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Forecasting the future of the digital signage industry

Imagine you're Blockbuster. You're cruising along, making lots of money, until suddenly … you aren't. Or maybe you're Circuit City... The annual Digital Signage Future Trends report aims to help businesses avoid the fate of brands that have been innovated to death or irrelevancy.

November 23, 2015 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Imagine you're Blockbuster. You're cruising along, making lots of money, until suddenly … you aren't.

Or maybe you're Kodak.

Or Circuit City.

Or Borders.

Or Xerox.

I can keep going all day if need be. Longer, really.

It's almost a cliché at this point to point out that a mere 71 companies remain today from the original 1955 Fortune 500 list. By the time you read this, that number might actually be lower.

All of these companies were riding high on a wave of success, minding their own business, until the world pulled the rug out from under their feet, essentially innovating them to death. (Or at least irrelevance.)

So how could they have avoided their fate? Or more importantly, how can you avoid their fate?

The one thing all of these brands have in common is that they could have survived — if they'd been paying attention. The world was changing, but it wasn't changing in secret. The signs were there if you were looking for them.

We're here to help you look for them — and, more importantly, see them.

The key to surviving the future is being ready for it by having intelligence about what's coming down the road. And while the future is by definition unknowable and to a large extent unpredictable, there are ways we can work to gather intelligence on what the trends shaping it may look like.

One simple but effective tactic to gather intelligence is just asking for it. And in our annual Digital Signage Future Trends report, we ask for it in two ways: First, we ask a few people for general information, and second, we ask lots of people for specific information.

First, we ask people who are experts in their field what they think will be the key important trends shaping the future of the digital signage industry. Second, we survey hundreds of people who either make or sell the technology or buy and use it what they think will happen or what they plan to do with it in the future. In other words, we ask the people selling what they think will be important, and we ask the people buying what they think is important and what their intentions are with regards to the sector.

We put out the Digital Signage Future Trends Report every year, and every year we put out an exhaustive, responsive survey that dives into specific digital signage end-user verticals. This allows us to compare information from specific end-user and deployer verticals and see how it changes from year to year. And now we're sharing it with you.

This year's survey data revealed fascinating insights into the retail, restaurant and banking verticals and their plans for digital signage — as well as looks into the attitudes of advertising agencies, hoteliers and educational institutions toward the medium.

And it also features expert commentaries from a wide range of leaders in the digital signage field:

• Bunn Co. Principal Lyle Bunn;
• Planar Systems VP Jennifer Davis;
• Outdoor Advertising Association of America CMO Stephen Freitas;
• Enplug Director of Marketing Ryan Gushue;
• BrightSign CEO Jeff Hastings;
• Four Winds Interactive President and CEO David Levin;
• RMG Networks CTO and SVP Rick Mattock;
• Scala CEO Tom Nix;
• Verifone Media VP Dan Trotzer; and
• NEC Display Solutions VP Richard Ventura

— as they offer their own personal insights into what they see coming down the pipeline for the digital signage industry and digital signage end-users.

Click here to buy the premium report, "Digital Signage Future Trends 2015."

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