Digital Signage Market Rapidly Expands January 1, 2009 Digital signage has proven its effectiveness as a marketing channel. It is also one of the fastest growing marketing channels, with a projected market for digital signage worth US$3.5 billion by year 2011. In 2005 when early adopters first started implementing digital signage networks over 430,000 digital displays were sold, with the sole purpose of being used for digital signage displays. A recent report on digital signage sales shows that signage providers are selling anywhere from one display per site to as many as 50 displays per site. They also reported an average sale of four digital displays per site. This fast growing market is more of a solution based sale best supported by local dealers with IT expertise. Successful providers will be the ones that partner with distributors or manufacturers with digital signage industry expertise, to compliment their own IT infrastructure sales, installation and support experience. According to a 2006 Gartner Group study, 28% of IT retailers in North America were providing flat panel displays for digital signage in 2006. Gartner expects that number to increase to 33% in 2007. Solution providers "are graduating beyond the display," said Doug Albregts, VP of sales and marketing for NEC Display Solutions, based in Itasca, Ill. Doug said that solution providers are discovering that they need to talk beyond the digital signage panel itself and provide cable, mounts and software to deliver a complete signage solution rather than just a product. The leading provider of digital signage solutions for retail is Premier Retail Networks. PRN works with the largest big-box retailers like Best Buy, Costco, Sam's, Wal-Mart, and others. PRN provides the Grass Valley MEDIAEDGE technology to drive the screens along with a full suite of services around content creation and management. Grass Valley MEDIAEDGE is also available through the Influence Media Network of dealers who offer local, regional, and national network of professionals enabling customers of all sizes to leverage the power of Digital Signage to influence shoppers at the point of decision. MEDIAEDGE can drive any display, including NEC's commercial screens, with or without a PC based client at the edge. "Customers have a keen interest in digital signage and public information display solutions," Albregts said. Display Search estimates that the digital signage market will have a need for more than 900,000 displays by 2009, which trends in line with the Gartner report. According to Digital Signage resource, a recent digital signage study conducted by InfoTrends shows the alternative out-of-home network channel and its applications work. The study, which polled consumers, found that digital signage displays have a 47.7% effectiveness on brand awareness, increase the average purchase amount by 29.5%, create a 31.8% upswing in overall sales volumes, generate a 32.8% growth in repeat buyers and generate 32.8% more in-store traffic. We couldn't agree more when DSR states, "Now those figures you just can't argue with. Just like digitalsignageresource.com, these three studies maintain that the digital signage market is growing at an accelerated pace, with no signs of slowing down any time soon." For more information on how Digital Signage can help your company grow, contact Influence Media Network.  |
