To better market and meet customer needs, brands can offer digital signage platforms that not only hear and see information, but also touch and engage with products in new ways within a physical location. .
Digital signage itself isn't all that new. This concept has existed for many years to provide targeted information, entertainment, merchandise sales, and advertising in retail stores and business establishments. What is new, however, is improved functionality and artificial intelligence behind network delivery.
Initially, this process involved the use of a network of interconnected digital displays that the business owner managed from a central location. This flexibility allows us to tailor our messages to specific audience needs and time frames in our physical locations. AI is now being integrated into the platform to deliver personalized sales, customer service, and a more immersive shopping experience on-site.
Smart AI marketing messages
According to Christian Armstrong, senior director of business development at digital signage company Spectrio, digital signage using AI contains content that is 50% more relevant to target users and drives more interactions. can.
Sometimes referred to as electronic signage, it refers to display technologies such as LED walls, projections, and LCD monitors that vividly display web pages, videos, directions, restaurant menus, marketing messages, and digital images.
When purchased, these commercial-grade TV screens work continuously as a large video wall, large-format screen, or a small screen on a shelf.
For digital signage to be effective, it must be persuasive enough to capture the attention of on-premises shoppers and sway them away from their phones when looking for competitive prices. When executed correctly, digital signage allows customers to fully focus on your marketing message as they walk around the store.
“The focus for retailers is to keep mobile phones in shoppers' pockets and engage with that audience at the point of purchase,” he told E-Commerce Times.
Dynamic Marketing Benefits of Digital Signage
Armstrong said the use of digital signage in traditional brick-and-mortar stores is gaining popularity. When he first became involved with this marketing technique nearly 20 years ago, most people thought it was an alien concept.
“A lot of its use today is based on experience. As retailers get smarter and technology improves, they're introducing things like computer vision and analytics that trigger content based on specific scenarios,” he said. said.
Quick service restaurants are a prime example of how effective digital signage can be. Take Starbucks, for example.
While waiting in long lines, Starbucks can change its menu display on the fly to promote products it can make more quickly, fulfill orders more quickly, and get people to leave the store. Then, as the lines get shorter, the display may change to promote higher-margin items that may take a little longer to produce.
In other scenarios, quick-service establishments can display menu items with motion graphics to encourage people to purchase specific products or services.
“If you have a static menu board, there's really no way to influence that decision at the point of sale. With digital menu boards, our analytics technology allows sellers to use only a simple radar scanner. “You can see the length of the line in real time. You can change the content that plays on the screen just in that line,” Armstrong explained.
How AI improves marketing
A key part of the feature set added to digital signage platforms is the measurement component. AI allows retailers to leverage all the data collected by digital platforms and make intelligent decisions to help make better content decisions.
Two examples that are built into Spectrio's products are unobtrusive radar technology and computer vision. The radar component recognizes who passes in front of the display and how long they stand there while interacting with the screen. The in-screen camera identifies a person's demographics, age range, and even emotions, such as how they're feeling while viewing content.
Why is this essential?
AI extrapolates that data, correlates it with content played at a specific time, and provides that dataset to retailers. Armstrong added that could include the number of products sold based on people watching that product on screen and what content is being played.
“This is very similar to how retailers are already measuring the effectiveness of online content. It allows executives to influence in-store decisions in real time,” Armstrong said. says.
All of Spectrio's technology is cloud-based and accessible through a web browser, allowing on-site store owners or pre-programmed controls at headquarters to control interaction behavior.
“If you have content available, whether it's a video or an image, you can just drag and drop it into a playlist and bring in the person creating the video to change what's on screen,” Armstrong said. .
A unique blend of content, creativity and analysis
What makes Spectrio unique compared to other digital signage software providers is the company's focus on the content displayed on those screens. The company employs an independent creative department that produces approximately 8,500 assets for a variety of applications, including both media and digital signage.
Armstrong said Spectrio can also use radar and computer vision on-site to measure the effectiveness of its content. The company will then work with the platform's subscribers to improve the quality of its content and the way it engages with customers. The goal is to solve your organization's communication challenges.
“We've been talking a lot lately with some pretty big retail brands. A lot of the attention and the hype is about combining three pillars: content distribution, the actual content itself, and measurement and improvement. We're starting to see significant traction across many facets of retail,” Armstrong concluded.
