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Easy ways digital signage can light up Valentine's Day

The winter season is often a post-Christmas doldrum for retailers as consumers are less willing to spend big bucks after an expensive holiday season. However, as Valentine's Day rapidly approaches, retailers have a major opportunity to boost sales once again, and digital signage can help with that task.

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February 11, 2020 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

The winter season is often a post-Christmas doldrum for retailers as consumers are less willing to spend big bucks after an expensive holiday season. However, as Valentine's Day rapidly approaches, retailers have a major opportunity to boost sales once again, and digital signage can help with that task.

Retailers can use digital signage in a number of ways during this holiday. For example, Jennifer Gvozdek, marketing manager at Omnivex, said in an email that retailers can use "advertisements, cross promotion (gift suggestions), integrating social media (photos, stories, etc), contests etc."

This type of content will help drive up sales, however retailers should be careful not to use their digital signage as a purely pushy sales tool. Customers are constantly receiving advertisements from all directions, so they will quickly tune out overly aggressive messaging.

The true value of digital signage for this time of the year is to help customers get in the mood of the season. It can help create a more immersive Valentine's Day environment.

"Visuals including animations and video can help set the mood and get customers in the spirit," Gvozdek said.

For example, retailers can integrate animations such as Cupid shooting an arrow through a heart or candy hearts throughout the store. Or it could show schoolchildren giving out Valentine's Day cards to friends.

Michael Gills, senior marketing and community manager for AtmosFx, said in a story on Digital Signage Today that retailers can use their displays to project digital decorations into the store. While decorating with real physical decorations can be messy and expensive, updating a display with a few hearts is much easier.

"Customers love holidays and love to be surprised and delighted. Showing seasonal 'spirit' for a storefront, helps connect customers to a brand," Gills said. "Through adding in a celebratory or startling special effect, you humanize your business and make it a fun experience for your customers."

A key factor to keep in mind with these decorations or animations is to change them out regularly throughout the day. If you have the same content piece up all day, it will quickly bore customers and may even appear corny.

For example, The Nutty Squirrel Gelato, a gelato shop in Washington, said holiday decorations themselves can often become corny, but digital signage can help avoid this issue by cycling through various pieces of content.

"Systematically progressing scenes draw everyone [in] and keeps them engaged," a spokesperson for the Nutty Squirrel Gelato said in a story on Digital Signage Today.

One lesson to take away from this is that digital signage is only as effective as its content, so make sure you spend time thinking about and developing content, no matter what the season.

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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