Every company tries to promote its products and services in the best possible way. In this article, you can read what you need to consider when using advertising monitors for your company and how to use these devices efficiently.
Today, more and more stores are using advertising monitors. Digital screens have become commonplace in many stores, stations, or office centers. They transport advertisements there in the form of videos or animations to various target groups. The companies present new products or inform about their services. It's no secret that LED screens strongly attract the attention of potential customers through colorful animated advertising content and thus can generate more sales.
We define advertising monitors as electronic display devices (displays, display panels or digital advertising walls) that are primarily used to transmit advertising content in various formats. Everyone has surely noticed a monitor in a shop window or a monitor in an outdoor area or an advertising wall inserted into outdoor walls when passing by a shopping mall.
You will find advertising monitors located indoors, in transportation vehicles, in high-traffic areas inside or outside buildings, and are usually part of a digital signage network. Digital displays can also be found at trade shows, in large shopping malls, municipal facilities and even in elevators. Monitors which advertising products or fashion labels are widespread.
Monitors for advertisements present shoppers contents in various formats. These include text on websites, images, videos, or animations. Most people are more visually oriented and therefore perceive on-screen advertising better in video formats. The movement on a signage display draws attention to the advertised product better than a poster with a picture.
An advertising monitor broadcasts various media formats without interruption — 24 hours a day. Continuity ensures high reach and many views. This is reinforced by dynamic advertising content enriched with many colors, which look impressive on an LED advertising screen even in the dark. An advertising screen opens up many opportunities for interaction with people, not only regarding consumption, but also in terms of providing meaningful information.
Other advantages of advertising monitors include their ability to receive advertising content centrally via a content management system and to play it out on all networked devices in real-time as needed.
Important aspects that must be clarified before purchasing an advertising monitor are:
Nowadays, the question is no longer between LED or LCD. Hardly any monitors exist anymore that use cold cathode tubes (CCRT) for backlighting. Most “LCD” devices on the market have power-saving and longer-lasting LEDs. The more interesting question is whether it is worth using the promising organic LEDs, the so-called OLEDs. These enable ultra-thin and curved designs, shine brighter and have better so-called black values. OLED displays show pictures and videos breathtakingly sharp and clear. However, these devices are expensive. So, your decision depends partly on your budget.
This usually does not affect the advertising monitor directly, but the connected or integrated digital signage player. More memory means more content that the device can store locally without having to reload data from the Internet. High CPU capacity means animations run smoothly and videos don't jerk.
Pixel pitch — the distance between the centers of two adjacent pixels determines the resolution of the screen. The pixel pitch of an indoor LED display should not exceed 10 mm. Panels with a pitch of 4 to 6 mm are popular. A higher quality image is displayed on monitors with a pixel pitch of 1 to 3 mm.
If the pixel pitch of the screen is more than 10 mm, the human viewer will clearly see the dots of the screen at close range. Try to avoid this because unfortunately, it looks very cheap. As a rule, monitor size and resolution are directly proportional to the price. The higher the resolution, the more expensive the advertising screen.
The size of the advertising display plays a significant role in the effectiveness of the advertising. It also depends on the purpose of use and the target group for the advertising activities. Wrongly chosen screen characteristics do not ensure the expected profitability in the worst case. The screen should be chosen so, that the target audience can clearly see all the information displayed on the screen. As for an LED advertising screen installed near the checkout, the content should be visible to the entire queue.
The size of the monitor varies depending on where it is installed. While significantly larger advertising monitors are located in the shop window, the space available in the entrance area is limited. Many stores therefore place two smaller advertising displays in the entrance area instead of one large one.
So-called digital signage management systems managed advertising technologies based on the use of electronic media and displays. An intuitive and easy-to-use content management system is especially important when advertising content changes frequently and advertising monitors are located in different locations. A centralized digital signage system ensures easy management, control, scheduling as well as synchronization of any content on all playback devices located in the network.
Further, larger installations need ways to manage remote advertising monitors without having a technical team on site. A digital signage solution therefore needs extensive diagnostic and reporting functionality.
The effort to mount an indoor display is manageable, digital signage totems you usually assemble and put in place without any special preparation.
Advertising screens go on a wall, ceiling, shelf or special constructions. Check previously, at the place of installation, whether the advertising screen can be connected electrically and to the network. If necessary, plan preparatory electrical installation work and electrical work by a specialist.
Installation for outdoor devices, especially stationary public displays, in contrast, is much more complex due to their design.
Indoor advertising screens, as the name suggests, are predestined for indoor areas of a store or exhibition. They either decorate the entrance area, merchandise shelves or attract shopping customers as window monitors. Unlike outdoor, indoor monitors do not require weather-resistant enclosures and are therefore less expensive to purchase.
Through so-called smart retail technologies, a window display can directly influence buying behavior. Well-known examples of the technology used are eye tracking, face recognition, gesture recognition and intelligent sensor technology. For example, when a passer-by looks at certain shoes in the shop window, product details such as shoe size, possible color selection and prices are displayed on the LED wall outdoor monitor.
A display in the shop window that interacts with passers-by is a guarantee for increased interest and, with the right content, ensures that potential customers are more willing to buy.
The investment costs for a digital advertising board for indoor use are of course higher at the beginning than the costs for conventional advertising via posters or flyers. However, this investment pays off after just a few years. This is because the operating costs are much lower, as continuous printing and logistics costs for distribution are eliminated.
Advertising monitors also ensure higher visitor numbers by increasing the attractiveness of the store or retail outlet. Customers find it more exciting to consume animated ads on screens instead of reading them on billboards. Your in-store marketing will experience an immense boost from digital signage.
Outdoor advertising monitors can be found in shopping malls, in front of retail stores, transportation hubs and in centers of cities. The use of outdoor LED displays as so-called public info displays in urban areas with a lot of public traffic promises high profitability and reach for advertising campaigns.
Despite the effectiveness of an indoor monitor, retailers are looking for other ways to target customers. The outdoors offers more potential for product advertising than previously known. Retail companies have recognized this trend and are additionally using modern outdoor LED advertising screens or display stands to attract passers-by into the store.
Many shopping malls, restaurants and stores are happy to experiment with outdoor monitors. This opens up many new opportunities for customer engagement via so-called smart and connected outdoor displays.
The uses of an outdoor monitor are many and varied. Once the need for an outdoor LED advertising wall is known, it must be clarified what criteria such a device for outdoor advertising must meet to ensure a good return of investment (ROI).
Additional relevant factors that should be considered specifically for outdoor display:
An outdoor display needs a certain robustness against different weather conditions. When it is not raining, the sun shines on the device and it heats up. At night or in winter, the temperature drops sharply. In addition, the content must be recognizable despite sunlight, but must not shine so brightly at night.
Screens designed for outdoor use therefore have light and temperature sensors. These control the brightness and switch on cooling units or heaters. Moreover, the panels also tolerate much higher temperature fluctuations than indoor devices.
Certifications for continuous operation are even more important for outdoor advertising screens than for their indoor counterparts due to the circumstances described above. While an inexpensive consumer monitor on the hardware store shelf may still suffice under certain circumstances, it will break down within a very short time in outdoor use. That's why professional monitors basically have assured specifications for runtimes.
Outdoor advertising monitors have more complex and robust housings and special certification for their specifications. This makes this type of device correspondingly expensive.
By security, I don't just mean protection against physical damage from vandalism. The device must also have no externally routed cables or USB ports. Furthermore, the player software used requires special protections. Imagine if the player crashes and your interactive info terminal suddenly offers passersby access to the Android or Windows operating system underneath.
A clever hacker blocks the access or downloads presented content from the Internet. Of course, such a thing should not happen, even if a software component behaves incorrectly. In the article on Digital Signage Security, I go into more detail about various attack vectors and give you a few tips on how to protect your systems from them.
The most important factors in the selection of a wall panel for outdoor advertising, depend on the purpose, the place of installation and the state of the art. Is it enough for the advertising monitor to be placed behind the shop window, or does the unit need to be placed outside the building? What protective measures (e.g., uninterruptible power supply) must be taken to ensure trouble-free operation? Does the outdoor advertising screen require protective glass for protection against vandalism?
If necessary, check the requirements individually and define features to make an optimal selection for an advertising monitor.
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