Times Square. It is iconic, the most recognizable square of real estate in America. Producers have filmed countless movie scenes there. It is the setting of some television shows. What will you recognize most about those scenes? Hint: Not necessarily the people.
Signage has been around for centuries. The postman deliveries packages to the right addresses by reading signs. Businesses advertise their latest specials with a sign perched on the window. And even schools use signs to offer information to their students.
Why are signs important? Because they deliver information. And the way we deliver information has changed.
Electronic displays have grown in complexity until store owners, schools, governmental buildings, and even churches could display them to communicate information. Another phrase for them is digital signage.
Why is digital signage important? Here are five reasons.
One: Cost-Benefits
Digital signage cuts costs. It’s that simple. Digital signs for business, schools, government buildings, and any other organization cut costs of physical products. Pieces of paper. Markers. Cardboard for posters. Printer toner.
A digital sign might cost $1,000 up front. But that cost is made up in the months following.
Two: Increased Control
Remember the last time you looked at a movie theater sign. The one that displayed a listing of all the movies. There were lines after lines of simple black letters. The sign had one purpose: Display the listings. And in an unattractive way.
That’s the issue with physical signs. They have one look, one purpose. If that look fails to meet the purpose, it has to be discarded. Another has to be printed.
Digital signs for business, including movie theaters, communicate more information. The creator has more control, such as over the color, the brightness of the light, animations that might play, and other features.
Three: Flexibility
A government building needs to display two messages: One for English speakers and one for Spanish speakers.
A skydiving course needs to display three messages, each for safety.
A church needs to display 14 verses of a song, but only four will fit onto a screen.
A conventional sign has one surface, one display. Digital signs for business, government buildings, and churches display more than one message. One comes, stays for a predetermined amount of time. Another comes in, replacing the first.
This is valuable. Think of restaurants. They want to display breakfast advertisements in the morning, lunch advertisements at noon. Digital signage makes this seamless.
Four: Increased Recall and Retention
Researchers have shown that electronic displays capture 400% more views than static displays. And those viewers have an 83% better recall rate compared to viewers of static displays.
Electronic displays capture our attention and communicate more information than static displays in a shorter amount of time. It works by drawing us in, with a flashiness and an engagement that few static displays can match.
Five: Variance
For every need, there is a digital sign. There are outdoor church signs, LED signs for businesses, school LED signs, marquee signs, and more. Digital signs for business, schools, government buildings, and churches enhance communication.
A school might use them for the following:
- A billboard on the side of the road
- A welcome sign at the entrance to the school
- A sign for directions throughout campus
- Signs communicating school initiatives
- Signs displaying course material in classrooms
And that’s just a few ways.
There are different digital sign types of different needs. And they can be used in many ways.
Digital signage is important. Those are five reasons why. More and more buildings are using them. Static signs are just that: static. They are on their way out.