Using digital screens for advertising and promotion is becoming a common form of advertising
. Digital advertising and outdoor digital signage are springing up all over the place. With quite high initial outlays there is certainly a considerable investment involved in embarking on the digital route, but is it worthwhile?
Assessing the value of any advertising medium, let alone something as new digital signage can be difficult at the best of times but many potential digital advertisers are put off as they are unsure as to whether the effectiveness of the campaign will lead to a return on the initial investment.
Quantifying the success of digital screens can be tricky. Unlike other promotions digital signage is an indirect sales medium and accounting for its success can be difficult to measure, even with better than average revenues; however, some research has gone into the subject and there is now more evidence as to the effectiveness of digital advertising.
Research conducted by Brunel University and ROI Team (an independent retail research company) looked in-depth at the effectiveness of digital signage in the world famous Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London.
They discovered that digital content, combining both visual imagery and informative text has the most significant and positive effect on shoppers' consumer purchasing behavior.
The research centered on nearly 500 face to face interviews conducted in spring this year and concerned a digital advert for a holiday in the Maldives which was shown on three different mediums, including a digital signage campaign and a control advertisement with the viewers responding more favorably to the digital signage advert.
Increasing effectiveness
While the effectiveness of digital signage is certainly less in doubt thanks to the latest research there is still much that can be done to increase the effectiveness of a digital advertising campaign.
Perhaps the most fundamental thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of a digital sign is to increase the audience size and the simplest method of doing that is to take the digital display outside.
Outdoor digital signage will reach far more people than a similar indoor campaign, and although there is an added cost of protecting the screen from the rigors of an outdoor location, the extra viewership can soon recoup any additional investment.