Think Narrow,Win Large: Advertising, Analytics, and Applications in Digital Signage

The global financial recession that began officially December 2007, and escalated the second half of 2008, adversely affected the digital signage industry by proxy. The money that advertisers had been willing to spend on digital signage had been growing ~20% annually in the years 2003-2008. Will the second half of 2009 be a growth period for DS? There are signs with announcements from GM stating that they will be spending $45M to $50M per month coming out of bankruptcy. While it is impossible to anticipate when global financial markets will turn around, the indicators show that ad revenues in 2009 will not match the ad revenues generated from digital signage in 2008 or any other medium. The verticals that were hardest hit, the financial sector and the retail sector are still unsteady. Ad revenue drop offs were not as extreme in the government or educational sectors where digital signage is used as a communication medium in addition to being a backdrop for advertisements.

It can be argued that the global financial tightening has hastened the inclusion of analytics as a necessary addition to digital signage networks. One thing that has made advertisers leery toward networked signage is the lack of accountability in determining audiencesize and audience participation.

Traditional mediums such as television, print media and newspapers, despite their limitations, had understood monetization models. As organizations such as OVAB determine the criteria for participation, makers of digital media players are incorporating analytics to determine who is looking at the ads. The industry is necessarily moving toward methodology to measure and capture audiences.

The United States and China are the leading markets in digital signage. China has the greater number of screens and individual site locations while the US still receives more money from their advertisers. The financial sector, which is the self-evidently most effected market in the recent slowdown is also the most effected as an advertiser. Certain verticals like government and education are less affected because ad revenues are only a small part of what the signage network does - in many cases, digital signage serves as a communications medium as well.

The research, "Think Narrow, Win Large: Advertising, Analytics, and Applications in Digital Signage," forecasts ad revenues by country and region in digital signage as well as by market vertical. The report discusses new trends in digital signage as witnessed in 1Q09. The report reviews what the best practices in content and content management are. The report augments the conclusions about each country and market vertical that is forecasted by discussing key deployments, partnerships and regulations in each region. GestureTek is profiled - their leadership in analytics is investigated as a way to further understand analytical software. Wireless penetration, 3D, holographic and touch screen applications are forecast. Lastly, the report discusses the future of digital signage.