Digital Signage and Advertising Blindness

When internet advertising first started, it advertisers soon noted how ineffective it was. This was a surprise as people spend hours upon hours surfing the internet, and yet banners and other advertising content on web pages seemed to attract little attention. This phenomenon became known as banner blindness as people, either intentionally or subconsciously ignored advertising on web pages.

Advertising blindness is not only restricted to the internet. For decades, outdoor advertisers have known about the problem of people ignoring outdoor adverts. Often, too much content in an individual location causes this ad blindness, and the adverts become just part of the backdrop. Think about the number of billboards, posters and other advertisements you pass regularly on the way to work; how many of these do you actually recall?

With less competition, outdoor digital signage is more noticeable

Because of Advertising Blindness, outdoor advertisers strive to make content as noticeable and appealing as possible, which is why so many out of home adverts end up becoming iconic and memorable.

When digital signage first entered out of home environments, the novelty, moving imagery and modernity of the advertising prevented ad blindness. However, now digital signage has been around for some time, people are starting to become so used to it that ad blindness is starting to take effect.

In indoor locations, digital signage is becoming incredibly prevalent with screens placed side-by-side along concourse walls, shopping malls and foyers. This saturation is weakening the effects of digital signage, and while advertisers will always want to take advantage of all available blank spaces, there is no need with digital signage. One of the greatest advantages of digital signage is that multiple advertisers can use the same space, albeit it for briefer periods, but this will create less saturation.

Outdoor digital signage is another avenue where advertisers can invest more time and money. Because of the increased cost in outside networking and protection for outdoor digital signage, there are far fewer outdoor adverts than there are indoor, providing plenty of opportunities and less chance of advertising blindness.