News

Seeing the future of digital displays

May 5, 2005

If you've gone shopping in recent months, you've no doubt seen them: bright, colorful digital displays mounted on store walls, cycling ads for the day's specials. Digital signage boasts an undeniable "wow factor," yes, but the convergence of the digital display and the kiosk holds even greater promise.

"Digital signage is only one piece of the marketing puzzle," said Brian Ardinger, director of business development for Lincoln, Neb.-based software developer Nanonation. "Being able to control, manage and integrate each puzzle piece at the right time on the right device to the right person is what every deployment should be exploring."

"Retailers have spent the last 15 years applying technology in the back-office for purposes of operational efficiency, inventory management, etc.," said Linda Ferguson, public relations manager for Beaverton, Ore.-based Planar Systems. "We are at the start of a large trend toward investment in storefront display-based technologies, where customer-facing display systems are critical to attract, interact and transact with customers."

The future is flat

Before we get too deep into the applications that digital displays make possible, let's take a moment to get a basic understanding of the technology behind them. Flat screen displays come in two main varieties: LCD and plasma.

Liquid crystal displays work by shining a fluorescent light through liquid crystal molecules, arranged in the traditional trios of red, green and blue pixels. A grid of electrical wires selectively darkens certain pixels, regulating the amount of light that shines through.

Plasma displays, on the other hand, use red, green and blue phosphors sandwiched between two pieces of glass. When electricity hits a pixel, the natural gas inside is agitated, causing it to release light. There is no backlight, so colors look vibrant and crisp from any angle. On the down side, plasma displays are heavy, fragile and consume a lot of electricity.

Price remains a primary difference between the two, with plasma units costing much more than their LCD counterparts. But as LCD technology continues to improve, prices should become closer.

The writing on the wall

Digital displays, and their synergy with the kiosk, represent an exciting new era in customer experience design. And there are some especially big possibilities for the retail world.

"The most exciting prospect is the ability to have displays and signage with targeted messages in multiple points throughout the store," said Nick Daddabbo, senior product manager for Hand Held Products.

"Instead of one display or message, retailers can have many spots throughout the store where they can send a variety of messages," he said. "Since messages can vary by location, retailers are given the ability to target customers shopping in a particular section of the store."

Area-specific marketing is not a new idea - grocery store managers have always known to put ads for this week's special near the milk, bread and other high-traffic areas. But the dynamism offered by digital signage makes it possible for much more inventive campaigns.

"A customer in the furniture section can receive different messages than a customer shopping in the clothing section," Daddabbo added. "This makes the customer feel like they are in a live environment with personalized messages that are targeted toward their needs."

According to Ferguson, the most exciting opportunities involving digital displays come from using them to augment the kiosk experience, rather than replace it.

"We believe that kiosk operators should enable their clients to leverage multiple types of devices across multiple applications," she said. "By orchestrating messaging, content and applications across both kiosks and dynamic signage, these display networks can provide even more value for the kiosk operators, their clients and the consumers who use these devices."

Getting the big picture

A recent Nanonation installation shows some of the vast potential that the digital signage/kiosk marriage has to offer. Kiosks installed in a cinema lobby offer viewers the choice of multiple movie previews. Once a preview is selected, multiple large screens display it throughout the lobby.

Another recent project involved an "interactive donor wall" at a community foundation, which used a similar combination of kiosk and digital display to let browsers find information on donors.

"I see the kiosk world converging with the digital signage world," Daddabbo said. "We're beginning to see the same types of messages and applications on personal devices as you now see on larger digital signs and screens. With the convergence, retailers have multiple ways to pass messages to customers."

And, more important to Planar's Ferguson, they have the ability to pass those messages to specific customers, not just the audience in general.

"The specific ability to attract attention with individualized messages offers the most potential for innovative uses of digital signage," she said. "We have found that consumers prefer digital communication that is targeted at their specific interests, either through narrowcasting or through customization. As software improves the ability to target specific messages based on the viewer or location, the messaging on these networks should provide even more value for consumers."

What price progress?

Digital displays can still be prohibitively costly for some applications, however. Determining their ROI can be tricky.

"While costs for displays and hardware are dropping every month, making ROI easier and easier to achieve, businesses need to focus on the experience they're creating and how each customer impression and interaction expands the relationship with that customer," Ardinger said. "Tying traditional digital signage with an interactive element allows businesses to immediately measure the impact of each impression and interaction."

Published in the Spring 2005 Retail Kiosk & Self-Service Executive Summary.  Read the expanded feature here.