By Andrea Waldin, Director of Marketing, Scala
As the Director of Marketing at Scala, I’m so
excited to be working in an industry that’s growing by leaps and bounds. But I
have to ask myself, if Scala has been around for more than 20 years, why is it
that all of a sudden digital signage is really taking off? So I set myself down
to come up with an answer. I did some research and came up with dozens of
reasons that go into that explanation, but there are four primary market drivers
that are the underlying cause for the seemingly sudden growth of the digital
signage industry.
- The Technology Window has opened
– Displays are getting less and less expensive each year. The cost of internet
bandwidth is decreasing while the availability and speed of bandwidth is
increasing. The start up costs of a Digital Signage network are becoming more
and more affordable. As with all technology trends, this reduction in costs of
displays and bandwidth and their wider availability is expected to continue
unabated in the next few years. - The End of Passive Media – People no longer sit idly by and allow
marketers to push messages to them. Customers have become more and more savvy
and now have DVRs (to skip TV commercials), commercial free satellite radio, do
not call lists, and internet based TV programming (YouTube). Advertisers are
struggling with ways to present their products and services. Digital signage
offers a cost-effective way to get highly targeted messages to the right
audience at exactly the right time. - Information Overload
People around the world are targeted by marketing of some sort at nearly
every moment. It is an unavoidable part of life in the twenty first century.
People are bombarded with messaging and tend to ignore it if it does not relate
to them. Digital Signage offers marketers the ability to target and interact
with potential customers based on location, time of day, RFID inputs, available
merchandise, and the weather just to name a few. The relevancy of a message has
to be high in order for an audience to pay it any mind. - Money Talks
Many businesses using Scala digital signage software have reported materially
significant increased sales due to Digital Signage, with variations depending
on industry and product type. In addition to increased sales, businesses have
also reported lower expenses when compared to the production and distribution
of printed materials, and increased effectiveness of signage. Marketers are
realizing that the need a better, more cost-effective way to get their messages
out and that better way is Digital Signage.
So it seems that the planets have aligned for the
digital signage industry and for Scala, and now really is the right time for
companies to get involved. The time is fast approaching when Digital Signage
will become just as much of a standard business expense as pay-per-click
internet campaigns, employee intranets, and print advertising. Now is the time
for business to use digital signage as a competitive differentiator because
before long everyone will be doing it and companies who aren’t will have to
play catch up. Might as well strike while the iron is hot!