Digital signage is one of the most effective forms of out of home advertising providing both, value for money and a large audience reach, unparalleled by other forms of out of home advertising.
Digital signage is commonly found in areas of high footfall such as airports and other transport hubs, shopping malls and retail parks, and even in doctor’s surgeries and pharmacies.
One area where digital signage is continuing to expand into is the outdoor market with more and more outdoor digital signage displays being erected along high streets, outside stores and businesses, and even in remote areas.
There are plenty of advantages for taking screens outdoors too, not only are audience numbers higher outdoors, there is also less digital competition, and it enables retailers to appeal to people that are not already walking through the store or shopping mall.
Complications do arise in using a screen outdoors, especially when it comes to weatherproofing and ensuring the operating temperatures remain at an appropriate level for the screen, not to mention securing the display form vandalism.
Fortunately, these can all be countered by housing the display in an outdoor LCD enclosure, but there are other differences in using indoor and outdoor displays for digital signage too.
Screen size and brightness are often different outdoors. Not only do screens need to be larger outdoors as they are often viewed from farther away, and often not just by passers by but commuters on public transport, but also, the screen needs to be brighter to cope with the higher levels of ambient light.
Another big difference with indoor and outdoor campaigns is the different approaches to content. What often works in an indoor location often never translates as successfully outdoors, and for several good reasons.
Firstly, outdoor screens have a typically briefer view time than those used indoors. The dwell time on an indoor screen can be as much as five seconds, but outdoors a screen will only be glanced at for perhaps a couple of seconds at the most.
For this reason, outdoor content needs to be brief and to the point with limited transitions and with the essential aspects of the message (branding, price promotion etc) needed to be on the screen at all times.
