies gossip hungry folk of the latest celebrity to take a hit to their ego.
Society no longer waits for the morning paper to hit their doorstep to become informed. They follow live on the internet. They learn from a mass text or email. Advertisers have to “sneak” in commercials wherever they can just to keep up with the speed at which society moves.
That’s why digital signage is here to stay and the Sunday newspaper weighs half as much as it did 5 years ago.