Digital Signage: A Growing Integration Option

"Digital ambiance is a way to use media to complete an in-store customer experience. Programming can be appropriate for the target lifestyle, type of driving experience, what have you."

As clients discover innovative uses for digital signage, VARs and integrators explore new twists on business models. Some want to provide the signage at no charge -- to shopping malls, for example -- and make their money selling third-party advertising that runs on the displays and is targeted to shoppers.

There are firms doing this successfully, but it's harder than it sounds. Meeker tried it four or five years ago and found the going tough.

"The advertisers wanted proof of installation and proof of people watching [the ads]," she says. "The people at the malls or stores said the opposite -- you show us the advertisers and we'll let you put it in."

Digital signage offers new potential for VARs, but it also presents new problems. Assumptions can tank an implementation.

For example, newcomers often make the mistake of using consumer displays and computers to control price, but the equipment quickly falls apart under the long hours and hard use of commercial implementation.

It's a tricky business.

"There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle: content delivery, content management, content creation, financing, installation," says Pierre Richer, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Tokyo-based NEC Display Solutions.

"You can't be an expert at all that. You have to outsource a lot of this."

Content is a knotty issue. Sometimes an entire business model will depend on the signage.

The SushiSamba restaurant in Tel Aviv uses almost 20 flat panels mounted above the bar, facing out toward the street. It draws people in, keeps them interested as they wait for a table.

But it's difficult not only to create video and audio, but to manage it. As an example, Young points out that a typical radio station has only 1,200 songs at any one time.

What makes the playlist sound fresh is switching out titles, changing the playing order. Likewise with digital signage; a company needs incremental new material and knowledge of how to use that material effectively.

Content Is Key

Leaving content to clients is often a bad idea, as is not spending enough time in early planning and understanding their needs. Meeker remembers installing 40 screens as a pilot project for one of the biggest names in retail.

"They thought they knew everything," she says. "But because nobody gave it enough thought before they started down this road, no one wanted to take responsibility for this project."

Although the company was awash in video and print material, it didn't provide content for the network and management ultimately pulled the plug.

"The industry is growing very rapidly, but, at the same time, it's not mature," says Terry Scannell, founder of ipSigns, a VAR in Portland, Ore.

"It's very advantageous for VARs to hook up with good partners in the area."

All the big vendors build networks of complementary providers so they can act as matchmakers, using the service as a way of gaining VAR loyalty and continuing sales of their products.

There are also content networks that provide services that scale for companies of all sizes, though channel partners still need to vet each one individually, because their businesses could depend on it.

It's a lot of work, but by learning the ropes and carefully approaching the market, you can have your own display -- of increased profits.

Erik Sherman is a freelance writer, book author, and playwright, who most often focuses on business and technology subjects.