Fueling With Digital Signage
Digital signage is gaining popularity in almost every market where people walk, wait or work. Now you have ads and entertainment while you are fueling. VST International was the first company to mass-produce a pump-top signage solution in 2005 in 2006 Pumptop TV and Gas Station TV started their first large deployment. Currently this market is shared between 8 companies which hold less than 2% of the gas station market.
The annual stations count decreased slightly in the last year down to 167,768 gas stations in the US market. Although current market changes and challenges such as the unstable gasoline prices and inflation, are negatively impacting gas stations profits and sales. 2009 economy may show more impact. The two major oil companies topping the gas stations count in 2008 remain. Shell has the No. 1 spot with 14,000 gas stations, with increase by about 600 gas stations per year. BP increased its amount of stations to 13,000+ in 2008.
Total Gasoline Sales
ExxonMobil has the No. 1 position in total gasoline sales in the United States. ExxonMobil reported that it sold over 24.5 billion gallons of gasoline. ConocoPhillips has the No. 2 spot, with almost 19.1 billion gallons in sales. BP has the No. 3 spot, with its sales of 16.1 billion gallons of gasoline, and Shell has the No. 4 spot, reporting 13 billion gallons.
The 8 companies targeting gas station di
gital signage are:
Gas Station TV with 1000+ Gas stations
Pumptop TV with over 750+ Gas stations
Fuel Cast with over 600+ Gas stations
Petro TV with over 175+ Gas Stations
Pump Media with over 155+ Locations
FUEL VIEW with over 13+ location
FILLNTHRILL with over 10+ Gas Stations
The combined number of Gas stations deployed by all these companies, are only around 3000 gas stations nationwide which provide larger space for other companies to grow.
Digital out-of-home media at Gas stations provide localized advertising for media buyers to reach consumers at a much lower CPM than any other traditional media, with control of the location time and impression of each ad. Most gas Stations digital signage are installed in high profile gas stations with traffic over 30,000 motorists a month. They rely on the statistics that more than 65% of Americans spend at least 3-6 min per week in a gas station. The challenge with this market is the proof of concept. Selling digital signage ads in this economic time, is no easy task, especially when this venue carries one of the highest costs per location, running around $15,000 -$20,000 per location.
We already know “content is king” and it becomes very crucial in gas station digital signage. High Broadcast quality is really expectation. You have to entertain the customer. The days of static banners and pictures are fading. The new century customers are tough. You will lose if they see a high-end display with boring and outdated content. Within budget, you’ve got to go high-end with your content. The contents needs to be relevant, informative and not a strictly sales tool. There are several elements that go into producing striking digital signage content, but the most important element is making it relevant to your audience.
The best approach in creating attractive digital signage content is partnering with a content provider. I think this is one of the key successes of Gas Station TV and Outcast, when they partner with major content provider like NBC and CBS for content and news.
How to Digital signage Layout
Digital signage layout is gaining more focus on how to design the screen to gain more consumer attention. The advantage of digital signage screen over traditional signs is the ability to design the screen with no restraint, create and display content in various customized presentations. Split-screen features enable the digital signage display to show several media sources at the same time in different parts of the screen. The presentation can include a combination of different media types, such as video, Live TV, Flash, Images, RSS feed and more.
When designing digital signage layouts, we need to consider the type of media we plan to play on the screen. I f we are using only pictures and flash presentation, we can divide the screen in any shape or form, because we can adjust the content to the size of the section it’s going to play on. Nevertheless if we play video or live TV, we need to design the video or TV section in 4:3 or 16:9 ratio to avoid stretching or black bars around the video or the live TV.
The most common digital signage layouts used today are the 3 parts wide and standard screen layout, where the main media is covering 80% to 90% of the left side of the screen, with a side banner and bottom banner stroller. In this type of layout we maintain the 16:9 or 4:3 ratio in the main media section.
4:3 ratio Layout
16:9 Ratio Layout
The concept behind 3 parts layout is simple. Main media section displays live TV, video commercials and other main interest programming or combinations of the above. Side banner, plays live text base or animation base information, for example: weather, news, traffic, etc. Bottom stroller is designed for text ticker of timely customized messages and news. This type of layout fits markets like retail, checkout stands and any 4:3 displays.
Another common display layout we see more is the 16:9 Quad sections. this type of layout has more horizontal space due to its 16:9 shape , which provides more width to its side banner sections. Wider side banners gives you the ability to create square shape side sections which can play any type of content as main media but smaller. Such as, TV, video, animation, pictures and more. Like the 3 sections layout (above), the 16:9 quad sections have the text ticker scroll as well. We notice demand for this type of layout in education, corporate, and message boards where there is a need for more information to display simultaneously.
16:9 Quad Sections Layout
Branded Digital Signage Screen
Branding the digital signage screen become popular especially in digital signage screen that sells ads. When there is a need to brand the screen with a logo of the location or the network, the layout needs to have a branding layout that includes a background with a logo or a section that displays the branding. In branded layout, an area of the screen needs to be reserved for logo or name brand. The goal when creating branded layout is to keep the same ratio rules of regular layout while reserving a space for the logo or the name brand.
Food menu and Information Screen Layout
Digital signage for menu board and other information screen becomes a new stream for digital signage use. When designing a screen to display information like menu boards, you need to consider the distance between the audience to the screen and the amount of content is displayed in a given moment. A common layout design for menu boards and restaurants is a vertical page layout, where you divide the screen to 2 or 3 sections that replace the look of traditional printed menu boards.
Sport Bar and Clubs
Bars, club and restaurants are taking advantage of digital signage features. By turning a sports bar TV to a digital signage display creates enormous advertising opportunities. Bars and Clubs are famous for their Large number of TV screens to support sport fan audiences during games. Digital signage layouts in these venues need to be sensitive to the audience interest and keep as much real-estate in the display for main media interest, and not to Claude the screen with too much advertising. These are common layout in Restaurants, bars and clubs.
In the example above the main media takes up the most area of the screen while reserving small banners for branding and advertising. This type of layout is most affective during high rating games in sport event.
The most important rule when designing a digital signage screen is “keep your audience in mind”. Design the screen to your audience interest. Taking into consideration the time your average customer spends in front of the screen, the size of the screen and the type of programming playing on the screen, you can design the screen to accommodate your customer interest while introducing other ads simultaneously.
UCView Version Realese
UCView NewsChatsworth, CA (February 1 2009) UCView Media a provider of digital signage
solution announced the release of 2nd generation digital signage solution.
The new version release provides the latest media technology and performance.
Some of the new features include:
• Network management options, expanded and enhanced Active Information.
• Dynamic content distribution, network management and security features.
• Addition content categories, including Financial News, Business Headlines…
• Most advanced scheduling by ad and by campaign, location and player.
• Advance layout management allows you to change layout while playing
• Group ads in sequential and random play order
• Advertising module to track ad ROI and Performance
• Schedule play event on specific time
• Background support Flash, Images, and overlay with transparency
• Enhance Media play to most existing media type.
• New interactive module that allows you to interact with the screen using your
cell phone or touch screen.
• SMS Messaging and Marketing Module
• Enhanced Live TV with sub-titles options
• Support for Steaming live content
• Various performance enhancements and fixes
• Application Program Interface (API): Allows end-user programs, applications to
interface with UCView
• Support Vista, XP, XP Embedded, CE, *Linux
• 24-hour e-mail support available globally
The UCView release “is just another step towards providing complete powerful
digital signage solution to support our rapidly growing digital signage market”
says Michele Cohen, Business Development at UCView Media
For more information about UCView Media solutions, please contact the company
directly by calling
1-877-828-4399 www.ucview.com
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