The pandemic surely complicated future predictions if not making them outright impossible. Most anticipated 2021 to be the road to full recovery, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing so far. As the year slowly draws to a close, we are eagerly anticipating and attempting to predict what digital signage trends await in 2022!
The recovery of digital signage and outdoor advertising isn’t in the general sense a trend, but surely worth noting! As businesses opened up again and new adopters came onboard, the year ahead is expected to be making even more solid grounds for the industry. Of course, so long as there is no major lockdown or similar trouble lurking around the corner, cross your fingers! In the meantime, let’s take a look at a few likely trends that await ahead.
1. Social Media Walls
Social media channels are rich with user-generated content and in the recent years have transitioned from wordy to visual with images or videos being increasingly more prominent. User-generated content is timely, genuine, easy to find, and engaging! Social media walls allow digital signage content creators to channel this content through their displays. Such tools are growing more advanced by the day and using them is really easy. For a start, users can specify content manually, post by post, and have it displayed in a neatly organized wall of social media posts.Â
Automated posting is the better option, though. Build social media walls via specific hashtags, verified social media accounts, and other filters to ensure only the most appropriate content makes it to the display.
Even without specific software to build video walls, digital signage software on its own offers neat ways of bringing user-generated content to your screens. OnSign TV’s data feeds, for example, allow you to automatically present content from social media and even RSS feeds. Data feeds are super flexible and support content filtering and different sorting options.
If you are looking for something more specific, take a look at OnSign TV Social Media Apps and try out the Walls.io App. Walls.io supports additional social networks like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook Messenger and more!
2. Interactivity
Again, we come to the feature which has continuously been on the rise since the early days of digital signage. It’s been a growing trend in recent years! Touchscreen interaction was very strong before the pandemic hit. It was not unusual for people to provide feedback, give ratings, or even play games through touchscreen kiosks. When the pandemic hit, the touchscreen feature was in trouble. But touchless interaction via QR codes, gestures, and other methods have kept interaction in the game.
Interactivity will surely be one of digital signage trends in 2022 and the reason is quite simple. Interactive displays are more engaging! By this point, interactivity is transforming from a trend to an integral part of digital signage that’s continuously evolving! Businesses would be wise to incorporate it at least to some degree.
3. Environment friendly marketing
A Nielsen report noted that 90% of the millennials they surveyed claim they’d be more willing to pay for products that contain environmentally friendly ingredients. Furthermore, 48% of US consumers claimed they would be willing to change their usual habits if it meant reducing the impact on the environment.
Keeping this in mind, businesses would do well to turn their attention to preserving the environment. While this, of course, proves to be beneficial for the environment, it would also be beneficial for the business as it would likely make an impact on customer satisfaction. Thus, it’s one of the growing digital signage trends in 2022, and likely in the years ahead.
4. The storytelling continues in 2022
When it comes to digital signage trends that last more than a single year, only the most engaging survive! We already mentioned interactivity as one such example. Storytelling as an entire concept is another. Digital signage content that tells a story will engage the viewer and deliver a message with an impact. With time, storytelling methods grow more refined.
There is no one way to tell a story and as such we see different types of storytelling evolving. It all depends on what type of storytelling makes the greatest difference to the target audience. For instance, an ad may only tell a part of a principal story, making the audience wait for the next piece of the puzzle. In other cases, a variety of stories do a better job. They could be built around testimonials, consumer experiences, the brand, or data-driven stories, to name a few.
5. Digital signage merging with other channels
Digital signage is quickly connecting to other advertising channels such as social media advertising, ecommerce, or even television. The power of digital signage by itself is quite admirable, but it is not alone responsible for its growth and is integrated into omnichannel business plans.
The norm of the marketing world in this day and age is to cover as many bases as possible. This means taking advantage of all advertising channels, behavioral patterns of the audience, as well as passing trends that maybe won’t last for too long but will bring a benefit. TikTok, for instance, is a huge thing at the moment, and businesses that ordinarily wouldn’t tap into its potential are doing so. Why? Because it works!Â
In the grand scheme of marketing, digital signage is just one piece of the puzzle. And any business looking to expand its reach would do well by using as many solid advertising channels as they can. And digital signage is one of them!
Lastly, digital signage software will surely continue its growth and development in the year ahead. While it’s nowhere near as interesting to mention as a major trend, software has become a mandatory ingredient for any business looking to take outdoor advertising and digital signage to the next level. If you’re unconvinced, take a look at what you’re missing!
