Narrowcasting is no longer the exclusive domain of Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and other big-budget retail leaders. Digital Signage Update discusses the opportunities for smaller businesses and local governments with Tom Perchinsky, CEO of Adek Corp., an Annapolis, Md.-based digital signage consultant, systems integrator and content developer.
Digital Signage Update: What’s changing in the digital signage marketplace today?
Tom Perchinsky: It’s not limited to just the big guys anymore. Prices are falling, and you now can create the content relatively easily. Really, digital signage is becoming a great fit for the small to medium-sized business. They can create really high-end digital signage – but they don’t all know it yet.”
 Museums are one of many opportune locations in the public and non-profit sector for digital signage, says Adek Corp. CEO Tom Perchinsky. Here is an example of museum signage displaying content from multiple sources generated by Inscriber's InfoCaster software. Click here to view a larger image. |
DSU: What are examples of smaller businesses successfully deploying digital signage?
Perchinsky: A lot of high-end day spas and salons are doing enormous business with digital signage. These types of businesses have new products being launched monthly, and it’s difficult to educate the consumer. Digital signage up-sells enormous amounts of high-margin products that the consumer normally wouldn’t be exposed to.
Advertising is another high-end opportunity. The affordability of technology and software has made it such that a building owner can put up digital signage and lease it out – or can actually promote their own business or local community.
DSU: What about multi-store signage networks? Are they moving beyond retail giants like Best Buy?
Perchinsky:The prices have come down to where the smaller or mid-sized business – a 20- to 30-store chain – can get involved, whereas before it was 100-plus stores. In the convenience store market, screens advertising specific beverages have sold out the product stock in a day, whereas normally it would have taken a week to sell out of a similar product.
DSU:I just got new license plates for my car and my local Department of Motor Vehicles office had digital signage mixing ads for local business with “buckle up” messages. What are other opportunities for deploying signage in the public sector?
Perchinsky: Most local governments have their own public access channel – so it involves providing a digital signage network for one of those channels. Digital signage normally goes into a head-end unit and runs off the content that plays out to the community. [They need] a player, software for digital signage, and the displays, but most of the hardware is already in place.