Profit from Digital Media Technology (Let's Get Digital)

Aside from flying automobiles, much of what we saw Marty McFly experience in "Back to the Future II" has become reality. You might have noticed a change in the billboards as you drive down the interstate or a difference in the way special offers are communicated at the retail point of sale. Intelligent and dynamic digital signage is flashing onto the market, and an opportunity for channel partners in this space is simply the writing on the wall.

International market research and consulting firm NSR predicted that out-of-home digital display networks will generate $2.7 billion in advertising revenue by 2013. Furthermore, the firm reported that the digital signage industry, which sees the majority of deployments in the retail, hospitality, health care and transportation verticals, is poised to grow from an estimated installed base of about 210,000 sites in 2007 to more than 850,000 sites in 2013.

Wal-Mart is one of many hopping on the bandwagon; in December it deployed digital signage to its more than 3,600 U.S. stores.

Digital signage has been around for a while depending on how you look at it. Attaching a DVD player to a TV at the display point was the first incarnation of digital signage, albeit not a very flexible one. Later, there were PCs, which made content management somewhat easier, but still local. Today, the model is Web-based or network-based. A small form-factor appliance attached to the screen is connected to an IP network and then centrally, remotely and dynamically controlled via a Web-based console – all in real time.

Melissa Webster, program vice president, Content & Digital Media Technologies at IDC, said the market only stands to grow and develop further as the technology and displays become less expensive, as networks become faster, and as bandwidth becomes cheaper and more accessible. “Generally, brands and retailers are all looking to enhance their customer loyalty. ... We're right in the middle of the growth curve for digital media in general, and there’s a receptive audience that is inclined to respond to rich media messages,” she said. “All of these trends create something of a perfect storm for the growth of the digital signage market.”