Screen! if you want to grow faster

But do all brands need to invest into digital signage to aide their shopper journeys?

The answer: It Depends

Cop out! I hear you cry, but it really does depend on your objectives, who your consumer is, what you want to say and how you want to influence certain consumer behaviours.

I wanted to make a special point about screens vs Art in-store, and why I think that a screen is not always the answer when looking to create meaningful experiences that resonate with your target demographic.

You find them in restaurants, retailers, offices, public transport, educational institutions, Hospitality, the list goes on to include all areas where commercial information can be displayed to the public. Screens or signage of some form are utilised across multiple marketplaces and for varying reasons. You can’t get away from them unless you emigrate to the hills, and even then your fridge is happy to update you that you are low on fromage frais whilst playing you the latest cat video on YouTube.

Rather obviously, we can conclude that screens are here to stay and will continue to evolve into impossible resolutions and learning capabilities, its down to the pure convenience of allowing swift and easy usage of rich media, gamification, the ability to capture data, and not to mention the ease of proliferating original content and aiding a seamless omnichannel connection between brands and consumers. But do we have to put them everywhere there’s a space? Do we need them to create engaging consumer experiences?

As you may expect America dominates the digital signage market where some sources predict growth upwards of 22 billion by the end of 2020. So which brand[s] would you guess is the powerhouse servicing this growth?

If you guessed, LG, Goodview, NEC or Foxconn then you guessed well, however its Samsung that’s been at the top of the tree for quite some time now, facilitating over one third of the global market.

Here’s some rather extreme examples of the more globally recognised installations starting with the Viva Vision canopy at the Fremont Street pedestrian walkway, Las Vegas. 27 meters above the ground, this behemoth spans 457-meters in length, and 27 meters across. There’s more than 12 million LED modules and a 555,000-watt sound system with light shows every hour lasting for about 6 minutes. You would expect up to 25,000 people a day to stroll down the eye-popping avenue readying their wallets for a colossal emptying at the 4 Queens.

China features amongst the world’s biggest with their Canopy at ‘The Place’ in Beijing, the entire screen measures 250 meters long and 30 meters wide and is suspended 25 meters above ground. This is Asia’s Biggest activation of this kind.

Plus my home-town entry; Piccadilly ‘Lights’ now a world-renowned icon of Piccadilly Circus, London is certainly one of the most recognisable.

Who would have thought a screen conceptualised purely for advertising brands to consumers would become a world icon. A compelling nod to our obvious love of consumerism maybe. Or just a love for pretty lights and technology.

Either way this particular billboard has been active since 1908 when it originally hosted a Perrier advert, utilising an array of lightbulbs to illuminate the brand above all others, redefining ‘attention-grabbing’ OOH advertising, much Like this Bovril activation below from 1949. In fact it was Bovril who took the first-ever neon sign used at Piccadilly Lights which must have been a sight for sore eyes, Literally.

Now 100 million people pass these boards each year in London, with a newly updated fa?ade (2017) the billboard utilises embedded technology to display targeted advertisements. It does this through a multitude of cameras hidden within the build. This allows an agency to pre-programme specific advertisements based on any number of criteria that the screen recognises; including the model of your car or the age and gender of passing pedestrians. It can also understand and translate local social media activity thus playing relevant content to the masses in that area at any specific time. Facial recognition (FRT) and 'mood mapping' isn't a new technology but its worth noting that within many retailers' stores these days, you will be scanned and mapped, feeding vital statistics back to the retailer to help them adjust their offering.

London is already the most surveilled city in the world (outside china) with 68.40 cameras per 1,000 people therefore what can a few more cameras in a billboard do to harm the ‘big brother is watching you’ mentality.

These giant billboards are all well and good if you’re targeting daily general populous, with a lottery winning amount of cash within your marketing budget to spend on, what is ultimately, quite ‘hard to prove or control’ metrics. So what signage is designed to display and interact on a smaller scale?

This is where it can get interesting for a plethora of brands and retailers, whether it be through advertising, brand reinforcement, empowering consumers or influencing purchases, there’s lots of ways a brand or retailer can use digital signage, including both push and pull marketing tools - pushing advertising and content, in many cases relevant to a particular demographic or pull through marketing data from interactions with the screen whether it be through gamification, social sharing, FRT data or general shopper mapping data.

According to Intel ‘Digital Signage captures 400% more views than static signage’. This is compelling research, however with the sheer amount of signage now in place are we at risk of going the way of the fateful website ‘banner’ inducing a latent form of banner blindness to our new digital-heavy store environments?

There’s no argument that digital signage makes an impact and can draw in consumers, but does it really provide a ‘better customer experience’? I would argue only if it’s in place to specifically aide the shopper journey through that specific retail environment, or provide a gateway to assist a seamless omnichannel shopper experience, thus allowing brands and retailers to better learn their consumer, ultimately providing a better experience going forward.

Too many screens are used purely as advertising boards (you've all seen them, and most likely ignored them) and although it’s a useful feature to be able to update content (often remotely) this is not (in my view) a worthwhile investment or usage of screens or signage.

So what could you do instead?

I’ve recently visited the new Adidas 'LDN' store on Oxford Street, London, it’s a nice space and works well for the targeted demographic.

All in all, there’s 100 digital touch points which are 100% powered by green energy, appealing to those consumers where aligning with a meaningful brand is an important factor in their purchase decisions.

Underlining part of their omnichannel strategy, Adidas employ the ‘Bring it to me app’ which allows a seamless in-store purchase experience with a scan, stock check and virtual check out service, negating the need for over enthusiastic sales assistants wanting to know what Octo-push team you support (Google it). Despite this the staff in this particular store were incredibly helpful, each bringing their own expertise the aide the shopper journey.

But amongst all this technology, screens and signage, what caught my eye the most was the art installations in the base level, one of which was produced by Japanese pop artist Keiichi tan; 4 football's tattooed with Keiichi tan’s eye-popping signature style. Also the Stan Smith signature edition trainers tucked away in an incredible Hulk inspired mirrored corner of the base level of the store.

From my point of view these installations provided a more sense-inducing experience than multiple screen installations throughout the rest of the store, some of which were not working (Ouch)

So why is that significant?

If you think about it, a screen pushes information to you, which you may be interested in or not (depending on its level of personalisation), you may choose to view or ignore but it’s unlikely to make you stop and think (unless a very impactful piece of video content or relevant special offer) Alternatively you are interacting with a screen which may be recording or pulling through your interaction details thus feeding back to the brands' marketing team giving valuable insight to the consumer journey and the coveted email address, phone number, address and blood type. Overall, it’s an interaction often promptly forgotten about thereafter due to the transactional nature of screen interaction. 

Whereas, in my view an art installation can make you stop and think a little more, seeing something that’s been physically crafted to induce some form of emotional response which may or may not resonate with you on a deeper level means you’re likely to respond whether it be internally or outwardly, and pending the response (positive or negative) you are likely to want to record this interaction in some form (most commonly video and photo), then share it with your network thus proliferating across social media platforms.

So why does that matter?

One big target market for many brands is also the largest group of consumers (millennial's) This group is often outlined as born between 1980 and early 2000’s

Research conducted often cites that millennial's are shaping a new wave of brand marketing by redefining the shopping experience as we know it. Millennial's (and the way they purchase) are effectively pushing retailers to re-evaluate how they attract and communicate with consumers resulting in some incredible store designs, shop in shops and brand stores. Most importantly they are leaders in ‘word-of-mouth’ recommendations and often regarded as some of the most important brand ambassadors to have cheer-leading your business.

Considering the 6 degrees of separation rule, a positive ‘share’ of something truly original or different (or in some cases personal) to each individual shopper can be far more powerful for the brand than any screen interaction.

This takes us full circle to my original outcome above, it really does depend on your marketing or brand objectives to whether you should be utilising more screens or more Art & design communication in-store. Is data collection paramount to proving a tangible ROI, or is creating intrigue, excitement and buzz around a store or activation the key to an uptick in sales?

As with most answers its about utilising all the tools available to positively affect your target demographic. Both screens or physical art need to be part of a conjoined multi-channel strategy that resonates with the consumer and provides valuable insight for the brand, thus creating a better overall experience.

Or contact Samsung and implement the worlds next eye-popping mega screen in your local town.