Creating Dynamic Content for Digital Signage: Top Strategies and Examples
In today’s world, digital displays have evolved to a stage where they act as a competitive differentiator. Businesses in any and every domain are using screens to streamline communications, improve day-to-day workflows, and boost visual engagement.
From interactive kiosks to 3D digital billboards, digital signage solutions offer endless possibilities for engaging and informing audiences.
However, to truly maximize the impact of this technology, it is essential to create dynamic and engaging content that captivates the attention of your target audience.
In this post, we will explore the top strategies and examples for creating dynamic content for digital signage.
Creating dynamic content for digital signage: key strategies
Design with a mission
The first step in creating effective dynamic digital signage content is understanding your target audience and communication objectives. Is your message informative or promotional? Believe me when I say the same message can have different appeals depending on the goal. For example, if your digital signage content is promotional, you may want to go with an image-based ad with a large and clean call-to-action text.
On the other hand, if your objective is to educate the audience about a product, you may want to use a more dynamic content such as a video ad.
One of the most significant advantages of using digital signage technology is the flexibility of using a variety of content formats, including videos, images, animations, live content, QR codes & more.
Once you have identified your mission and target audience, you will better understand the dynamic content format you want to choose.
Incorporate Interactivity
Interactive digital signage solutions have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for a good reason. Interactive elements can help generate massive engagement and brand recall. Some examples of interactive elements are:
- QR codes
- Touchscreen displays
- Voice-face-gesture recognition
- Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
- Motion sensors, etc.
Contrary to the common misconception, adding interactive features is not always expensive. Simple plug-ins like QR codes can be utilized in incredibly diverse and innovative ways. For instance, a retail store can guide its customers to browse products on a virtual catalog available on their smartphones through a QR code scan. On the other hand, corporate offices can gather employee feedback by asking the staff to scan QR codes on digital displays and submit their feedback through mobile.
Leveraging user-generated content
Businesses are widely repurposing user-generated content to showcase social proof. User-generated content not only helps to bring your online and offline audience together, it helps you leverage authentic brand loyalty without spending a dime. Some examples of user-generated content are:
- Social media posts, hashtags, videos, likes, and comments
- Product reviews
- Blog comments and forum discussions
- Mentions of your brand on other websites, podcasts, etc.
These content can be brought to your digital signage screens using any modern signage software like Pickcel.
Personalize digital signage content
We have stepped into the world of digital experiences, where personalization plays a leading role in defining business success. From popular brands like Amazon, Nike & Netflix, to local pump-top signage displays, personalization has reshaped and redefined the entire business landscape.
Dynamic content personalization can come in various shapes and forms:
- Geography-based personalization: creating location-specific variations of your digital signage content; for example, a QSR displaying its advertisements in Spanish in Latin American countries while the same ad is in German at its outlets in Germany. Geographic personalization can also mean effectively modifying a brand’s offering to suit the choices of the customers in a specific location. Here is an example: Due to the large vegetarian population in India, McDonald’s sells and promotes a range of vegetarian dishes like McVeggie and Paneer Salsa wraps across its hundreds of outlets in India.
- Demography-based personalization: Businesses may serve a heterogeneous consumer population. Nevertheless, there is always an ideal buyer persona, meaning every brand ultimately focuses on resonating among a specific set of demographics. For example, brands like Adidas target millennials and GenZs who are fitness enthusiasts, value comfort over flash, and want to make a statement with their fashion. Demography-based personalization can be done through digital signs that are fitted with cameras and can identify the gender, age, and personality of a nearby customer. Once it identifies the profile, it can intuitively show targeted ads. For example, if a retail window display recognizes a male customer of age 20-25 wearing formal, it will intelligently start playing promotion of laptop bags or leather shoes.
- Environment-based personalization: Whether we consciously realize or not, much of our day-to-day purchases are affected by the external environment like weather, seasons, or temperature. For instance, we do buy ice-creams more in summers, right? Imagine if screens could be perceptive of the external conditions and tailor the communications dynamically. Well, that is very much possible.
Testing and optimizing
Testing is a key aspect of successfully implementing dynamic content on digital signage. Often, this step is overlooked. Here are a few things to test:
- The content format
- The location of the screens
- The interactive metrics like (dwell time, attention time, etc.)
Examples of Effective Digital Signage Content
Now that we have explored some strategies for creating dynamic content for digital signage, let’s look at some examples of dynamic digital signage content:
Dynamic digital menu boards
Digital menu board solutions have come a long way from just showing menu offerings to intelligently recommending offerings based on the customer’s purchase history. Modern menu boards can automatically change the menu based on dayparting schedules. Further, these menu software systems can be integrated with other systems like inventory management systems, employee shift management systems, etc. To create an IoT ecosystem.
Interactive product demonstrations
On-demand is a consumer mindset that is not going anywhere anytime soon. Many businesses such as car dealerships and electronic stores require to deploy additional staff for product demonstrations. With interactive digital signage systems, customers can now independently explore product demonstrations.
Social walls
Social walls are becoming commonplace, from shopping malls to corporate premises. These dynamic digital displays auto-curate social media feeds from a large number of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tiktok, and present them on screen in a visually-appealing format.
Conclusion
Creating dynamic content for digital signage is essential to ensuring that it captures the attention of your target audience and drives results. By understanding your audience and communication objectives, choosing the right content format and testing your campaigns, you effectively achieve your business objectives.
