#touch display technology

Almost everything around you is run by media and technology. Media has integrated technology to effectively relay information through different channels; newspapers, magazines, television, mobile, and the Internet. Now, many businesses have taken advantage of the power of Internet and technology to promote and advertise certain products and services.

Through TV commercials, mobile advertising, and touch display technology, businesses have found a better retail opportunity to let people see their products on a much interactive style and presentation.

  One of the hottest channels that effectively affect sales and give retail opportunities is the new digital signage industry. Many have used digital signage for promoting their services and products. The success of using this technology has motivated more companies to incorporate digital marketing to generate more profit.

Digital media in Australia has become a great advantage in inducing more buyers and generating more profit. Through different forms of online marketing, digital media has engaged customers on the retail experience with interactive content, which can create a good shopping experience in-store and save costs.

Influence to customers’ shopping decision

Indeed, people are easily hooked with colorful graphics and moving pictures. Digital signage fuels the interests of customers through extending its marketing messages. It is likely to show off exactly what a product or service will look like at hand. Either digital screens will make them purchase or blow them away from buying the product. Shopper’s decisions are influenced by these displays depending on how the customers find the presentation.

Additional avenue to “Specials” and “Deals”

Digital signage can help build new retail opportunities through presenting product packages and deals. It lets you discover new products deals and specials, which is the objective of most businesses. With its different approach, digital signage shows a catchy look which can be a good way to introduce new promos and special offers. People tend to give attention to things that are new to their eyes. Such behavior gives digital signage the advantage to keep the customers interested.

Build store/brand reputation

It’s important that every business establish an effective brand, title or trademark of their product or service. In this way, customers can easily recognize the uniqueness of a certain business or retail store. Digital signage creates a classification to a company’s services and products for easy access and recommendation. Customers would quickly recommend a shop to their friends if it has drawn a clear mark on their mind. Most people would likely to share their extraordinary experiences with friends and colleagues, especially if they are so much satisfied with the service.

Influence return store visits / return sales

Through the interactive content of digital signage, customers gets a very unique shopping experience. The more people are engaged to the attraction, the more they tend to keep the good retail strategy. Once customers are hooked with the product presentation, they tend to give attention to other products and try other item varieties.

  Adds interest to retail store/brand

New things pique the interest of many consumers. Digital signage entice more customers because of its high-tech approach. People will spend time to explore those screens that they think must be discovered. In this way, there will be more interested customers who would want to try and experience such technology.

Digital media has also been so successful in invading even the private screens of customers through social networking sites. Due to the undeniable influx of social network users, businesses have seen it as a good source of sales. Same with digital signage, links to social media networks can induce more customers. Digital signage provides customers the access to easily share their retail experience to Facebook or Twitter.

With the great power of Internet and influence of media, retail on digital screens are indeed good opportunities to create distinction and product trademark. The more people are engaged to interactive content, the more they tend to keep the good retail experience.

Do you know the difference between an 'S-trap' and 'P-trap' toilet?

This is the working ground that became the basis of GWA Bunnings' Toilet Selector Screens placed in their store. 

The content played on their digital retail screens are meant to help customers identify the types of toilets available to them - specifically the 's-trap' and 'p-trap' ones. 

For the sales aspect of this digital platform, GWA's objective was to be able to communicate their range of toilets across big-box retailer Bunnings' stores in a innovative, interactive and measurable way.

GWA approached us to design and develop an interactive and informative digital solution for their Bunnings' customers. They were looking for a platform that would provide inspiration and advice on their extensive range of toilets.

Their objective was to be able to provide informative, engaging and instant information to both trade professionals and DIY-ers.

What SCT and Blocks Global came up with:

The interactive units are equipped with the latest product offerings of GWA's top selling toilets, a toilet inspiration gallery, and instructional videos. The monitors are also fitted with sensor recognition to monitor vital engagement levels and conversion rates. The sensor are able to recognise passers-by and adjust content depending on their viewing situation.

The units specific features:

Fully operational Fujitsu touch screen technology.

Up-to-date, measurable, and easily updatable Blocks™ technology.

Sensor recognition to monitor engagement levels and conversion rates.

Toilet product range of top selling items.

Toilet Inspiration Gallery.

SCT has perfected the art of Responsive Design and has served the big brand of Mirvac in their multi-channel marketing efforts. We have designed the line of Mirvac Retail sites, enabling a one-touch approach as each retail shopping centre implements their own marketing strategy.

Result:

Mirvac Retail has been a loyal Blocks client, for eight years and we understand their business and their busy marketing managers.

With this in mind, we delivered a responsive website enabling a one-touch approach to multi-channel marketing across PCs, mobiles and tablets.

In Details:

+ Australia has among the highest rates of smartphone adoption in the world.

+ Current penetration is 52% - a significant increase from 2012 figures of 37%.*

Growth in the worldwide digital signage marketis forecast to exceed 40% in 2013, growing to US$7 billion. Retail is the largest vertical, accounting for 25% of equipment and software sales. IMS predicts that retail will maintain its dominance, reaching nearly US$2 billion in infrastructure sales by the end of 2015.

But the problem, according to AOPEN, is that many retailers don't understand the hidden cost of buying a display and a software package.  AOPEN estimates that 80% of the total cost of ownership is actually the operational cost of maintaining the system and content creation.

OpenService was created as an end-to-end solution for the retail sector: from remote management, content creation and distribution, to analytics and social media engagement.

Blocks Global was seen as ideal partner for this initiative. After rigorous testing, its software was found to have features that were completely unique. More than just signage, it represents holistic business tools for retailers, covering display, analytics and specialist services such as m-commerce. The results are a better customer experience, cheaper cost of ownership and a new feed for big data analysis.

Stephen Borg, Global Director Strategy and Market Development at AOPEN says the Blocks platform is a welcome addition to the OpenService family complementing their existing relationships with software providers, system integrators, installation partners and specialist consultancies within the network. Blocks adds a point of difference as it is agency driven and very simple to use.

“Our vision for OpenService is to create value beyond signage as we know it today, by unifying end customer channels.  We want customers to think of digital signage like they would a new smart phone. They can just pay a monthly fee and use it, without worrying about how it works. Instead of shopping around for all the necessary components, customers can go to one provider and get everything in one place.

“After 12-months of rigorous testing and in store trials, the Blocks platform stood out as category leading technology making it quick and easy for our partners to deliver a seamless Digital-Out-of-Home experience to customers who may have limited to no technical experience,” says Borg

Blocks Global managing director Paul Wilson said the company is delighted to partner with AOPEN as a world leader in digital signage.

“Interactive web based digital signage gives retailers an opportunity to transform the way they support customers through a consistent and measurable shopping experience, which ultimately leads to more satisfied customers and an increase in sales for the retailer.

"We're thrilled to be working with  AOPEN in their industry leading OpenService initiative. By combining  AOPEN's hardware experience and Blocks Global's software and design heritage, we can sasify a holistic, market-leading vision that has the possibility of reinventing the category.

“We believe our partnership with AOPEN OpenService is an exciting opportunity on a global scale for both companies and a win for an Australian based technology company.," said Wilson.

Digital in-store programs attract shopper attention by combining divergent information channels to initiate relevant, engaging and influential communication with shoppers at the point of purchase.

Some statistics:

·         People think digital signage is more attention-grabbing (63 percent) and more entertaining (48 percent) than most other mediums. (OXT Study, 2007)

·         Seventy-four percent of respondents noticed the monitors at the point of sale (POS). The awareness rate for digital in-store is thus 23 percent higher than the average benchmark of other POS media analyses. (Nielsen, 2009)

So how does digital in-store do this? Technology makes it possible. Today's computing and playback devices are smarter, faster, cheaper, greener and better built than ever. As confidence grows and risk shrinks regarding the viability of the digital in-store concept, adoption will naturally increase and give us even more component options in the future. And that's just hardware.

Find out more about Blocks empowering Android tablets hardware.

Where the real magic happens is in the software, where we are able to integrate with inventory databases, and adjust content based on geography, weather, time of day, day of the week, you name it. It's where we can offer control of a digital device's content to shoppers via their mobile device, allow them to tie in their social persona and really capitalize on the inroads to those three critical functions: relevance, engagement and influence.

Check out an easy-to-use content management system for digital signage using Blocks Technology.

As technological advances continue to push the most capable devices closer to commodity, developers, designers and integrators of retail applications are witnessing the creation of a very unique opportunity. Utilizing current technology and the modern trend of "self-publishing" (such as Facebook and Twitter), brands have more access to the attitudinal, anecdotal and factual sales conversion and marketing effectiveness intelligence than ever before. Two-way communication between digital devices has changed the way those informational transactions are delivered and received. As the customer side of the informational ecosystem drives faster response times, nearly instant transfer of information constructs the framework for businesses to be on the receiving end of these transactions as well as the distribution – making the path to purchase more interactive and information-rich than ever before.

To know more about creating your own digital retail signage in-store, contact SCT.com.au

Here are five tech products that are sure to become big in the industry of DOOH Australia: 1. Smaller Signage In the past years, we have noticed that digital media are becoming bigger, with the similar trend in mobile devices. In this year’s DSE, the large signage and giant video wall trend was still present, but the smaller and more intimate signage trend was also notable. Consumers are now comfortable with iPad and other tablet, according to Iles Guran, founder and CEO of Armodilo, one of many providers of iPad and other tablet-based kiosks that displayed their products at the show. At retail locations, customers prefer using a device that offers a little more privacy than a large video wall. 2. Digital Signage for Outdoors There are a lot of risks when a digital signage is placed outside, this include weather and vandalism. But even a perfect sunny day sometimes could be the downfall to how effective a digital sign will be. In this year’s DSE, another trend was more high-brightness digital media, such as those by DynaScan Technology Inc. The newly released DS55LX3 offers a very bright and radiant 1,500-nit display. The company’s brightest sign can reach 5,000 nits. DynaScan marketing manager Scott Pickus says their high-brightness displays are great for areas with a lot of sunshine or even when signs are directly facing the sun, such as on college campuses, at coffeehouses and restaurants. 3. See-through Signage Another interesting breakthrough seen at last year’s DSE and again this year is the use of transparent or slightly translucent digital signage. In every use, a product is placed behind a clear glass LCD enclosure while the glass, acting as a clear digital screen, is programmed to point out different product attributes and play animations. The Samil CTS ClearView 224, seen in the DSE, is a digital signage LCD display that showcased a Samsung Galaxy Note phablet while displaying facts about the device on the screen in front of it. 4. Gesture-tracking Digital Signage More and more companies are using gesture-tracking technology which was revolutionised by Microsoft Kinect. For the germaphobes, or digital media installations found in hospitals, where sanitation is always a huge concern, such technology allows no-touch interaction. It is also a plus for outdoor installations which are exposed to risks of elements and vandalism. Digital retail display with this technology can now be enclosed to protect it from harm and damage. 5. From HD to Ultra-HD The debut of ultra-HD 4K and 8K digital media screens generated a lot of excitement in last year’s event. No longer was 1080p HD the ultimate, end-all resolution you could have on your digital displays, but the minimum resolution would soon become 3,840 x 2,160 for ultra-HD. However, adoption makes take a while in the consumer market, but the digital signage industry and digital media appear likely to be among the first adopters of Ultra-HD.

Excerpts from: 4 Steps to Smarter Digital Signage

1. Determine the goals of the project

Smarter digital signage is more effective digital signage. But to be successful, a deployer should consider the goals of the signage.

Is it to drive sales?

Create better brand awareness?

Increase advertising revenue?

Once the goals have been determined, break each one down to its individual components. From there, plan the steps to success. If the goal is to increase sales in a restaurant, for example, the operator could decide that means selling more high-margin items. Signage can be created that promotes those items at specific day parts (such as at dinner time, when the signage is most likely to reaching families), and then sales can be tracked. If a spike is noticed in those high-margin items between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., the signage can be counted as a success.

2. Think about content

Content is what drives digital signage. Determine the type of content, and then choose the hardware to display the message.

Too often, deployers decide on the hardware, and then choose content. But it should be the other way around. The content determines the type of hardware needed for the deployment. If the content features high-definition graphics and an interactive component, the hardware needs to be able to support that. Or the content might be primarily user driven, displaying tweets, Facebook posts and You-Tube videos, and so the hardware needs to be able to handle integration with those sites and have the ability to incorporate quick, real-time updating.

Once the type of content has been determined, creating it presents another opportunity

for the deployer. Because smarter digital signage offers a personalized interaction with the audience, it is crucial to know who the audience is. Using anonymous video analytics (AVA), the deployer

can identify the gender and age of the person viewing the sign, and then display content accordingly. If a woman between the age of 20 and 30 years approaches the signage, for example, then the content can display a perfume ad, complete with a QR code. The woman can use her smartphone

to access the QR code, which will bring her to a coupon for the perfume. She can then immediately tweet her excitement for the product, and that tweet can be displayed on the signage.

Because the content can be adapted to the behavior of people, it’s easier to tailor messaging and thus, measure success. It gives users the ability to track data and bring ROI back to the end advertiser.

3. Choose an operating system

Having digital signage isn’t enough — it also needs to run smoothly and be secure. At the same time, most deployers don’t have a lot of staff or resources to devote to maintaining the signage, so it’s important to choose a system that is easy to run.

Currently, SCT and BlocksGlobal offer their digital retail signage technology using the Andoid Signage Networks, called the Screener.

Used in conjunction with Blocks CMS, or stand-alone with other content delivery systems, Screener™ allows you to update content anywhere with a web connection.

SCT’s digital signage and screen solutions utilise the Blocks content management system to allow for quick and seamless updates, as well as the ability to either broadcast updates once to any number of devices or custom update each device with localised content.

Best features of the Screener:

No IT — SAAS

Integrates with other ERP / CRM systems

No end-point software installation or maintenance

Plug-and-play — store staff can self-install

HTML5 — standard web technology — re-use your web assets

Best-case eCommerce in-store

One tool for all electronic marketing

Local area marketing — stores can update their own content in real-time

Reduced or zero agency costs

Easy-to-use

Can work in on and offline mode.

4. Measure effectiveness

It is crucial to understand the effectiveness of digital signage. Without metrics and analytics to assess ROI, why deploy signage in the first place?

Square Circle Triangle and BlocksGlobal have been using Analytics and have also developed apps for measuring retail signage metrics. We are constantly on the lookout to generate meaningful data in order to improve your retail business.

Source: digitalsignageconnection.com

1. LCD EXPANSION INTO OUTDOOR MARKETS: "Two major changes will drive the market to a different level," says Dan Smith, director of U.S. sales for the business-to-business division of LG Electronics. "The emergence of new-generation high-brightness LCD panels and the fact that certain high-brightness LCD-based flat panels don't need air conditioning, only ambient airflow." 2. 4K DIGITAL SIGNAGE: "Both from a content and display resolution standpoint, digital signage will increasingly move beyond HD resolution," says Kim Brown, senior marketing manager, Planar Systems. "More video is being shot in 4K resolution; this higher resolution content requires less scaling and looks sharper on megapixel video walls and on the … Ultra HD resolution signage displays [we will see in 2013]." 3. ANALYTICS-DRIVEN DIGITAL SIGNAGE: "While data-driven targeted marketing is a common practice for online retail stores, in-store digital signage is now finally catching up with using information extracted from both internal and external data to find the optimal message for each location at any time," says Stefan Menger VP of analytics, Scala Inc.

Watch Virtual Retail shelf using Digital Retail Signage - by Blocks Global

4. AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY: "Transforming the shopping experience, augmented reality allows customers to overlay computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, or graphics onto a real-world image," says Paula Polei , director, marketing, STRATACACHE. "Testing out a set of computer-generated golf clubs with projected swing speed or trying on computer-generated clothing options helps assist customers with product selection and visualization to positively influence purchase decisions." 5. HTML5 FOR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT: "Facilitating the next wave of innovation is support for the best content development tools. I believe the tool leading this innovation is HTML5, as evidenced by the exploding number of content providers who are using this development tool to serve up engaging and cutting-edge content," says Jeff Hastings, CEO, BrightSign LLC. "Add a device that can render this content and package it up reliably, and the entire AV industry will be re-invigorated." 6. LIVE VIDEO FEEDS: "Digital Signage operators are increasingly finding that inclusion of live video in their sign designs is effective at drawing customers to the sign and holding their interest for longer periods of time," says Lindsay Kelso, director of marketing, Enseo.