The value exchange
Translucent technology has the potential to successfully initiate many customer interactions, by displaying product information and incorporating touch screen capabilities. It can also offer in-store coupons and support social media interactions via Quick Response (QR) codes, which are electronically displayed and then scanned with customers’ smart phones to directly download special content, thus adding value to the shopping experience.
Dynamic applications can include interactive games featuring the product behind the glass, vote-based polls of customers’ opinions on suggested topics, music and audio accompaniment and interactive grocery shopping lists that display the ingredients needed to make a given recipe. Like other digital signage, translucent screens can also incorporate gesture-based interaction, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, among other new and advanced features.
A digital signage media player can be built into the top portion of a freezer or cooler door.
A study by market research firm Knowledge Networks (KN) Dimestore and digital advertising company SocialVibe found 90 per cent of consumers reporting they appreciate the opportunity to interact with brands, as long as the experience is initiated with some sort of value exchange, such as allowing them to earn virtual currency in a game, giving them access to music files or generating a micro-donation to a charity.
Translucent digital signage can support this type of experience with customers clicking, responding, downloading, playing and otherwise interacting. They can seek more information while being exposed to the advertised product. The greater the value of the interactive experience, the higher the level of brand recall and the more likely the consumer is to act upon it through purchasing behaviour.
Non-traditional platforms
Advertisers are already taking note of translucent digital signage and other non-traditional forms of media that can yield significant sales lift. Research firm PQ Media’s Alternative Media Forecast: 2008-2012 predicted spending on non-traditional media would comprise 26.6 per cent of all U.S.-based advertising and marketing dollars by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, industry analysts at BIA/Kelsey, in their Annual U.S. Local Media Forecast, 2011-2016, estimated local online, interactive and digital advertising revenues would climb from $21.2 billion in 2011 to $38.5 billion by 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7 per cent.
In today’s crowded media environment, the most effective advertising strategy is to provide a relevant message consumers feel is worthy of their attention, delivering it in an entertaining fashion that cannot be easily ignored. Such strategies are moving brands into innovative, non-traditional platforms, including translucent digital signage.
Transforming glass from a passive to an active surface will truly remap the boundaries of advertising, focusing on currently underused POP zones and product differentiation. Whether on a grocery store’s freezer door or a bank branch’s drive-thru window, translucent displays will allow brands to connect digitally and directly with consumers.
Chris Riegel is CEO of Stratacache, which provides digital signage, Internet Protocol (IP) video and content distribution technologies to businesses. This article is based on material he presented in March at the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) in Las Vegas, Nev. For more information, visit www.stratacache.com and www.digitalsignageexpo.net.
