When businesses invest in digital signage, they have to take a look at the entire solution before rushing in, this is what happened with Tesco's digital signage campaign, it was ill conceived and got mothballed before it had been rolled out to all the stores.

Tip 1 - Reducing the initial investment. Digital Signage can be expensive, so the best option is either to use a low cost solution such as a digital LCD poster, so that the market can be tested and evaluated. These low cost solutions can be placed in high "foot traffic" areas, were many people pass by during the day or night.

Tip 2 - Targeting the Wrong Audience. If you have a small number of locations, you could try a Digital interactive Display (DiD), these have motion sensors and activate when someone passed, encouraging them to interact. It also actives a webcam recording the people's reactions, ages and sex, whilst the onboard computer records what interests this group of visitors, such as products or log in details. This way you can target the marketing of your products to specific target groups. Having an ubber targeted audience is essential.

Tip 3 - When to update content? This is a big one, many advertising campaigns fail due to the fact that the content isn't updated often enough. One business model to copy is a restaurant who uses dynamic advertising, they target the early birds for lunch and dinner, then they market cocktails and specials to people whilst they are "waiting for a table" at peak times. Three types of content rotated throughout the day.

Tip 4 - Wrong location. When you site a sign, you must ensure that there are plenty of passing people for your campaign to work, without these people the project is dead before you start. Also make sure that if you are installing the unit in an un-manned area, that the relevant anti vandal protection is installed, because you don't want to have to keep coming back to replace a damaged display.

Tip 5 - Networked or Not? When you are considering a digital sign project, cost will be an issue, however you have to bear in mind that for an extra hundred bucks could mean that the sign is networked up rather than being a stand alone sign. Don't get me wrong, stand alone signs are fine when you only have 1 or 2, however this changes if you have 10 or more, due to the amount of man hours wasted uploading new content manually, rather than over the network.

About the Author

Graham is an expert in outdoor digital signage, he also owns Europe's leading manufacturer of LCD enclosures. As well as protective outdoor digital signage, Graham's range of LCD enclosures offers waterproof protection to standard TV's.