News

Digital signage content survey shows work to be done

November 6, 2013

The recent "The Good, Bad and Ugly Digital Content Survey" brings to light how well the digital out-of-home/digital signage industry is doing on digital signage content quality, according to an announcement from survey originator 5th Screen Digital Services.

San Jose, Calif.-based 5th Screen Digital released the results of its digital media audience visibility and content quality survey viewed on DOOH/digital signage screens around the world at the Digital Screenmedia Association's Crown Awards presentation that honored digtial signage content in conjunction with the annual Customer Engagement Technology World show.

The objective of the survey was to benchmark digital content quality and visibility from the audience's perspective. The process utilized a Web-based questionnaire and was conducted over a three-month period between August and October of this year. Of those surveyed, 77 percent were from North America, with 23 percent from all other locations, primarily EMEA and South America.

The survey asked three fundamental questions:

• How often do you see digital signage in your marketplace?
• Where do you most commonly come across DOOH/digital signage?
• When you view DOOH/digital signage screens, is the content great, good, mediocre or bad?

The worldwide results for digital media quality produced noteworthy insights, the announcement said. Fifty-five percent of the survey participants said that the content was mediocre, and 8 percent considered the content bad. In contrast, 35 percent considered the content good, and only 2 percent considered the digital media to be great. In North America, 65 percent found content to be mediocre or bad.

"These results once again reinforce the need to focus on improving digital content quality displayed on the DOOH screens worldwide," the 5th Screen's Keith Kelsen, author of "Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage – Content Strategies for the 5th Screen," said in the announcement.

Worldwide, 40 percent saw digital signage in the retail environment, with billboards second at 19 percent and airports at 15 percent. Health care, banking, train stations and other made up the remaining 26 percent. In North America, 44 percent saw digital in the retail environment, with billboards second at 20 percent and airports at 15 percent. Outside North America, 33 percent saw digital signage in a retail environment, with train stations second at 25 percent, airports at 18 percent and then billboards at 15 percent.

The viewer frequency was equally revealing, Kelsen said. A respectable 39 percent saw DOOH/digital signage multiple times a day. This was followed by 26 percent that saw screens once a day and 7 percent seeing them twice a day. Only 28 percent saw digital signage screens once a week or less.

The complete content white paper is avaiable at http://5thscreen.com/?page_id=267.

Learn more about digital signage trends and statistics.