Digital Media: Keeping it Relevant in a Changing Landscape

Digital Media: Keeping it Relevant in a Changing Landscape

One open secret about the success of dynamic signage as an out-of-home medium is that often the audience for the signs does not have a whole lot of choice when it comes to selecting what media to consume.

That's not to say dynamic sign viewers are a "captive audience," but they often have been easy to grab because they typically didn't have other video-based media competing for their attention. Congregating in lobbies, cafeterias, medical and dental waiting rooms, car dealer service areas and other common areas, many members of digital signage audiences welcomed the chance to let their attention focus on the sign rather than reading a newspaper of magazine they may have already seen.

But that's all changing. Wireless 3G and 4G networks turn mobile phones into media players, and YouTube, Hulu, and other video Web portals make Internet TV easy to access. Add to that the fact that new mobile digital TV broadcasting capable of delivering local TV broadcasts to personal/portable devices is right around the corner.

Suddenly, just having a digital sign located where people congregate isn't good enough. Suddenly, there is competition for the attention of viewers. Suddenly, it's more important than ever to create fresh content that is relevant to the intended audience of the digital sign and to make sure it is timely.

A recent article in a Connecticut college newspaper discussed the attempt of the leader of a student government group to build support among school administrators for installing digital signage on campus. The student government leader saw digital signs as a way of building school spirit and creating a more unified campus community. As part of effort, students were surveyed to find out what they thought about the idea.

Of 400 students polled, 56 percent said they thought digital signage would likely raise awareness among students about the goings on around campus -a respectable finding for proponents of digital signage.

Another finding, however, speaks to the importance of keeping digital sign content timely, relevant and informative. Respondents to the survey told researchers that the effectiveness of any digital sign installed on campus would be tied closely to updating information regularly on the signs.

The college students responding to the survey expressed an opinion that's likely to grow increasingly prevalent among digital signage audiences as wireless video media become available to a growing segment of the population. For dynamic signage content to be consumed, it needs to be fresh and a valuable source of information. Otherwise, the audience that once could only choose between a back issue of some mildly interesting magazine and a dynamic video sign may increasingly turn to a third alternative, namely personal mobile media devices.

For some digital sign communicators the concept of competition for attention may be a foreign one. But the evolving media landscape in this nation that's putting video content within easy reach of anyone on the go is changing all of that. It's time to redouble efforts to keep digital signage content relevant, fresh and interesting.

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