ReturnDigital Signage: 7 trends your business needs to adopt in 2021
Almost everyone has digital signage in their branches, and due to the pandemic, most businesses now plan on investing on it even more.
Digital signage usage has consistently grown over the years. As traditional advertising such as flyers, brochures, and leaflets are slowly being less used due to a heightened sense of Covid-19 safety, it makes complete sense that businesses are implementing more digital signage solutions.
Covid-19 has completely changed the way we approach public spaces, interact with each other and with businesses. That, consequently, has influenced the digital signage industry that adapted quickly to the new normal with effective screen solutions to tackle the ongoing pandemic. Unlike paper documents, screens, tablets, and interactive kiosks allow clients to explore services and access relevant information safely. More and more businesses are picking up on this trend and using it to their advantage.
People want new, captivating ways to display, access, and control content, and technology is adapting to meet this need. It can be challenging to keep up with this technology’s developments, but we’re here to help. Here are seven trends that are likely to shape the future of digital signage.
1. Going touchless
Because of the highly contagious character of the Covid-19 such a basic feature of human interaction as touch has become dangerous.
2020 saw a rapid demise of tactile. While digital signage applies tactile technologies in interactive screens and kiosks, it can do equally well without it. Therefore, this year, alternative screen interaction types like voice, gestures and face scanning are likely to be on the rise.
Even though touch has become less preferable, it is not going anywhere. While we can expect more non-tactile digital signage options in 2021, touch-based solutions remain relevant. We expect to continue to see rapid innovation in touch screen, which will shape the future of digital signage.
2. Personalization
While the advertising world was already competitive and attention spans extremely short, the pandemic made the goal of attracting clients with content even harder. Giving customers a personalized experience in a retail environment has a massive impact on loyalty and purchase ratio.
The connection with apps, real-time and changeable augmented reality experiences, and identification methods like facial recognition, all are crucial to this heightened customer experience. Flexible and smaller displays, such as electronic shelf labels, present an excellent opportunity for real-time creative campaign messaging that display individual content.
3. Automation
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) have been an emerging trend, adopted by the digital signage industry. Managing and monitoring campaigns carried out by digital signage can be enhanced with automation.
AI has the potential to decide whether a particular content should be shown to a specific client after analyzing multiples databases and insights. It can analyze a customer’s goal when they are in front of a screen and select the appropriate advertisement for that specific moment. Content scheduling has also already significantly improved the way in which content is posted and delivered to key audience members.
4. Focus on outdoors
Many businesses are closed, meaning that indoor digital signage solutions are less used. That means that digital screens inside stop serving any purpose. As lockdowns become a norm and their occurrence is highly unpredictable, 2021 will see businesses investing more on the outdoors to reach their target audience which will be reflected in an increase of outdoor solutions and adding new technologies that can adapt to this new trend.
5. Proliferation of screens
It’s becoming normal to see screens in every store or business we enter. We are expecting to see most communication with clients being carried out through display panels and digital signage. Businesses and stores are adopting this change as it can optimize the client’s journey and provide a more enhanced experience. Smart displays can show relevant advertisements and information to shoppers and guide them to the correct area of the store, meaning clients no longer need to spend time searching for an assistant to point them in the right direction.
6. Public health concern
Screens are one of the best tools to distribute information. It is highly visual, extremely fast, and informative. Being such a communication tool has become one of the main roles of digital signage across public spaces in a time when public health communication is essential to stop the spread of the virus. In 2021 we will see the role of digital signage in public health more. Screens will inevitably be used for a more efficient information distribution. It is overall a positive role that digital signage technology plays in the fight against Covid-19, and the more companies adopt it the better.
7. Cloud-based technology
Standardly, digital signage was updated with a memory card or USB drive. Though this was the best option for some time, it meant that screens were difficult to update in real-time since content had to be created remotely and then loaded onto the screen. There was also the risk of misplacing the USB drive, which can create a security breach. Cloud technology has completely changed this. Many digital signage solutions now offer cloud-based software that promote instant and secure updating of digital signage. This in turn offers increased scalability, as an updated display can be pushed out to multiple screens simultaneously, in a matter of seconds.
Let’s adopt these new digital signage trends and make 2021, despite Covid-19-related challenges, the most interactive year yet.
