Benefits in communication
While the digital signage industry looks to the future, of course, many of the benefits of innovative technology are already being enjoyed across Canada.
At World Trade Centre Montreal (WTCM), for example, a series of 1.2-m (47-in.) wayfinding kiosk screens enable visitors to navigate the large commercial office and hotel complex through touch-based interactivity and find services quickly and easily. The kiosks offer pictures, a calendar of events, floor plans, a ‘semantic’ search engine that allows users to enter their name, a description or a keyword, a cross-building pathfinder, e-mail coupon promotions and clear ‘breadcrumb’ paths to specific destinations, including optimized routes for disabled customers.
One camera-equipped display at DX3 guessed the ages and genders of passersby.
For WTCM’s merchants, the benefits of the kiosks include an interactive platform for text- and video-based informational and promotional communications with customers, opt- in data gathering via personal newsletter registration (i.e. customers’ names and e-mail addresses) and the relative simplicity of a cloud-based content management system.
In 2015, one aspect of National Bank of Canada’s support for the Rogers Cup—an annual tennis tournament co-hosted in Toronto and Montreal—was an interactive mobile-to-digital-signage application, which allowed the bank’s customers at select branches to use their smartphones to scan a Quick Response (QR) code or enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into their mobile browser, then enter a personalized three-digit code and play a game of simulated tennis on large digital screens mounted behind reception desks and teller counters. Upon completing their game, they could enter a contest to win tickets to the Rogers Cup. The simplicity of delivering digital signage network access via smartphone proved powerful and the same technology has since been modified for an interactive golf swing simulator, among many other potential applications.
In these and other ways, interactive digital signage is helping businesses achieve their communication goals, reduce costs and gather data.
Greg Adelstein is president and Stephanie Henry King is an administrative assistant at Montreal-based iGotcha Media, which develops turnkey digital signage, video wall and kiosk systems, including hardware, software, applications and content. For more information, visit www.igotchamedia.com.
