Advertising, in today’s world, is a whole new industry which is fast-growing and has achieved monumental popularity and success. There have been astounding advances in this field. As and when technology has developed, advertising and its techniques have also improved. Gone are the days of pamphlets and billboards, the 21st century welcomes the era of digital signage with open arms. Digital signage is a new trend in advertising in the form of an electric display. It has replaced the billboards by LCD, LED plasma displays, or projected images, which can be found in public areas like corporate building, retail show rooms, malls, important city junctions etc.

Digital signage displays messages, advertisements, slogans etc. It is mostly controlled by basic personal computers through a variety of proprietary software programs, which is quite cost effective. Advertising agencies charge a bomb to display an ad in this cutting edge technology. It is quite advantageous as the content can be easily exchanged; supports animations, signs can adapt to the context and audience, and can even be interactive. It’s like watching a giant TV, specialized only for advertisements, on the road! They are more effective than billboards or other static signs. Digital signage has many different purposes to it. Some of the most common applications are:

Public information – news, weather, and local city news, there are also messages regarding travel information and public safety messages like fire exists etc
Internal information – the screen is in a corporate building and the messages displayed pertain to only the corporate working there, health messages, safety drills, and corporate news.
Advertising
Brand building
Influencing customer behavior
Enhancing customer experience – in a mall or a drive through restaurant, people can be entertained when they wait for their order
Enhancing the environment – they add impressive décor to the place and interactive display signage add more value to the environment.

This type of advertising is referred to as outdoor advertising. Digital signage displays content and messages on the big screens with the aim of delivering messages to a specific target audience at specific locations. The timing of displaying is also specific. It is commonly referred to as “digital out of home” or DOOH. Outdoor advertising has always had a success in influencing the customer behavior to a particular brand or product or service, however, it has amassed huge success through the digital signage medium.

The success rate it has shown has exceeded the results seen by the effect of billboards. Gone are the days where billboards needed to be changed manually, these days’ messages and ads can be changed like flipping channels when you watch TV. By the success rate it has displayed, the use of digital signage by outdoor advertising, it is clear that both are here to stay.