Marketers need to understand their digital signage technologies before planning major marketing projects. Strategic content development involves planning your annual marketing calendar in advance to focus on specific campaigns that will stand out from the rest.

Knowing your network is key as technical advances — or limitations — will inform your marketing opportunities. The challenge is, after all, serving the most engaging information to the right audience at the right time.

One technology basic to use as a starting point is a digital signage network that employs System-on-Chip (SOC) technology. This facilitates media players being built into the screens, which leads to less downtime and technical problems — resulting in a more streamlined installation that saves on costs.

For campaigns or promotions that need to stand out from the rest of the brand's messaging and capture the attention of customers, use screen takeovers and time/weather-based content.

It's no good to just up the frequency of one particular content piece in the playlist as this will only affect the one screen it's playlisted on. There are more engaging ways to highlight your primary promotions. 

1. Perform screen takeovers

The ability to perform screen takeovers across all digital screens is key and SOC solutions make it possible for digital screens to sync to the millisecond across regional, national or international locations.

This technique proves highly effective for promotional content and is visually unmatched. It offers the utmost engagement and 'WOW' factor for an audience.

Moving Tactics Digital Content has this innovation deployed in some of the biggest retail and Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) chains across South Africa such as McDonald's, Edgars and Famous Brands. Within the QSR space, the screen takeover is incorporated into the menu panels.

Takeovers can be scheduled according to day-parting, such as for breakfast and lunch timeslots, and they are specifically timed to not be too invasive for ordering customers.

2. Offer time/weather-based content

Having the ability to upsell or change buying decisions is vital for any brand. One way of doing this is to offer the correct product based on external factors, such as time of the day or the weather. Many external aspects determine people's buying habits, from time of day and day of the month to being location-specific such as the stores' location or local weather.

Some of these factors are controllable and an intelligent digital signage system should be able to change content that is based on the time of day or the weather outside — whether it be at an individual store or in a general area, automatically without any human input.

Bespoke content that is based on location data is proving more popular and can be built into the planned marketing strategy many months ahead of time. This technology enables clothing retailers to feature summer-friendly clothing if it's a hot day, or restaurants to upsell coffee with their meals on a cold day rather than cold drinks, automatically.

For more information, visit www.movingtactics.co.za. You can also follow Moving Tactics on Facebook or on Twitter.