By Ben Stagg

Director of Research & Development at Vital Media

As digital signage continues to gain traction as the most effective form of in-store advertising, it's important to consider best practices for deployment. Here are five considerations for best practices after working with retailers in more than 1,000 deployments:

1. A desirable program — build it and they will come

Building a program that provides the greatest ROI for the cost is key to ongoing long-term acceptance and widespread deployment. Before committing to a partner and program, ensure that all costs are included — upfront installation costs as well as ongoing management and maintenance costs. The ROI of these upfront and ongoing investments needs to be openly discussed and understood by all participants at the outset. While we have seen many models of cost assignment and sharing, in our experience the most successful deployments have shared a common thread of eligibility for co-op funding.

2. Program management — centralize for peace of mind

Once you have a program designed to meet your needs, consider how that program will be managed. This should be as easy and seamless as deployment. Having a partner that is easy to work with is important, and central management can make this process a breeze. With centrally managed digital signage, the vendor often finds any needed repairs and begins a fix before the user can even contact them, and updating messaging is done in an instant.

3. Creative alignment and brand differentiation — leverage and multiply

Your digital signage will be most effective if it is creatively aligned with brand messaging. This brand messaging must make the brand stand out from the start. Ensuring that your content developers can integrate the two worlds of brand-compliant, corporate advertising and showcasing special and seasonal offers desired by the independents is a vital step in keeping program satisfaction ratings high. The purpose of POP is to educate consumers on the specific technologies, features and benefits of a product. Informational content creatively displayed on a digital sign in the retail environment can go a long way toward meeting this challenge

4. Display location — go where the eyeballs are

Ensuring that your monitors provide the best picture is important, and there so many choices now. Size of the monitor is another decision to be made in conjunction with the retailer and display location. The optimum height for each display is based on each location's unique footprint and needs. Over the years we found that when it comes to influencing shopper behavior at the point of purchase, the primary location for a display is behind the sales counter. This location serves the dual function of raising brand awareness and driving sales and specials, and at the same time serves to reduce the perceived wait time for customers preparing to make a purchase. Mounting considerations, ceiling, height and other location variables will be taken into consideration by the installers.

5. Display specifications for challenging retail environments — anything is possible
Independent retailers of considered purchase products are often in locations not encountered in the standard retail environments. Automotive, motorcycle and outdoor equipment service centers, for example, can present heat, cold, dust and humidity conditions that can be challenging to some electronic equipment. Many showrooms have large glass storefronts, which present unique challenges in terms of glare on displays. Aisle layouts and viewing angles also present visibility challenges that must be overcome. The goal is selection of reliable and functional technology that operates in all conditions and presents your message effectively.

For more on retail digital signage deployments, visit our Retail research center.

(And if you would like to send in a submission for "5 Things," with five suggestions for digital signage deployers and end-users, please send it to christopherh@digitalsignagetoday.com.)