Everyone’s heard of it, but could you identify precisely what signage is and the specific purposes it serves? Of course, it’s everywhere you look, every time you leave the house, from hoarding signage to sports and retail signage, among numerous other examples. Some of it’s functional, some of it’s snazzy, some of it may even try to be funny, but every sign has its own purpose.
But it’s so ubiquitous that you may sometimes even stop noticing or thinking about signage.
As industry specialists, we’ve put together this guide to what signage is, and its different types, to give you a better feel for the issues involved.
From road signs to hospitality and office signage, there is a different model for just about every type of environment you’re likely to find yourself in.
In fact, there’s nothing new about signs – the earliest ones date back to Greek and Roman times when stone ‘signs’ had particular symbols denoting businesses from taverns to workshops. In fourteenth-century England, Richard III decreed that every establishment selling ale needed a sign in front of its building. Gradually, businesses saw they needed increasingly sophisticated affairs to stay ahead of the competition.
Of course, things have rather evolved since then, from the ornate hand-carved wood, gold leafing and wrought iron of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through to today’s neon-lit megacities of London, New York or Tokyo.
One definition holds that a sign is ‘any kind of visual graphics created to display information to a particular audience’. It can be divided into exterior and interior signage or classified as wayfinding signage where it helps visitors find their way around an office or other corporate environments, or described as hospitality signage in a setting such as a hotel.
Equally, especially when it comes to sports and event signage or hoarding graphics, it may be installed in a large-scale format.
This type of visual branding graphic comes into its own at exhibitions and similar gatherings, whether in the form of floor graphics or wayfinding signage. Additionally, retail signage is especially important for highlighting promotions, giving directions and showing shoppers what they can find where while encouraging them to buy.
If you’re devising a business branding strategy, there’s clearly a vast amount to think about. But don’t overlook the importance of signage as a key part of your vision, given how many benefits it brings and its numerous important uses:
Exterior signage, in particular, serves as a form of advertising that’s free once it’s in place and attracts the attention of passing trade and makes people aware that your business is there, and of what it does. Sports signage advertises forthcoming major events. Meanwhile, hoarding signage around new retail or housing developments creates excitement ahead of an opening and stimulates interest and curiosity.
There are countless settings where people rely on signage to find their way around, from retail environments to exhibitions, trade shows and similar events. That’s especially the case at larger, potentially confusing events such as major sporting occasions or big conferences, or busy periods in shops like Christmas or sales time. After all, if people can’t find their way around a venue, it can sour their whole experience – and they’re far less likely to spend money.
There’s more to signs’ uses than branding – at times the emphasis needs to be on clear communication and functionality. Health and safety signage is a classic example, providing site visitors, members of the public and employees with warnings of potential hazards and, of course, the Health and Safety Executive sets out the regulations surrounding this type of signage. Another function could be keeping those people away from a particular site who shouldn’t be there.
Wherever you have your signs, they can help reinforce brand identity and recognition, bearing, for example, the same logo you see elsewhere on the corporate branding. This means the message is always the same. A coffee shop chain, for instance, wouldn’t have different types of signage on different branches in two separate towns. The same goes for office signage, so that staff are always inspired by identical messaging. At its most basic, signs are about helping people to identify and recognise places.
Often, whether it’s hospitality, retail or corporate signage or anything else, signs can just enhance the overall visual appeal of your space. That could be especially relevant, say, in a place such as a football stadium where there are a lot of ‘blank canvas’ areas. This kind of signage could incorporate wall murals, floor graphics or frosted window graphics.
So the importance of physical signage should never be underestimated. At Rocket Graphics, we specialise in large format printing and signage services, from floor graphics to vinyl and acrylic signage and a lot more besides. Our policy of continual investment in our business means we can print large-format graphics with our state-of-the-art large-format cutting and printing equipment.
Over the years, we’ve created and installed all manner of signage for some of the world’s eminent brands and creative teams, in a huge variety of settings. We could help you, too. Get in touch today for an initial formal chat about your needs, with no obligation.
Electronic signage allows any business to easily showcase their products, services or any other content for that matter, helping them to stand out and engage with more customers.
A digital signage display serves as the most flexible banner in the world. Available in all shapes and sizes, from single large format screens to multi-screen video walls, freestanding kiosks, shelf edge displays and tablet devices, choose one or pick any combination to suit your needs.
Digital signage displays are being used by most business owners today to give them an edge over their competitors. There are many different benefits electronic signage will have on your business, which can help you become more successful in your industry.
While electronic signage does require an initial, upfront investment, over the long-term, it’s likely to help save you money.
Once your digital signage displays are up-and-running, you’ll be able to say goodbye to all the on-going printing, delivery and installation costs that you incur every time you have to update your paper-based point-of-sale.
What’s more, simply by switching from paper to super-efficient and durable LED digital signage networks, you’ll also be able to lower the carbon footprint of your business.
“Digital signage displays capture 400% more views than static displays” Intel
Digital signage has been proven the world over to engage more viewers, improve productivity and maximise the potential of any revenue-making opportunities. Colourful, and dynamic, it brings products and services to life, delivering fresh, up-to-the-minute content that is also usually contextually relevant.
“Electronic signage can help increase sales by as much as 33%” Shopify
Often installed at or near checkouts, digital signage displays enable you to deliver timely calls to action, significantly boosting the chances of customers making last-minute impulse buys, or redeeming special offers they may have missed in-store.
Electronic signage can even help to off-set the initial cost of investment by enabling you to sell advertising space on your network.
Content management systems (CMS), such as Signagelive, make this easy to do, thanks to their integration with programmatic advertising platforms, such as Hivestack and Vistar Media.
Bringing relevant and interested media buyers to you, such platforms automate centralised reporting and billing, and reduce the workload with enterprise scale tools.
Gone are the days when your advertising has to hinge on one message per advertising canvas. With electronic signage, you have ample opportunity to create a dynamic line-up of content that refreshes as regularly as you want, on some, or all your digital signage displays.
Your messaging can be targeted, and regularly updated to suit specific times, days or events, and the places in which your digital signage displays are installed.
You don’t even have to be on-site to update your content. With cloud-based content management systems, such as Signagelive, a whole network of digital signage displays can be managed remotely.
In Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), cafes, and restaurants, you can, for example, remotely pre-schedule and promote different menus to appear at breakfast, lunch, and dinner times.
You can even schedule different menus for different locations, or one message for screens in shop window displays, and another for those on the aisles, or next to the checkout areas.
Content is also more efficient to manage. With user-friendly CMS solutions, such as Signagelive, as many team members as you want can help to update your electronic signage.
Local users can edit the content for the screens in their location. And with features, such as Granular User Permissions, you can give individual, and groups of users access to manage content on some, or all your digital signage displays.
Electronic signage is quick and easy to update at any time (even immediately). With the advanced scheduling capabilities of CMS platforms, such as Signagelive, you can instantly publish content to multiple screens or groups of screens, run the content on a recurring basis, or pre-schedule it for a specific data range, or time frame. You’re completely in control.
Features, such as tagging functionality make it quick and easy to categorise and then identify playlists, as well as players.
If you, for instance, tag your players by region, you only have to schedule the relevant region-specific playlist once to publish it to all the digital signage displays in that geographical area.
Nested playlists offer further time-saving functionality. Enabling you to embed a playlist, or parts of a playlist within a playlist, and in any order you need, this feature allows you to drop in content quickly, and to ensure consistency across all your messaging.
CMS solutions, such as Signagelive also automatically download assets to your players, whenever you save your playlists, and ensure that you don’t have to republish any content you edit in an active playlist.
To boost awareness and sales, electronic signage can be used as an entertainment medium e.g in waiting areas in airports and train stations.
“Screen publishing reduces perceived wait time at checkouts by as much as 35%” UKPos.com
Attract customers’ attention and help them pass the time, with the latest entertainment and infotainment, while also simultaneously displaying targeted promotional messaging, using multi-zone digital signage templates.
With CMS solutions, such as Signagelive, you can use services, like Seenspire and Screenfeed to deliver content feeds of everything from news, traffic reports, and flight information to sports, entertainment, and financial information.
Video and animation have been proven to be more effective for advertising than any static messaging. In fact, according to recent research, video ads drive a 48% higher sales rate than static ads.
You don’t always have to invest in costly video productions to make full use of this medium. With content management systems, such as Signagelive, you can feature existing company video assets by displaying your YouTube channel, or even a video-centric web page URL, thanks to free-to-use resources, such as the Webpage app.
With electronic signage, you can do so much more than tell people what your business is capable of; you can actually show – and prove its value.
“Approximately 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase” Learn.g2.com
Peer recommendations elicit more trust than straight advertising, so it makes absolute sense to use the extra flexibility of digital signage displays to incorporate case studies and customer testimonials in your advertising schedule.
Unconstrained by the limitations of just one blank advertising canvas, you have the scope to create content line-ups that cycle through your wins, successes, and positive customer feedback.
By displaying on-screen company social media feeds, as well as any YouTube reviews, you can also shine a light on what your customers are saying about your business and services in real-time.
Electronic signage hasn’t just raised the bar for advertising; it has fundamentally transformed and revitalised “bricks-and-mortar” High Street retail businesses, as well as visitor attractions.
With API from content management systems, such as Signagelive, you can now create more engaging interactive experiences.
Web trigger APIs enable you to create, for example, lift and learn solutions, which update the screen with additional product information any time customers lift and interact with that specific product.
While most businesses know that electronic signage works extremely well for customer-facing campaigns, fewer realise just how effective it can be behind the scenes, in back offices.
As well as allowing corporate messaging and important notifications to be shared on screens across every department floor, digital signage displays can help to deliver a higher standard of training for staff and partners.
Integrated with IBM Cloud, and YouTube LiveStream, CMS solutions, such as Signagelive enable digital signage displays to be used for live streaming training sessions across multiple office locations.
This kind of real-time broadcasting ensures that you’re always able to use your most experienced trainers, to train your staff, wherever they are located, and that you offer a consistent standard of training across the business.
To strengthen the impact of your training, and boost engagement, you can also make the experience interactive. Through the use of touch displays together with apps and remote controls, trainees can interact with trainers in real-time via live chats, as well as use on-demand messaging to trigger extra, educational on-screen content.
When used with solutions, such as Signagelive Secure Dashboards, electronic signage provides a secure way to display password-protected data dashboards from almost any business intelligence tool, including Microsoft Power BI, GROW and Monday.com.
Giving businesses more opportunity to roll-out and share data quickly and safely across every department floor, electronic signage solutions immerse employees in the statistics they need to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
Whatever you’re considering using electronic signage for, the chances are it will add value to your business. Provided that you know how to make the best possible use of your network, you’ll be able to streamline your usual advertising costs, as well as optimise customer engagement and revenue streams.
A few years ago digital signage was really expensive and complicated. The situation is very different today. If you aren’t using digital signage, you’re lagging behind and letting potential customers walk past you.
If you haven’t signed up yet, now is the time to apply digital signage to your business. Even in the smallest form your setup can always be developed and will provide you with a starting point for growth and development.
In addition to the costs to purchase and setup a digital signage solution, many customers in the past found themselves paying expensive annual support contracts, without which, they would not receive the latest software updates, support and even worse find their digital signage software will no longer work.
Signagelive decided from the outset, that all support and software updates will not be an additional cost to our customers. When you purchase a Signagelive licence, all software updates and support including live chat are included for the lifetime of your licence.
To learn more about Signagelive solutions and to discuss your digital signage requirements, please get in contact with us.
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