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McDonald's, Coca-Cola claim top spots for top digital signage articles of 2018

Digital signage technology is always advancing, but like any technology, its future success builds on past lessons. Last year's articles covered key lessons from McDonald's, Coca Cola and others.

January 1, 2019 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

Editor's note: This is part three of a series looking back on the top stories of 2018. Click here for part one for the top news and here for part two on the top blogs.

Digital signage technology is always advancing, but like any technology, its future success builds on past lessons. Last year's articles covered key lessons from McDonald's, Coca-Cola and others.

One story examined how McDonald's successfully deployed its menu boards and how it handled issues during the deployment, such as communication. Another story covered how McDonald's recently spent billions on upgrading its locations with self-service kiosks, digital signage and more.

Coca-Cola also entered the digital signage market by developing its own solution, enabling end users to craft digital signage messaging and games for its displays, according to another story.

The Top 5 articles of 2018 are posted below in reverse order.

5. McDonald's invests billions for digital signage, kiosk makeover

McDonald's Corporation is spending $6 billion to revamp more than 6,000 stores throughout the U.S. in hopes of transforming itself into an efficiency expert's dream brand. The renovations, which will affect stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia, include kiosk ordering, table service, digital menu boards and mobile pay and pick-up zones to speed up the delivery of orders and point heavily toward McDonald's leadership faith in fast food's technological future.

4. Coca-Cola bursts into digital signage

When Coca-Cola entered the digital signage space, they began to splash content on all types of displays, both large and small, such as menu boards, kiosks and even a one-time truck display prototype, according to Greg Chambers, global director of digital innovations, Coca-Cola.

When Amazon acquired Whole Foods, Chambers said he was getting terrified calls from grocery operators who were concerned that Amazon would crush them. He believes, however, that display technology is the way these retailers can take on the Amazon giant by offering digital experiences.

In order to meet this need, Coca-Cola created Neko as a "pace car" to help companies implement advanced digital signage features quickly.

3. 3 future trends set to change the digital signage landscape

The digital signage landscape is always the same, but also changing at the same time. You are always going to have a display, content and a way to control the content, but the ways in which digital signage can reach audiences are changing all the time. It is absolutely necessary to stay on the cutting edge of digital signage trends to avoid becoming mere "background noise."

The Digital Signage Future Trends Report of 2018 identified a few key future trends, such as mobile integration, segmentation and dynamic content.

2. McDonald's shares menu board lessons

When McDonald's upgraded its traditional print menus to digital menu boards, it ran into a few challenges. These challenges were not in regards to the actual technology, but rather communication, according to Rick Cook, senior manager of U.S. IT restaurant solutions at McDonald's.

"Technology challenges are generally communication challenges," Cook said.

1. On-vehicle digital signage is on the move

Taxis, public transit buses and trains, shuttles and delivery vehicles are in the ultimate out-of-home environment and are poised for the expanding area of vehicle-mounted digital signage and LED messaging.

This frontier for digital signage is opening in high viewership urban areas, where a transportation authority or a network operator, as their agent, can leverage moving assets as well as existing ad sales and management capabilities. It is also driven by the hunger for display revenues, improved technology and advertiser demand.

Image via Istock.com.

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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