Wide vs. Skinny – Merely Preference or Gaining Success?

Historically, advertising has focused on reaching the widest audience possible. This meant coming up with a campaign that would be attractive to a large number of people while at the same time staying true to the roots of the brand or product.

With digital signage, this concept can be turned on its head.
Due to the flexibility that this medium can deliver, ads can now be targeted at a very specific demographic, meaning they have a much better chance at success because the messages are ones that the target audience can actually relate to.

Now, not only can you integrate ads that are updated instantaneously, but you can also present them in a form that is visually appealing. With live TV, RSS feeds, social media streams, and even 3D, digital signage has reached a stage where pretty much any media format can be displayed on your network.

However, just because you have the freedom to put up anything you can think of doesn’t mean your advertising will be effective. In order to get your audience to engage with the content you are displaying, it has to be something they care about and want to learn more.

Recent trends indicate a shift toward location based advertising or geo-tagging as it is commonly known in social media terms. The popularity of Twitter and Foursquare has put this trend at the forefront of location based advertising; more and more people are tweeting about where they are and what they are doing, or “checking-in” to a location they visited through Foursquare. Many battles for “Mayorship” and “Trending Topics” later, the remnant is the fact that people care about the places around them.

How can you take advantage of this? By integrating these trends into your digital signage strategy. You can set up a Twitter feed with the latest tweets from your business or even a feed that includes predefined keywords and selects the tweets that contain those words. This will get your audience buzzing about your business both online and off, and it can be a great way to get the word out about your brand. Not only is this approach very cost effective, but it also gives your audience an opportunity to engage with your brand actively.

You can use your digital signage network to give your customers an extra incentive for coming in. Whether it is an opportunity to interact through Twitter or by advertising nearby businesses that your customers might be interested in, digital signage gives you the flexibility to create, manage and display content that will best match the needs of your audience.