We recently caught up with Tom Nix, CEO of Scala and thought we’d ask him to share his thoughts on digital signage strategy. As Nix describes, “Scala is a digital signage software company that specializes in producing a platform that becomes people’s customer experience engine.”
With the cost of high-resolution displays coming down, digital signage has moved beyond retail and into every commercial application where real-time communication can be an important and effective means to deliver messages to an intended audience.
It’s About the Customer Experience
“Many people think of customer experience and think of a retail environment where folks are walking through a store and they are going to experience what is going on in that store. The customer experience transcends retail. It’s something you see in corporate environments and higher education,” says Nix.
Nix suggests that you need to think of the overall environment when determining the type of content you are delivering. “For example, what is the experience that they are having when they’re absorbing that communication?” says Nix.
With the proliferation of mobile devices, these should be considered as part of the overall environment and built into your strategy. Social media and the use of QR codes can extend your message and brand beyond the fixed digital signage display. “When you think about how to engage individuals in those environments, you have an opportunity to set your strategy based on the customer experience you want to achieve in that environment,” says Nix.
Nix says that Scala starts its clients with a “blueprint of what you trying to achieve.” You should have a full understanding of what the environment where you will be placing the displays is like. Define what you want the user experience to be. What is the dwell time around the displays? Is it a place where people will be moving quickly from one place to the next or an area where people gather? Study the movement patterns of the individuals.
“Make sure that strategy has at its essence the customer experience in mind,” says Nix. Start to identify how you are going to communicate in a unique and impactful way, keeping in mind that you are going to have the challenge of cutting through the visual noise that might bearound people. Determine the way you are going to create value for that customer or constituent. “Once you get all of those things together you need a platform and toolset that allows you to create meaningful content,” says Nix.
You Must Have Fresh Content
“When you put together your communication strategy you have to have an element of freshness and quality to it,” says Nix. Put together a programming strategy on what you want to communicate to your audience that has relevant information about the environment such as the weather, local news or user-generated content from social media such as Twitter or Facebook.
Then you need to think about your program schedule. “When you put your programming schedule together, you want to understand people are going to consume content perhaps at different times of day,” says Nix. For instance, make sure you are providing information that can be consumed quickly, giving out quick information in the morning when your audience might be in a hurry. People might have more time during lunch and can consume a message that takes seven or 15 seconds versus three or four seconds in the morning.
Automation is Key
Ultimately, automating the content by leveraging the dynamic data in the environment is key. Companies already have a lot of data that they have invested heavily in. One of the benefits of a robust content management system is that it can put data, such as key performance information from teams and groups that might be in data analysis programs like sales and customer relationship management company Salesforce or business intelligence and performance management company Cognos, and visualize it on the digital screen. By putting the information on the wall where people have instant visual access versus sending it in an email creates a more impactful and engaging message.
Look for a content management system that helps you, “create broadcast quality content that will really make an impact, that will really set the brand standard of your company or your university and it will really engage your audience,” Nix concluded.
Check out the video for more of the interview with Tom Nix.
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