Digital signage is the general term for electronic displays set up in locations outside of the home for exclusive use in displaying information of various sorts. It requires a location, a display, a system, a network, and content. For example, if a retail business wants to set up digital signage mainly for the purpose of advertising its house-brand products inside its stores, it provides the location (stores) and the content (product information), and it generally has an outside party supply the other elements.
Electronic displays of this sort started popping up as early as 1990 or so. They were seen in the form of small monitors in trains, one example being the "Train Channel" produced by East Japan Marketing & Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of East Japan Railway Co., and also in large-scale displays in urban spaces where many people gather, such as the one attached to the outside of Studio Alta in Tokyo's bustling Shinjuku district. In recent years, though, digital signage has been appearing in all sorts of locations, including public and commercial facilities, streets, and airports.
One factor behind the spread of digital signage is the improvement of the infrastructure functions—the displays and the networks. Another is the lowering of the costs for these elements. An additional factor that bears noting is the growing recognition among users of the distinctive value of this medium, which offers advantages not seen in other types of advertising. For example, traditional forms of outdoor advertising, notably signs and posters, can only display a limited amount of information, and the content cannot be changed flexibly. Digital signage is not subject to such constraints. It has thus been attracting attention as a highly valuable medium that combines the strengths of mass media, which can convey large amounts of information, and local media, which targets information at specific audiences.
Moves to further enhance the value of digital signage include the addition of interactive capabilities, which will make it possible for displays to be used not just to convey information about products and local districts to viewers but also for searches by viewers. Such advances are expected to power further growth in this field. The digital signage market has been expanding: Its estimated annual volume came to ¥56.9 billion in fiscal 2009 (April 2009 to March 2010), up from ¥53.6 billion in 2007 and ¥55.3 billion in 2008, and the Yano Research Institute has projected that it will grow to ¥80.9 billion by 2014. Meanwhile, the association of the digital signage industry is pursuing the ambitious target of developing this into a ¥1 trillion industry by constructing a huge digital signage network linking all the commercial and public facilities where the devices are installed and supplementing it with tie-ups to mobile phones and other links to enhance the appeal of advertising.
Digital signage is now drawing attention as a distinctive medium, not just from retailers and others providing the locations for the displays but also from businesses in various related fields, including advertisers, systems companies, and display manufacturers. We can expect to see it achieve substantial growth in the years ahead.
(Yasukatsu Takei)
