It is now common knowledge that Digital Signage is a growing industry, especially since it started penetrating the huge SMB (small and medium business) market. This evolution is not even close to reaching market potential; but, given rapid technological changes, mainly extremely fast growth and the endless potential uses of smartphones, some Digital Signage pioneers are already ‘breaking’ boundaries, adding all sorts of additional capabilities on top of traditional Digital Signage software solutions.
One of these innovations is a unique combination of smartphone and Digital Signage software – Digital Signage games! After overcoming technological challenges, a number of innovative Digital Signage software vendors realized that the connection of smartphones and screens can feed a new market, making Digital Signage games a growth engine for Digital Signage. When developed smartly, Digital Signage games functionality is simply another widget in a set of existing capabilities in the Digital Signage SaaS solution. Any SMB (or the outsource/inhouse IT expert) can easily pick a game, customize the ‘look and feel,’ together with hidden and visible agenda (logos, colors, and marketing messages), and broadcast to one or more of the Digital Signage screens in the venue. Using their own smartphone, which serve as ‘controllers, customers can connect to the screen and participate in a game, which immediately attracts lots of attention and becomes a public event.
The business potential of Digital Signage games for the SMB is endless, from simple fun in the store, improving customer experience, through marketing messages, ‘brand maintenance,’ and continuing to coupons and all sorts of sales promotion tools to increase business revenues.
Digital Signage games are still a technology ‘in diapers’, as there is no standard, commonly used platform or even market research providing numbers about demand and potential. Even without all the parameters that usually define a stable and mature market and technology, it seems (and your guess is as good as mine) that we are only witnessing the very first seeds planted, and we should expect to see this tree growing rapidly in the coming years.
Digital Signage Games – it is actually a serious business.