There is one issue regarding digital signage that, for some reason, always sparks debate within companies, and it is this: Who should be the primary users of digital signage systems—IT or Marketing? This is because, ultimately, digital signage systems display content to an audience in physical spaces using a wide range of hardware devices.
These hardware devices must be set up through the installation of physical components and are also typically accompanied by network installations and configurations, security measures against equipment theft and cyberattacks, and maintenance and management of the physical infrastructure—aspects that do not exist in other systems. In other words, there is a technology component far removed from the software that requires significant involvement from IT teams to keep the system running—a responsibility that falls well outside the scope of marketing teams. In addition, it’s often the case that many digital signage platforms are designed for technical staff rather than for personnel whose job is to publish content. So we end up with a system that revolves around technology rather than content. This is why, in many companies, it is the IT staff themselves who publish and schedule the content for digital signage systems. Following the same logic, marketing and communications departments could also send content from other CMS platforms—for websites or social media—to the IT department for publication. “
” “But that’s content!” say IT directors when tasked with this job. So we need to show marketing and communications managers that they should, in fact, be the owners of these platforms, since just as they publish content on a website, they can do so on the displays that their customers will see in their physical spaces. Digital signage systems are constantly evolving, and the tools they offer users are becoming increasingly advanced—it’s even possible to track the audience viewing the content by gender, age, and viewing duration. When the IT department is in charge of publishing content, digital signage projects end up being a burden for everyone and a benefit to no one. So what better strategy than to have the same person or marketing team responsible for publishing content on the website, e-commerce platform, loyalty apps, or social media also be the team that publishes content at physical locations? This strategy not only streamlines content publishing by reducing reliance on other departments but also greatly improves the consistency of communication, since the same team publishes across all channels.
Digital signage allows the same content to be published, for example, a search engine or social media advertising network, where that banner leads to a landing page on a website, and then the related content is also displayed on screens at the physical location, accompanying the customer throughout their entire journey from start to finish.
Therefore, we can see that a digital signage system can function just like any other online content publishing tool: it can support the same audiovisual formats, the same resolutions (or even more spectacular effects using large LEDs and even asymmetrical LEDs), and can measure the impact of these communications with ever-greater precision. In short, it offers the same capabilities we already find in online channels. So, viewed this way, the IT department must be responsible for keeping the infrastructure up and running and constantly evolving so that the marketing and communications departments can focus on their strategies for content creation, campaign publishing, and effectiveness analysis.
This helps better define the boundary; however, as digital signage manufacturers, we cannot overlook the challenge of developing solutions that are robust, agile, and reliable for IT, while also embedding the best usability and user experience for marketing right into our development DNA. With this in mind, we’ll be able to provide solutions that satisfy all users of digital signage systems.