SignageWire

Digital Screens Growing Reach

Author: WireSpring on 2008-09-24 10:58:13

MEDIAWEEK is running this story on the state of our industry:

Christina Radigan is is going through withdrawal. Her office in New York is moving to a building where Captivate Network, the company that operates a digital network of elevator screens, isn’t available.

“I was a huge viewer. I sucked in the elevator medium like there was no tomorrow,” says Radigan, associate director of marketing and communications for Outdoor Media Group and Outdoor Media Alliance, special business groups of OMD and PHD. Radigan counted on the screens to give her the news in the short time she traveled three floors to her office. “I don’t have time for other media. My new favorite term is idle time,” Radigan says.

There are millions of people like Radigan, squeezed for time and with very little opportunity to spend with traditional media. Idle time may be the best way to reach those consumers.

Digital video networks are popping up everywhere the consumer is, from the grocery store to the gym to the local coffee house. The biggest example of digital out of home—cinema advertising—is a $500 million business growing at a double-digit pace and comprised just under half of the $1.3 billion digital OOH business last year, according to PQ Media.

Our take:

In fact, there are too few stories like this making the news right now.  While so many focus purely on the advertising aspects of digital signage networks, very often they're also used (or only used) to provide entertainment and information to viewers, with commercial aspects coming second to providing a good experience.

Of course, that having been said, advertising is a primary source of revenue for numerous digital signage networks, so it's not surprising that it should attract the bulk of attention. But what the beginning of this article shows is that a successful screen network must both give and take -- if it only shows ads and provides no incentive for a shopper or passer-by to watch, it won't do well in the market.

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