Signs of the times

By Mike Gatti

Piccadilly Circus is one of the most iconic landmarks in London. It is also, unlike the rest of the architectural gems that characterise the city’s landscape, defined more by the bright shining lights of the advertising billboards on display than it is any of the surrounding buildings or monuments. The boldly coloured digital signs for Sanyo, TDK, Coca Cola, have come to represent London’s West End. As with most advertising tools, digital display systems are nothing new. Consumers have grown used to seeing them at landmark sites, along high streets, at sports games, and in some cases have even come to identify a place with its digital advertising signs. But the notion of retail in-store screen marketing is today revolutionising the retail world, providing a whole new dimension to the consumer’s shopping experience.

“Product knowledge and comparison shopping has come from behind the scenes to the forefront when you go into a store now.”
-Mike Gatti

"We've been seeing an increase in the use of digital display," explains Mike Gatti, the Executive Director of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. Indeed, interest in this marketing tool from retailers is beginning to spike after several years of misuse. "It wasn't really any specific type of retailer [using digital signage]," Gatti explains. "I think it was more retailers who felt that this was something very important to their strategy. But what happened in the first few years was a lot of lessons were learned, and I don't really think anybody was using digital displays correctly."   

Gatti goes on to explain how early in-store digital display marketing was poorly implemented. Some retailers had screens that were hanging from ceilings, out of any customer's line of sight; others used their screens to play a reel, or a constant repeat of an advertisement that could run as long as two minutes, much longer than any customer would be standing still to watch it. Conversely, research conducted back in 2007 indicated that around 75 percent of retail purchasing decisions are made in store, meaning that this is a largely under-utilised marketing opportunity for retailers. Digital advertising company Digicom then carried out a survey in early 2009, which found that 64 percent of the consumers asked believed that digital advertising screens could improve a shopping experience and 78 percent felt that digital advertising screens can make a brand or product seem more attractive. Only 54 percent, on the other hand, had seen digital signage in stores in the previous twelve months. All evidence stood to suggest that digital signage could be the solution to provided that much needed boost to struggling retailers, providing direct and relevant campaigns direct to their own customers.

"They learned a lot of lessons," says Gatti. "Now what we're seeing is that retailers are bringing their screens down to shelf level, they're embedding them with a lot of products, and they've really tailored the messages a lot more so they are able to deliver the message quickly and a lot more effectively to the customer." This point is, according to Gatti, imperative to a successful digital display marketing campaign. "They have to be really relevant to the product that's around," he explains, "whether it's a sale, or whether it's something that really differentiates the product such as product information, which really takes having a good understanding of the customer that is shopping in your store." Perhaps that product information might be its sustainability, or maybe a special offer or another competitive advantage, Gatti outlines. Either way, the direct, targeted and timely nature of digital signage marketing is beginning to provide very real results for today's retailers.

Gatti goes on to outline the numerous ways that digital signage can be implemented to enhance the shopping experience for the customer, highlighting the vast potential that digital signage has as a marketing tool and just how far it has come from the shiny Coco Cola or MacDonalds digitalised bill boards at sports games. "Depending on your demographic," he says, "you might even want to have some games available on them, if say you have kids shopping. But retailers are making [their digital display content] more experiential, where you are able to interact with customers, or they can learn about products."

This new, interactive level of digital signage is a major development in the world of retail, and one that retailers still have yet to fully utilise. In addition to product marketing, retailers are now beginning to use interactive digital signage systems to take over some basic customer service responsibilities, therefore allowing customers more faster, more empowered shopping experience, as well as freeing up staff to deal with more serious issues. "Maybe a retailer has a certain line of products," says Gatti by way of an example, "say a certain type of furniture, and the retailer doesn't have every product on displayed in the store. [The customer] can go to the kiosk, or the digital monitor, and look at what else is available. Product knowledge and comparison shopping has come from behind the scenes to the forefront when you go into a store now. Where you used to ask a customer-service representative to "tell me about these two different products", now there is a digital screen that you can go to do the comparison yourself."

These developments in the function of digital signage marketing tools in a retail environment are increasing the interest of digital solutions among businesses. "I think we will see a increase in its use," explains Gatti, "It is becoming a much more essential tool."  He goes to predict the kind of shopping experience that consumers can expect to have in the future. "In addition to trying out a game or learning some in-depth product knowledge, I think you'll literally be able to walk into a store and say, "well they don't have my size or colour", and you'll be able to pop it up on a kiosk and order it right there and then and have it shipped directly to your home."

While Gatti's assertion might be a little way off at the moment, the speed at which the digital signage sector has escalated over the last few years suggests that such a system is only just around the corner. A report carried out by Infrotrends found that in the US, the digital signage market had grown by 56 percent between 2004 and 2006 to worth US$1.1 billion, and was projected to reach US$2.59 billion by 2011. In addition, the current success of e-commerce platforms suggests that this sort of real-time self-service retail experience is not far off. "There are going to be many more options for shopping and immediate ordering," explains Gatti, and suggests that soon customers will be able to say, "Well, I don't have to go shopping. I don't have to run around to three or four different stores to try and find the item I want. I can order it on the kiosk right now, and I know all about the product that I am buying."

Digital disputes

Perhaps most pressingly, Gatti points out that retailers who have digital signage systems already in place are speaking positively about the effects they have upon the business, saying that they now consider it part of the brand presentation that they make to the customer. "At the same time, the retailers are really learning a lot," he adds, "and as they apply more of this technology into their stores, they're learning a lot more about how the customer shops. This will evolve into a more mobile presence, so it's possible that digital signage could peak a little bit, and then you could start to see a decline as mobile picks up and people start to use their phones to learn more about products that they're buying."

This last point raises the salient issue for both the marketing industry and the retail sector. With the increasing popularity of smart phones and the vast amounts of technology development going into both Apple and Android operating systems, all evidence points to the fact that mobile technology is set to revolutionise these industries, just as the internet did before it. "There are companies now who are saying that they are monitoring tweets in their stores, so they can find out what customers are saying, such as "is the cash register line too long?""

Using social media in this way provides a glimpse of the future of retailer-consumer interaction. Such tools will take responsibility away from in-store personnel, in theory placing in under the control of a single person with a computer, who need not be any where near the store. Gatti suggests that soon, customers will be able to tweet questions. "Where are the light bulbs?" "What aisle is the butter in?" Customers will be able to ask such straightforward questions with their mobile phone, and get a swift response without having to track down a shop assistant. "It's going to expand the capabilities of the one-to-one relationship," he says, pointing out that one day, customers will not even need to be in a store to interact with retailers in this way.

However, Gatti explains, these developments still could be as far off as five to 10 years. The imminent progress of digital display technology systems looks set to significantly shake up the retail sector, from the fundamentals of brand advertising to providing next generation platforms for customer engagement and in-store interaction.

Digital signage case study: Aker Brygge Mall

Digital display systems are ideal for use throughout a shopping centre, providing an interactive service and advertising platform for a number of business that will target a large number of consumers efficiently and easily.

The Aker Brygge's shopping mall in Oslo is a medium sized shopping centre with 65 stores of primarily high-end retailers. Situated by the Fjord Pier, the unique surroundings have created a popular venue that attracts over 6 million consumers a year, as well as number of workers in the area.

The mall needed a wayfinder system, and simultaneously wanted to show adverts. Double sided LCD signboards were used, with touch screen wayfinder systems on one side, and LCD screen on the other, showing adverts, as well as sock market information and weather.

The system implemented used different zones within each screen, which could each be dedicated to different purposes and playlists. In addition, only one system is required for the commercials on both indoor (LCD) and outdoor (LED) installations.