Digital Signage: What’s in store for 2021?
by Manish Kumar
Digital Signage: What’s in store for 2021?
by Manish Kumar
The digital signage industry is expected to flourish in the next four years. Digital signage has been hailed as one of the fastest-growing AV solutions according to AVIXA’s 2020 AV Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA), with expected growth of over 38% by 2025. This is largely being driven by the increasing demand for on-premise and out-of-home communications, especially to support new security and health protocols.
With a bright future ahead, the key trends likely to shape the digital signage industry in 2021 include the following.
1. Digital signage solutions as an integral part of venues
As the world continues to evolve, digital signage solutions will continue to be an integral part of venues. To attract the attention of visitors and concurrently increase efficiency of social distancing enforcement and crowd controls, a rise in adoption of immersive digital communication displays, temperature screening and virtual receptionist devices (for example: intelligent tablets) is expected.
Additionally, dynamic wayfinding will be used to direct visitors to their respective destinations and highlight available rooms and seats that are sanitized and ready for use. In the future, this solution can be enhanced to include a three-dimensional view to elevate the wayfinding experience.
2. Digital transformation of shop windows
The Asia-Pacific region’s forecasted 1.5% sales decline in 2020 is set to rise back to the 2019 level, with a 6% growth in 2021, according to Euromonitor.
To draw customers back into the brick-and-mortar store, there will be a heavy focus on capturing the attention of passers-by through attention-grabbing window displays. These can be in the form of gesture-based interactivity with content mirroring or reacting to the movements of people walking outside near the display.
In addition, with new personas continually moving throughout shopping centers every day, it is important that advertising is smarter — relevant and timely to the current audience. Digital brings the opportunity for more creative, dynamic and interactive advertising. Persona-based digital ads based on insights gathered from sensor technology allow retailers to deliver targeted ads to ever-changing audiences.
3. Ultra-high bright and ultra-large screens
In 2021, expect to see far more ultra-high bright screens in shop windows as high street retailers battle it out to capture the footfall of consumers. These commercial grade screens feature extremely high brightness ratings as compared to the average digital display. This extra boost of brightness packs a punch and allows content to be easily seen, even in direct sunlight.
There will also be a likely shift towards ultra-large screens, curved and other non-conventional video walls to help retailers stand out and attract more attention.
4. Touchless interactive solutions
Touchless sensing is the next generation evolution in human machine interface (HMI) technology. It is typically used to detect the presence or motion of a person within the coverage area of sensor. Led by countries such as Australia, India and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecasted to reach US $3.3 Billion by the year 2027.
Digital signage solutions will embrace the concept of touchless interactivity— voice, gesture and mobile controls – as industry leaders look to reduce touchpoints and improve accessibility. To interact with a touchscreen, customers can easily snap the QR code with their smartphone and perform multiple interactions securely and anonymously from the safety of their phones. Alternatively, a voice or gesture activated digital signage display delivers a unique touchless solution.
5. Emergence of microLED technology
With an increasing focus on sustainability and green solutions, there will be a strong demand for microLED displays which offer better contrast, response times and energy efficiency when compared to widespread LCD technology. MicroLEDs, primarily aimed at small, low-energy devices – such as smartwatches and smartphones – can be used to make next generation displays for retail experiences including curved, transparent and ultra-low power interactive display devices.
Conclusion
In 2021, the outlook for the digital signage industry is very positive as companies look to novel technologies to transform their business and reconnect with customers in the new normal. Touchless solutions are also a growing trend — from voice controls to gesture commands — to offer safe but simple ways to access important information.
Scala partners with brands across multiple markets to help transform their customers’ experience with smart marketing technology and digital signage. With 30 years’ experience, Scala is well-known for its innovation and leveraging best-of-breed technologies to create solutions that are easy-to-use, flexible and infinitely customizable.
Scala is rapidly extending its reach in the Indian subcontinent and in the near future, new facilities like a microLED factory will be set up, to support the increase in digital signage adoption and catalyse the growth of high performance displays across many emerging industry segments in the region.
Check out Scala’s range of marketing technology solutions here.
Sources:
https://zetadisplay.com/five-predicted-digital-signage-trends-for-retail-in-2021/
About the Author:
Manish Kumar,
