Digital signage is now the new must-have marketing tool with its applications and uses having multiplied many-fold over the last few years with LCD and plasma screens now being seen in all manner of locations for all manner of uses.

One of the latest environments to be exploited for the purposes of digital advertising is the use of plasma and LCD screens outside.

Digital outdoor signage is one of the few niche areas left in the digital marketing industry but more and more companies have spotted the potential and are producing LCD TVs that can be situated outdoors.

The major challenge of outdoor digital signage is protecting the plasma or LCD display from the elements. Many manufacturers ensure their outdoor LCD or plasma is sealed to protect from the rain which is obviously highly important when it comes to outdoor signage. However, many of these outdoor LCD screens are manufactured for mild climates and little consideration is given to the varying extremes of temperature often found in Europe and North America.

Extreme heat in the summer can be extremely damaging to an LCD. Both the screen and the electronics of the LCD need to be protected from the sun. LCD screens are easily damaged by direct sunlight while without adequate cooling exposure to high temperatures will dramatically shorten an LCD or plasma’s lifespan.

Likewise protection from the cold is highly important as most LCD’s will simply not be able to cope in temperatures below zero.

However, many manufacturers are starting to identify these outdoor hazards and are producing LCD’s designed to operate in extreme temperatures. However, most of these outdoor digital signage solutions are targeted at a particular environment such as extreme cold or extreme heat. There are very few options available that can actually deal with the heat of summer and the freezing temperatures often endured in parts of America and Europe during the winter months.

Fortunately, for those of us that live in areas where both extremes of temperatures are often experienced throughout the year a smarter more practical solution is to use standard LCD displays and house them in an outdoor LCD enclosure. LCD enclosures (and plasma enclosures) are now manufactured by some industrial computer enclosure manufacturers who use their experience of housing computers and touch screens in industrial areas to build LCD enclosures that can cope with not just the rain but all extremes of temperature and weather.

These steel LCD enclosures are also built to withstand vandalism and theft allowing the outdoor digital signage to be left unattended with full peace of mind.

It is not hard to understand why LCD displays screens are rapidly being adopted by retail stores and restaurants. InfoTrends conducted a digital signage study where they polled consumers and found that “digital signage displays have a 47.7% effectiveness on brand awareness, increase the average purchase amount by 29.5%, create a 31.8% upswing in overall sales volumes, generate a 32.8% growth in repeat buyers and generate 32.8% more in-store traffic”. LCD display screens are being used by restaurants for displaying the menu and entertainment, by garment and clothing retail stores to show videos of fashion shows and to showcase various products, and by automobile dealers as video walls to provide the feel of the car on the road and to keep the customer occupied as they wait for sales agent or other people.

LCD Display Usage in Restaurants: When visiting KFC Hyderabad (India), what grabs your attention is not so much the smell of food but the vibrant colours of the four 42-inch LCD display panels which serves as the overhead menu board. KFC Hyderabad sought the help of Sharp Business Systems India (http://www.sbsil.com) to set up the digital signage solution. LCD digital menus can be maintained from a remote central location or a local PC set up in the store. The benefit of remote central management is that menu, promotions, video, pricing and other items displayed on the LCD displays in the retail outlet can be managed from one central location to provide consistency and to make sure that the changes are made consistently across all stores at the same time. Consumers receive dynamic previews of the offering with potential for positive impact on sales. If restaurants have the networked point-of-sale cash registers collecting time based purchased data, marketing can get instantaneous feedback on how different promotions and pricing are having impact on sales. Restaurants are also using LCD displays as televisions to spruce up the restaurant atmosphere. It is now a common expectation to have LCD TVs in restaurants that show the local sports or the news.

LCD Display Usage in Showrooms: Whether it is women clothing store, automobile showroom, convenient store or a department store, LCD displays are appearing in all these locations. A typical store has up to four LCD displays per site. InfoTrends study showed that business that had installed displays in their showroom, predominantly expected the display usage in their showrooms to increase. To grab and hold consumer attention, retailers are using LCD displays in a video-wall format or in a daisy chain format along with stand alone units. The content could be a mixture of video along with text or a combination. The goal is to target specific customers with specific information and this information may change with the time of the day – creating a retail company-owned, closed-circuit television network that runs nothing but the retail company programming.

Why do Retail Businesses Select LCD Displays vs. Plasma Displays? There are a number of reasons why retailers and restaurants are selecting LCD display over plasma displays.

· Fan-less Architecture of LCDs: LCD displays do not have a fan potentially resulting in less noise and distraction. This is less of an issue with newer higher end plasma displays, however it is worthwhile to keep track as you evaluate the two options.

· Rugged Design of LCDs: LCD displays are closed-box units and more rugged. There is less chance of oil fumes, dust or other elements getting into the unit and reducing the life of the unit.

· Resolution and Picture Quality: (A) Video resolution on LCD displays and plasma display are comparable but computer data is better observed on LCD displays. (B) LCDs are better to view in ambient light or in brightly lit rooms. As businesses usually work during the day in ambient light, LCDs are more desirable for most business applications. (C) Plasma manufacturers have made much of their viewing angles. However with new LCDs the view angles are 176°. There is not much difference between the two technologies in viewing angle. (D) There have been concerns with burn-in for Plasma screens especially for static images. However, many Plasma manufacturers have improved their anti-burn in technology. There are no burn-in issues with LCD screens.

· Life of the Display Unit: LCDs can be operated 24×7 for 50,000+ hours equivalent to 5+ years of continuous viewing. Plasma, on the other hand, typically has a half life of 30,000 hours. At half life, the phosphors in a plasma screen will glow half as brightly as they did when the set was new. There is no way to replace these gases; the display simply continues to become dimmer with use. An LCD TV will last as long as its backlight – and in many models the backlight bulbs can be easily replaced!

· Power Consumption: Plasma TVs use more power than LCD – twice as much Technology for both plasma and LCD display continues to change. Be sure to check updates to the technology for apple to apple comparison

More details about the LCD and plasma displays visit http://lcddisplay.sbsil.com

The concept of advertising with media outside of the home gained a good degree of notoriety Sunday in The Los Angeles Times with a major article by staff writer Alana Semuels.

The 1,000-word article, “Now showing very near you…”, makes a strong case for digital signage networks and advertising as well as other out-of-home media. In the article, Semuels identifies digital video recorders as a major culprit in diluting the frequency with which traditional television commercials are viewed. As a result, advertisers are hungry for an effective substitute, and out-of-home ads appear to be the solution.

Semuels elaborates on a major theme of several of my recent columns, namely every day more TV viewers are skipping past commercials with their DVRs, making in-store, out-of-home advertising all the more appealing. (Two of my earlier columns discussing the impact of DVRs on TV viewing, include: “Digital Signage Payoff: What Is A Challenge For TV May Be A Boon For Digital Signage Networks” and “Digital Signage Market Poised to Skyrocket.”)

According to the LA Times story, about 20 percent of U.S. households now have digital video recorders. The ease with which viewers in these homes can skip past the commercials has a growing number of advertisers interested in out-of-home ads on flat panel displays near the point of sale where they can influence shoppers making purchasing decisions. And, if they can’t influence a particular buying decision, at least they can elevate brand awareness.

Quoting San Francisco-based Premier Retail Networks, which has 200,000 screens in 6,500 stores nationwide, the article points out 42 percent of shoppers remember a brand they see on in-store screens, twice number for television commercials.

It’s no wonder then that a recent forecast from PQ Media Research indicates that spending on out-of-home advertising will grow 27.7 percent this year. The statistics, part of the company’s “PQ Media Alternative Out-of-Home Media Forecast 2007-2011” report show the category to be among the fastest growing segments in the media industry.

Last year, media spending on out-of-home advertising reached $1.69 billion, up 27 percent from the 2005. In fact, spending on out-of-home advertising has grown at double-digit rates every year from 2001-2006 with a compounded annual growth rate of 22.6 percent, according to the PQ Media report.

In discussing the reasons for the growth, Patrick Quinn, president and CEO of PQ Media said: “Unlike its mass media peers, alternative out-of-home advertising is impervious to channel or web surfing and is immune to audience fragmentation.”

PQ Media identified several factors driving the growth of out-of-home advertising, including:

• advertiser perception that out-of-home ads provide high engagement, targeting options, proximity to point-of-sale, measurable impact and cost effectiveness;

• data indicating exposure to and recall of these media are growing;

• research suggesting the vast majority of consumers view alternative out-of-home media as favorable and educational;

• new technology enabling companies to launch digital advertising platforms that generate higher revenues than the conventional formats they replace.

PQ Media divides out-of-home advertising into three categories: video advertising networks and screens; digital billboards and displays; and ambient advertising. The research firm has found video advertising networks is the largest category, accounting for 60 percent of all out-of-home ad spending. Spending on this category grew 28 percent in 2006 to $1.01 billion with double-digit growth in four markets: in-theater, in-office, in-store and in-transit, according to the company.

High-profile news articles, like the one from the LA Times, draw the public’s attention to this market. More importantly, this sort of coverage helps busy ad professionals focused on traditional media segments to notice the out-of-home advertising market. As these ad pros have their own “Ah-Hah” moments thanks to these sorts of articles, it won’t take too much effort to back up the perception that out-of-home advertising is a growing, important new segment. Research, such as that from PQ Media, makes it easy for out-of-home advertising to be taken seriously -and more importantly for ad buyers to consider it as a new part of their media mix. As they do, out-of-home advertising and digital signage are likely to enjoy even wider acceptance and use.