Why consider experiential digital signage for your business [+VIDEO]

If you think that creating experiential digital signage is beyond your reach, then think again! Digital signage has come a long way, with developments like the BrightSign range of Series 5 Media Players proving that you can now transform everyday brick and mortar screen interactions into wow-the-crowd experiences. We draw on the expertise of Brian Rowley, Chief Marketing Officer from BrightSign, as well as our sector knowledge to share the kind of interactive and immersive digital signage experiences you can now deliver.

You don’t need to be a major player in entertainment or events to try your hand at delivering experiential digital signage. According to Brian, the whole point of experiential digital signage is that it can turn unremarkable everyday transactions and events into exciting brand and visitor experiences. It is, he insists, about adding something to make the ordinary extraordinary, and in doing so, offering an attainable way for businesses to revitalise their brick-and-mortar locations, and tempt employees and customers alike back into their buildings.  

The hardware solutions that are now available offer a multitude of experiential options, each designed to suit different business objectives. 

Attention-grabbing, immersive viewing

Many media players can now deliver life-like viewing experiences, offering the bandwidth and the HTML5 and 4K, or even 8K capability you need to run stunning graphics and videos smoothly and without interruption. 

Interactive digital signage

More than this, if paired with touch screens, CMS web triggers and sensors, entry level media players, like those from BrightSign Series 5, can be used to create engaging, interactive digital signage solutions. One such example is the increasingly popular Lift and Learn solution that enables information about products in a showcase to be triggered on-screen every time a customer interacts with them. Serving as a digital shopping assistant of sorts, the sensor-driven solution works perfectly every time, flexibly allowing products to be picked up by customers from anywhere within the showcase area. 

Proximity sensors offer another kind of customer interaction, enabling, as Brian points out, in-store showcases to light up and on-screen messaging to display automatically, every time a customer approaches. 

Media players like BrightSign offer even more opportunity for interaction, thanks to their compatibility with content management solutions, like Signagelive Real Time Events (RTE). With RTEs, smart devices in the environment can be connected to your digital signage, so that they operate at pre-selected times during the on-screen content. It’s a great way to set the right mood and ambience for your on-screen content, and immerse customers in the product experience, whether that’s through a change in in-store lighting, or soundtrack.

Banks are, Brian argues, testimony to the impact experiential signage can make for everyday customer interactions. While banks used to display dry static information that no-one bothered to look at, they are now able to showcase real-time data, that can be presented in eye-catching ways and alongside attention-grabbing straplines and high-resolution videos. The compatibility of screens and media players with CMS data integration apps ensures that banks can now securely display everything from up-to-the-minute exchange and interest rates to current market prices.

Emerging new technology trends like Artificial Intelligence (AI) are also being safely and successfully integrated into transformative digital signage solutions, offering benefits like data-driven insights, based on anonymous customer analytics.

Bigger is better, anytime, any place

The ease with which you can flexibly use digital signage hardware, inside or outside, and for larger multi-screen video wall solutions, is another game-changer. Media players like some models in the BrightSign Series 5 range are being designed for indoor/outdoor use, while other 8K-capable variants are coming equipped with four simultaneous 4K outputs, so you can create simple and cost-effective video walls.

For more information on how experiential digital signage can boast everyday business, check out our latest Digital Signage Explored episode with special guest, Brian Rowley.