Content is gaining stride, and growing fast

Content production for North America's digital signage/DOOH networks has reached $3.5 billion in annual investment, drawing on 21,000 person years of talent. More than 8.8 million individual spots are created annually (by calculation), with well beyond a million of these being unique advertising spots with creative and flight time paid by third-party advertisers. (These estimates are conservative and do not include licensed content and data feeds.)

Indeed, over the past decade, almost a million displays have been deployed, business models have stabilized, supply capabilities have accelerated and ad sales infrastructure has been put in place. Through this, the focus on content has been increasing.

Content is the "secret sauce" of digital signage, and it's the subject of several upcoming education events, including sessions at theDigital Signage 2010 Virtual Trade Showin April and the SPEED Digital Signage Training Program in April, as well as at"Cooking up Content"— a three-part demonstration of content development practices to be held as part of April's Digital Signage Show/KioskCom.

Digital signage content ultimately delivers the results. It sits between the communications and the technology infrastructures, which are bookends and cornerstones of the digital signage/digital out-of-home network.

While the banner that "content is king" still flies, given its importance in achieving communications goals, relevance has emerged to rule the content domain. Relevance is content, presented in the context of the place, time and viewer, being applied to achieve measurable results. Content may be king, context, emperor and measurement the queen (and it is she who must be obeyed), but relevance is the ultimate authority.

As DS/DOOH has found its place in a communications continuum where communicators use multiple devices, such as Internet, posters, TV, etc., to maximize ROI on messaging goals, the economies of content production have advanced significantly. Digital media authoring and management mean that DS/DOOH can lead the charge in "reduce, reuse and recycle" of brand and media assets (and efforts), while serving a starting point of message development and audience targeting.

Content is not just about the 15-second "spot" but the broader strategy and tactical elements of content that can maximize the use of digital signage and most fully exploit its advanced viewer targeting with relevant, dynamic media.

The content aspect of digital signage reaches across the spectrum from the simple to more complex in many characteristics. As the medium matures, and its practices related to content become more critical and advanced, some areas of practice are becoming increasingly important at the levels of individual content spots, the playloop and the interface between the technology and management system:

• High quality media presentation to assure that the visual images are as appealing and compelling as possible. This is in part achieved by using media in its richest possible, "native" form through the digital media supply chain. Reducing the need for media reformatting and transcoding reduces cost, time and the degradation of the media.

• Local input and control of a predefined area of the display or the playloop can enable individual departments or display locations to schedule and present information relevant to achieving their very local goals through local communications, promotions and branding.

• Ease of campaign placement. Defining parameters such as the date, time, location and other display criteria allows media to be presented to best achieve the intended results.

Lyle Bunn is a highly regarded independent consultant and educator in North America's digital signage industry. He is a member of the Academy Faculty of InfoComm, has published more than 80 articles and regularly presents at industry events. He is author and principal presenter of the SPEED Digital Signage Training Program which was used by over 1,100 people during 2009 to plan their project and supply approaches. Seewww.LyleBunn.comor emailLyle@LyleBunn.com.