Canadian Digital Signage: What to expect in 2014

Canadian digital signage capabilities continue to expand and provide businesses with more features and options when it comes to display advertising. As the industry continues to evolve, business owners should expect a lot of new things from the digital signage industry in the coming year.

The main reason why more and more companies are using digital signage is to connect with their customers in more engaging way. The technology is creating more innovative and creative ways to interact and gain the attention of customers.

As outlined in Top 4 Digital Signage Trends in 2014, by CAYIN Technology, there are two main questions that companies need to ask when considering the merit of integrating digital signage into their market and adverting plans:

“How can people get more involved through digital signage? How can we take advantage of digital signage to enhance our daily communications?”

Based on these questions, CAYIN Technology has outlined 4 key trends they believe will be front and center at the ISE 2014 Conference.

• Trend 1: User friendly content development is essential
• Trend 2: Interactive digital signage is catching on
• Trend 3: Data and live information leverages communications
• Trend 4: Analytics become more and more important

There is no doubt that interactive signs are catching on. They are popping up everywhere. One of the main reasons they are growing in popularity is that companies are better understanding how to create more intuitive user interfaces and content that people want to engage with. The integration of mobile devices and digital signs also gives people an additional way to interact and engage in real time.

Of course, tying it all together is analytics. The more information that companies can collect about how people interact with digital signage, the better they will be able to utilize these signs to engage customers.

Alan C. Brawn has also explored what we can expect from Canadian digital signage in 2014 in this post entitled Digital Signage Trends in “The 7 Key Elements” for 2014. Looking at each one of the 7 key elements—Business, Content, Design, Software, Hardware, Connectivity, Operations—he also has similar predictions for what to expect from digital signage this year.

From a business perspective, there will be considerable focus on ROI and defining the key objective of using digital signage technology. “While analytics became a hot topic in 2013, it will become even hotter in 2014—with new directions in the evaluation of who the viewer is, how long they look at a screen in terms of dwell time, and what impact the content has on them,” says Brawn.

Another key area of focus will be on the integration of social media and effectively using a “call to action.” Integrating social media is a natural fit for digital signage, considering how widely adopted it has become by everyone. Finding the most effective way to integrate a “call to action” into digital signage content could be the key to increasing levels of engagement.

Expect a lot from the Canadian digital signage industry in 2014 as more business adopt the technology, and headway is made in further developing its interactive capabilities.
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