by Chris Lee, President, FireSign, Inc.

A good digital signage system is an effective way to communicate with your customers and prospects. Some core capabilities must be present in the digital signage software:

• Flexibility - Change content on the fly amongst any or all of the displays. Ensure that you are always displaying content appropriate for its various events and audiences.
• Ease of Use – A browser-based user-interface makes it easy to use by those with limited computer knowledge. Furthermore, FireSign can be accessed from any PC connected to the network or Internet.
• Ease to Maintain - Information should be able to be scheduled to play days, weeks, or months in advance thereby reducing the need for daily maintenance. An Event List Utility will simplify the scheduling of recurring events.
• Adaptability - Support of common media formats (video, Flash, audio, images, text, etc).
• Scalability - Additional displays should be able to be added at as needed.
• Centralized Control - All displays should be centrally controlled from any PC on the network or with Internet access.

The benefits of such a system are many:

• Captivate, educate, and motivate the audience
• Provide updated information quickly and easily
• Enhance customer's experience while on premises
• Elimination of traditional signage print cost & placement time
• Avoidance of clutter and off-brand messaging
• Centralized control of brand image compliance
• Flexibility to change messages to fit the occasion and/or audience

A great deal of work is required before these benefits can be realized, however. Much of the effort of getting a digital signage system into service involves equipment and installation planning, procurement, budgeting, and approval processes. Once all of the technical and financial challenges have been met, there comes the “what now?” moment. What exactly do you do with this network of displays?

Something more important than the physical delivery system is the content itself: the message. Without an effective message to convey, the capabilities of the system are meaningless. A digital signage system must have good content. Any publisher or intellectual property owner will tell you: content is king. While that certainly is true in traditional media, in digital signage it is more accurate to say the right content is king. Just placing content on the screens of a digital signage system does not guarantee success. It is critical to make sure that the system is always communicating the right message, to the right audience, at the right time.

The messages themselves must be powerful and engaging in order to produce the desired response. Especially in a retail environment, digital signage screens are frequently competing for the viewer's attention with a myriad of other nearby distractions. The message being conveyed must demand attention, delivery concise and targeted information, provide a branding hook that the viewer will retain, and do all of this in a very short time – within a typical customer's attention span.

At FireSign, Inc. we offer complete content planning and creation services to our customers through our Ignitor brand. Projects range from simple branding campaigns to full interactive components with real-time data exchange. Each project starts with a comprehensive needs analysis, often running in parallel with the physical planning for the digital signage system hardware and software. We find that while our customers often have given considerable thought to their message overall, they do not consider the details of proper location of displays, scheduling and audience makeup, and on-going updates of content. Our content planning services bring all of these questions out into the open.

Running an effective digital signage system is more akin to running a broadcast network than a magazine or newspaper. The elements of location and timing are extremely important to consider when planning message content and schedules. One great benefit is that once these plans have been laid out, they can be entered into the digital signage system's scheduling tool weeks, months, or years ahead of time. So seasonal campaigns will always hit on time and at the same time across geographic regions, but the ability to tweak an individual store location's content is still maintained.

Most digital signage providers will deliver a system that includes everything you need from an equipment, software, and installation perspective. But they fall short of delivering that final, crucial component: the right content. By choosing FireSign Dynamic Digital Signage, you can be confident that you will deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, FireSign®, Inc. provides dynamic digital signage solutions that help get the right message to the right audience at the right time. Offerings include software, support, consulting, hosting, and network management. Custom digital signage content is available under the Ignitor™ brand.