Digital signage ranges from small indoor shelf tags to huge outdoor stadium displays. Digital signage markets include airports, highway systems, subway and light rail, retail, fast food chains, financial and news institutions, cinemas, sports stadia, and municipalities just to name a few. Digital signs have been shown to be particularly effective for in-store advertising and point-of-purchase promotional applications. While sales of neon-, incandescent-, and fluorescent-based signage have either declined or remained fairly flat in recent years, the digital signage market has been on the rise, estimated at over $1 billion and growing at 30% per year. Digital signage is the only signage technology that can support the dynamic content of television—once advertisers’ most powerful medium, but recently becoming less effective due to such factors as DVD popularity, channel proliferation, and TiVo.

In the outdoor electric sign market, LED-based signs are experiencing significant growth in comparison with their non-digital competitors. This is due in large part to their programmability and, in many cases, the “wow” factor. Indoor digital signage—consisting mainly of LCD and plasma displays—is undergoing substantial growth as well. Attractive market opportunities and proven higher returns for both outdoor and indoor digital signs are causing various industry segments to consider both markets, thereby blurring any previous distinction between outdoor-only and indoor-only digital signage.

According to a recent Signs of the Times survey, 63% of the companies in the digital signage industry use LCD, 56% use LED, and 50% use plasma. There are also several different types of rear-projection monitors installed for electronic signage, and many variant flat panel display (FPD) technologies have been used in trials over the years. There is a huge price gap between traditional ink-on-vinyl and elaborate LED-based signs—the latter being up to 1000 times more expensive on an area basis—that other FPD technologies might fill. For example, recent display technology developments have opened the door for newer displays to be installed in “smart shelves,” large indoor retail and public area venues, and train stations.

The digital sign industry has pursued innovation from the start. Efforts to capture consumers’ attention have resulted in a dazzling array of digital signs, ranging from huge outdoor spectaculars to 10 cm LCD displays integrated with gas pumps. Since advertisers and media executives are now beginning to realize that digital signage can provide a greater return on investment than static signage, the entire digital signage industry appears to be at the early stages of a major expansion. Attractive opportunities for location owners, signage providers and other related sectors of the industry are now within reach.