Wednesday, 11 November 2009

Gas Pump Enclosures For Digital Signage At Gas Stations

With digital signage being at the front of the advertising industry, the natural move for the signage industry it branch into to the gas pump digital signage industry, we are seeing digital networks with up to 1,000 gas stations deploying pump top signs, also called gas pump toppers.

Studies have revealed that 89% intend to watch or listen to gas station television stations upon their next visit to the gas station. Gas station TV is grabbing the mobile consumer's attention by delivering engaging, entertaining and informative content through 20 inch LCD displays that are housed in a dual LCD enclosure on top of the gas pumps.

Here are some of the technologies to look out for:

Day parting - This allows fuel retailers to offer specific promotions at different times of the day. For example a display could promote a coffee drink during the morning drive time hours, then automatically switch to a soda drink for lunch.

Dispensing - This is when a fuel retailer targets a specific audience, for example diesel users could be targeted with relevant products for their diesel vehicle.

All this makes the gas station an extension of the shopping mall, consumers are used to receiving marketing messages in shopping malls and the more technologically savvy consumers will frequent the locations that engage them, this is good for the gas stations that are deploying topper digital signs.

Technology is so advanced, digital signage is one of the fast growing industries that has not suffered in the recent economic slow down, the problem is how do we keep in front with the technology?

LCD Enclosure Global are the worlds largest manufacturer of outdoor TV enclosures, they have recently launched a gas pump enclosure that accommodate 2 displays back to back along with 2 media players or thin client computers.

Sunday, 23 August 2009

Measuring audience participation in digital signage – is it needed?

With the ever increase in technology advancement, digital signage needs to be measured, or does it? If an advertiser does not measure the results they will certainly be missing on some part of the captive audience, alternatively if the campaign is to targeted they may miss some of the audience, that are on the pringe.

The Out of home video advertising bureau (OVAB) created some guidelines for reporting on general audiences. The problem is that some developers and digital signage integrators do not follow the guidelines when creating content for the general audience.

One of the most common problems is that there are several organisations vying for the attention of the buyer, so we have to address the areas were the digital screens are placed, different personality’s of people and the different demographics, as these can all vary from one location to another.

One of the main problems hindering the digital signage is how they can measure the audience effectively, as some of the demographics will not have the same attention span so they will not pay attention to the dynamic adverts.

There are several reasons that puts digital signage ahead of other advertising mediums, the speed of change – a campaign can be edited and changed in less than 5 seconds, compared to printed medium that would take days to do the same. However, printed medium can be monitored, from how many sales per day, to how many people called a particular business using the reference code from a newspaper. Without this traceability, is it difficult for advertisers to believe the claims, until they see the results themselves.

A simple way to measure audience participation is to incorporate a web cam into the LCD enclosure, this way the demographics can be verified, producing real data so that in turn we can improve our digital content.

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

Learn How Airports are using Digital Signage.

One of the prime reasons that digital signage is widely used for passenger information is the fast way in which information can be updated. Passengers can be notified of delays or which gate to go to for boarding the plane with a click of a mouse. They are also used for advertising and brand awareness in airports, one company has over 657,000 digital panels sited in over 45 countries and they have more electronic billboards deployed in Europe than any other competitor.

They have replaced static displays, with digital displays in most of Europe’s airports and have completed an “art tunnel” in New York’s JFK International airport. Once installed the advertising space was quickly sold to Microsoft who used it for branding and to launch new products.

Now airports are moving away from static displays as they have now become dated and with the implementation costs falling for LCD displays and digital signage, this makes digital signage ideal for airports as they can see the benefit of dynamic advertising, if the content is compelling, the audience will pay attention.

The airports are even using large 42” LCD and plasma televisions in the baggage handling areas outdoors, so the handlers know which conveyor belt to put the newly arrived luggage on, for a more efficient service. This is were LCD enclosures are used, in outdoor, hostile areas.

Proving that digital advertising is extremely flexible in use and costs, it does however get expensive when organisations require interactive networked digital signage.

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Digital Signage – Getting the content right

A BBQ restaurant that started in Pakistan in 1988 had a seating capacity for 150 guests, now due to its unique way it promotes its quality food, it is widely known in Karachi City and the restaurant now has a seating capacity for 1,500 guests!

The reason for this unprecedented growth is the restaurants extremely high reputation for quality food as well as providing a modern eating experience.

Prior to them installing digital signage, they experimented by installing LCD displays that run local cable television channels, unfortunately patrons were not impressed with the content and the deployment failed.

They analysed were the project failed and began to design an outdoor digital network, with the two prime aims:

1. To make it entertaining for the patrons
2. To generate revenue from brand advertising and inform patrons of the restaurants products and services.

The digital signage featured; featured dishes of the day, restaurant promotions, local news and weather an the restaurant services such as event catering and home delivery.

Learning from their initial mistakes, their planning paid off as the digital displays are located in the most perfect locations.

The first screen you see is above the desk when you go to check in for your table, this featured local news and the menu promotions for that day, this makes the waiting time seem less than it actually is, until they are seated.

The restaurant have been monitoring the revenue increase since the installation of the 20 digital signs and have noted an increase of 17.3% on promoted products to date.

The restaurant has tremendous potential with over 75,000 visitors per month used one of the most effective out of home, captive audience experiences available, proving that any restaurant or business can use digital signage, providing it is the right configuration.

This article is brought to you by LCD enclosures Global.

Thursday, 21 May 2009

Digital Signage | LCD Enclosures Global

When digital signage was invented, the person must have had a massive moment...looknig back this market is huge and when ever you go in a mall or train station you will see some sort of digital signage.

I've even seen digital signage systems in the dentists and doctors! They are even in Churches!

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Digital Signage & LCD enclosures - understanding the relationship.

As soon as digital signage solutions were installed outdoors, there was an immediate requirement for some sort of protection. As you can appreciate the delicate nature of an LCD display is not designed for outdoor use without some sort of protection.

This is were the LCD enclosure was born, as more companies realised that OOH advertising (Out Of Home) would increase brand awareness and therefore improve sales for the brand.

The outdoor digital signage enclosure protects from anyone vandalising the signage hardware when placed in un-manned areas. It also protects from dust and fluid, so it is ideal for outdoor use, protecting the internal hardware from rain, snow and sleet. The special viewing window also allows for the unit to be located in direct sunlight and the display can still be seen.

Can you imagine what would happen if you did not put the digital signage hardware into an LCD enclosure? How many times will you have to return to site to "check" if everything is OK? What would the costs be?

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Understanding Digital Signage & LCD enclosures.

How to display the same image on multiple displays.

This is a common question asked between digital signage integrators, the easiest way to answer this is as follows.

If you are using 1 digital signage media player, you have two options, the first is to use a video extender or alternatively a video splitter, either of these will enable you to display the same video content on multiple screens.

A video extender is an electronic device that uses networking infrastructure such as Cat 5 cabling, to extend a video signal. At the local end where the media player is located, a video transmitter converts the source of the video signal to Cat5. At the remote end, where the LCD displays are located a video receiver converts the CAT5 signal back to video.

You can purchase different sizes devices, from 1 to 16 ports, this means you could run 16 screens from 1 x 16 port device, displaying the same content simultaneously. These will cover distances up to 300 metres.

For shorter distances, you would use a video splitter, this does at it's name suggests and splits the signal into multiple outputs. This system does not use Cat5 cabling but uses different types of video cables such as VGA, DVI, HDMI, to transmit the signal from the media player to the screens, this solution is cheaper than video extenders but does reduce the quality of the video.

This scenario is perfect for a mall, however if the digital signage is going outdoors, the solution needs to have an Internet connection preferable hard wired into the media player. Then daisy chaining the LCD displays together to display the same video at the same time. Easily done when the LCD and media player are protected in our outdoor LCD enclosure.