Outdoor digital signage is more challenging to develop and maintain than the indoor type. Still, there is a clear benefit the former has over the latter: outdoor digital signage reaches out to a wider audience at a greater pace and allows you to display broad content.
Its reach is the main reasoning for why you should use it, but what are some other benefits and how can you be sure the screen will last as long your indoor displays?
Outdoor digital signage has had critical improvement
Whilst indoor digital signage was much easier and faster to develop than outdoor, it doesn’t mean outdoor digital signage should be left in the dust. After all, the sole reason why outdoor digital signage hasn’t developed as much is because there was less demand for it and it costs more to set up. Why would you expose an expensive piece of equipment to something as volatile as the force of nature? Today, however, much has changed and outdoor digital signage is very much a solution you can use to boost your business efforts.
The benefits of outdoor digital signage are very clear:
- Publish content that is very relevant to the location of the display
- Adjust content based on specific data, such as time of the day, weather or local events.
- Reach out to a broader audience than you ever would with indoor digital signage
Outdoor digital signage has had a vast improvement over the past decade. Starting from displays which are designed to maintain visibility when exposed to sunlight, along with colour and contrast development. They’ve also been developed to be sturdier and stronger than your usual indoor digital display. An added bonus is the fact that outdoor technology doesn’t need air conditioning and that LED production volume has increased worldwide, allowing for an easier access to outdoor technology.
For more details about development, benefits and features of outdoor digital signage, check out this article by Scott Sharon.
The outdoors have benefits indoors don’t
Being a modern version of billboards, outdoor digital signage has great potential, be it a standard digital display or an LED billboard. In this day and age, we are still not entirely accustomed to ignoring billboards.
Take a look at static signage for a moment: a large billboard is difficult to ignore, even if you’re driving past it. Just imagine how much of an effect that billboard would have if it was animated!
Rotating content is much easier on digital than on standard billboards, immediately cutting the repetitive cost which constantly applies to any form of outdoor static signage you may have tried to apply. Plus, the abilities of outdoor digital signage enable you to not only display your content, but also sell advertising space. This is especially efficient when there are major events in town with large masses of people coming together. Most organizations will gladly pay for advertising space for such an occasion.
Did you know that the average price per second of a commercial during the 2017 Super Bowl was around $160,000? No, outdoor digital signage can’t compare to this digit, but this example highlights how much advertising space holds value when there is an important event or occasion. This sets outdoor digital signage apart from indoor signage, especially if the location of your display is in high-traffic areas or near event hotspots.
To add to the many benefits of outdoor digital signage, there is also a compelling argument that outdoor digital signage is eco-friendly, as opposed to the traditional static outdoor signage.
Protect your outdoor digital signage
We can easily include theft or vandalism under the term “elements” because that, alongside nature’s influence, is a likely possibility. Choose hardware which can endure the force of nature and of people.
Depending on the size and style of display equipment, you can choose sturdy waterproof technology. Or you can simply use a full outdoor kiosk which provides ultimate protection, especially in winter time. Temperature is a critical component and should be kept between 25°C and -15°C, which can be challenging to maintained both in winter and summer. For some more details on climate maintenance, monitoring and other useful tips and tricks to protect your outdoor displays, check out this article by Digital Signage Today.
Conclusion
Outdoor digital signage holds much potential and gives you the ability to reach out to a broader audience than indoor digital signage ever could. It also offers you new opportunities to generate traffic for yourself, or to even sell advertising space which, given its reach, is a commodity many companies will gladly use.
Image by Syed Ikhwan
