Perhaps "digital signage" is an unfamiliar word to you, but you are definitely not unfamiliar with its application. Advertising carousel screens, coupon printers and other equipment that can be seen everywhere on the streets and shopping malls all fall into the category of digital signage. Digital signage is by no means just that. With the continuous development of mobile Internet devices, face recognition, virtual display, mobile payment and other technologies, digital signage has been integrated with these technologies and has derived a large number of emerging high-tech products such as "virtual stores" equipped with face recognition systems, vending machines with mobile payment functions, and electronic whiteboards that can interact in real time and enable education and entertainment. Digital signage is considered the fifth largest media form after print media, radio, television, and the Internet, and 2015 is considered the first year of digital signage.
Digital signage is widely used in various fields and has promising market prospects
The development of the digital signage market in the past two years has been promising. On the one hand, various technological innovations have created many new functions, and on the other hand, market demand has increased. For example, a large number of digital signages are needed in the construction of smart cities. Large-scale sports events such as the Brazil World Cup and various large-scale conferences and activities will also use a large number of digital signs. All companies and institutional personnel are very optimistic about the future digital signage market.
Airport digital signage delivers both information and entertainment interaction
As one of the components of modern transportation facilities, airports are also widely used in digital signage, which is an important part of airport information construction. Compared with traditional information dissemination tools, one of the outstanding advantages of digital signage systems is to make full use of the audience's fragmented time. As a centralized transfer station for passengers, the airport is undoubtedly a fragmented time concentration camp. Digital signage also brings a different visual sensory experience to the audience because of its powerful display function, intuitive information transmission function, lifelike and delicate advertising images, and rich and colorful content. It also makes it easier for the audience to accept and makes the communication of information more effective. This synergy between "supply" and "demand" has contributed to the popularity of airport digital signage applications.
Outdoor advertising digital signage is in great demand
According to information from digital signage manufacturers, as the demand for outdoor advertising market continues to increase, outdoor applications of digital signage are rapidly rising, and there are more and more digital signage manufacturers. Especially the maturity of interactive technology has given advertisers enough information to allow them to continuously increase their investment in this field. Relevant agencies predict that by the end of 2018, the transaction volume of outdoor digital advertising will increase from US$2.5 billion to US$4.6 billion.
The digital signage market is rapidly maturing and developing. Enterprises in the upstream and downstream industrial chain have begun to actively participate in market competition, and the entire industry has taken on new characteristics.
Upstream and downstream enterprises develop collaboratively and gradually penetrate vertically, intensifying market competition
In addition to traditional digital signage advertising machine manufacturers participating in market competition, upstream and downstream manufacturers such as chip and board card manufacturers, IT manufacturers, TV manufacturers, large screen manufacturers, etc. have also entered the market, injecting more driving force into the digital signage market and increasing market attention. For example, chip manufacturer Intel actively promotes the establishment of digital signage industry standards and cooperates with downstream TV manufacturers to develop TVs with digital signage functions; large traditional digital signage manufacturers begin to integrate software and content resources to improve comprehensive competitiveness when the brand pattern has not yet been formed; display giants accelerate digital signage The research and development and promotion of products and overall solutions are aimed at occupying a place in the explosive market in the future; and powerful software manufacturers and channel vendors have begun to get involved in hardware products, build their own brands, and participate in market competition more deeply; these phenomena indicate that the active participation of upstream and downstream enterprises has made market competition more intense.
The market concentration is low and a brand pattern has not yet been formed, providing enterprises with greater market opportunities
Based on the huge potential of the digital signage market, there are many participating companies, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, which has led to increasingly fierce competition. The market is characterized by low concentration, no leading enterprises, a stable brand pattern, and incomplete industrial chain development. This also provides enterprises with large market opportunities. In the future, the digital signage industry will face a new round of market competition such as industry chain integration, new capital intervention, and industry mergers and acquisitions.
Various technologies are grafted onto digital signage, and content will become the main competitiveness of enterprise service differentiation
Game motion sensing technology, naked-eye 3D, data analysis technology, etc. have begun to penetrate into the field of digital signage, pushing the digital signage system to begin to develop in an interactive and intelligent direction; as digital signage Widely used in different industries, the lag of content services has become more and more obvious. Some brands have begun to make up for their shortcomings through acquisitions or technology introduction, providing content templates that conform to industry characteristics, improving brand product premium capabilities, and promoting the digital signage industry to move from the "product is king" era to the "content is king" era.
In the first year of digital signage, how should manufacturers grasp it?
2015 is not only the first year of digital signage, but also an important moment of transition and development. With the digital signage market booming, how should manufacturers grasp key development markets?
First of all, of course, there is the update of technology. As demand becomes more and more diverse, digital signage products are undergoing continuous demand segmentation. The most attractive ones are undoubtedly the highly integrated digital signage all-in-one products developed for small and medium-sized enterprises and retail stores. They have mainstream screen sizes (40 to 55 inches) and integrate players, network modules and other parts to realize complete digital signage system functions. With the characteristics of flexible installation and convenient operation, it has quickly become a powerful tool for small and medium-sized business owners and retail stores to interact with users and push information in a timely and accurate manner. At the same time, the 4K era of digital signage is also something that everyone is paying close attention to. We can also feel from the Shanghai Digital Signage Exhibition, China's leading digital signage professional exhibition, that the number of participating brands has been increasing in recent years, including some well-known brands.
Secondly, carefully analyze the digital signage market direction and produce products according to market needs. For example, one segment of digital signage is the catering industry. Restaurant management pays attention to the human touch, and the construction of a digital signage system strengthens this business appeal - using digital screens to establish closer relationships with customers, drive more sales and increase return on investment. Therefore, more and more restaurants now like to use digital signage. In the catering industry, the use of digital signage systems has become an important symbol of modern restaurant operations.
Third, fully grasp the current market environment. Big data is the advantage of this era, and mobile interaction is a major trend. Compared with traditional single playback screens, digital signage that can interact with devices through touch and somatosensory will be a more popular information receiving tool for future audiences. Therefore, using open systems and programming to collect data will definitely be the future development trend of smart digital signage. In terms of data, the concept of big data is not only often mentioned by people, but also more and more industries use it to solve various problems such as operation, dissemination, and research.
Of course, in addition to technological updates, grasping market trends and the general trend of mobile interaction, if digital signage wants to win the market, the author believes that the digital signage itself must also be more attractive. How to attract people, just grasp these three factors - uniqueness, personalization, and participation.
Participation is the interaction mentioned above. I won’t go into details here. Let’s talk about the other two characteristics. Why be unique? The content we usually pay attention to is unique. It is said in the news that "it is not news when a dog bites a man, but it is news when a man bites a dog." This applies to any industry. Only when digital signage is unique in design and has sensory stimulation can the audience discover and remember it.
Personalization, in this era, we are surrounded by too much content, and there is too much content waiting for us to pay attention to, so segmentation is slowly becoming important. Segment the content you need and stop wasting your time on differentiating the content. Personalization of digital signage means that the content is designed for this person, and we have a clear audience.
Digital signage is entering a turning point. Let us wait and see the future development of digital signage.
ANNA