Creating your Own Digital Signage Content

As the price of TV screens fall and hardware such as outdoor LCD enclosure make it easier to install screens in outdoor locations, more and more businesses and institutions are utilizing digital signage as part of marketing or information provision.

Traditionally, embarking on a digital signage campaign meant hiring a media company or digital signage integrator to install the screens and generate content. However, with the ease screen installation, even in outdoor areas thanks to LCD enclosures, and with the rise of simple and easy to generate content software, not to mention the fall in cost of media players, increasingly, businesses are beginning to generate their own content for digital signage campaigns.

Generating your own digital signage content, might well save money, but not done correctly, could lead to the audience ignoring the message you are trying to get across. Making sure the content does what it is supposed to do is not easy, but with the right planning and approach, self-generated digital signage content can be effective.

Objective

A clear objective is essential before beginning content generation. Whether it’s brand building, promoting particular items, entertaining or communication, establishing a clear understanding for you want to do is essential.

Audience

Different content, style and delivery methods will work differently depending on the audience. Attracting the notice of young people involves a different approach to getting an older audience to take notice, so establishing the demographics and type of audience will help generate suitable content

Relevance

Making sure the sign is relevance means taking into account several aspects. Where the sign is located, who will view it, the length of time an audience will look at a screen, and whether the audience is captive or not all affects the content. A captive audience inside a waiting room may be happy to sit and watch a 20 second advert on a digital signage screen, but an audience walking past a shop front may only give the screen a glance for few seconds, affecting the information you can display.

Engaging

Engaging the audience is essential to ensure remembrance of the content. Providing something that provokes thought, humour or entertains in some other way will lead to the content being more effective than just flashing the latest promotion on the display. Find ways to engage an audience is perhaps the hardest aspect of generating digital signage content.