Retail media: Digital Signage prospers in economic climate

The Platt Retail Institute has recently published a report on digital signage discussing its effectiveness in the banking sector. This document is particularly relevant to retail media today as it details some of the signs of the economic downturn. We discussed previously how this down turn could actually be a good thing for retail media as it leads to more decisions being made at the point of sale when the consumer has a full understanding of what is available and how much it will cost them.

It would be nice if we could say that the research suggests that the poor economy may be a good thing for digital signage as a retail media, but to be honest that would be something of a stretch. AKA
reason that things have already become difficult without affecting the medium and then go on to say that the medium is about driving sales directly, which ties in well with our thoughts. Where we cannot agree with them is that a failure to experience problems is in itself a good sign for a given retail medium.

So does the report suggest that the medium itself is good? Well yes it does. It suggests that banking should be spending more on point of sale media and digital signage or screens in particular. Why are they not already doing this? Well in part because creating digital signage is costly and for a large investment more research to back up the effectiveness is required. This is the issue for banking, but for those who wish to advertise their products on screens there is another alternative. It is always possible to make use of the screens in a retailer who already has a digital presence and measure the results. Remember to make sure that what is measured is meaningful! That way the problem of investment is avoided at the same time as adding to the available data to ensure that there is genuine ROI being created. It may even be possible to get a certain amount of free PR by publishing the results. If this is the path that you choose to take then do feel free to let us know and we may even write about them for you.

Another way around the cost of investment is of course not to invest. With the economic down turn maybe the price of screens will go down and the medium will become cheaper? Not the sort of advantage we were talking about getting for retail media from the economic climate, but perhaps an incentive for the retailers to invest further down the line.

As AKA also point out, as the barrier to entry becomes lower more players will move into the market for screens, making them available in a wider and wider variety of retailers. Greater adoption of screens in any context makes them more accepted as an advertising format, both by the advertisers and by their customers. Longer term this is good news for the medium. The growth in non-retailer based digital signage is potentially a sign (no pun intended) of the future growth of screens as a retail media.

All in all it does not show that digital signage will remain free from the effects of the economy in the long term, but it does suggest that using it correctly could free it from those effects.

Rufus Evison