Self-service How-to Guide

Digital Signage and One-to-One Marketing

Overview | Table of Contents | Introduction | Free Download

Growth happens two different ways: in small incremental steps, and in giant, earth-shaking leaps.

Most of the history of out-of-home advertising has come via the former. According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, the first example of a "billboard" was in 1835, when New Yorker Jared Bell displayed large posters for P.T. Barnum’s circus.

Fifteen years later, ads started appearing in street railways; 17 years after that, the first recorded billboard lease was signed. By 1870, 300 companies existed that painted advertisements and put them in the public eye.

From there, it was incremental growth for more than a century: Membership organizations were formed, shapes and sizes were standardized, and metrics were devised to measure effectiveness. The out-of-home advertising model seeped into other avenues of daily life, from waiting rooms to elevators to just about any place people spent their days.

Then, things took a turn for the better, with the advent of displays that could be updated without paint and glue and human hands. For decades, stock-watchers have tracked symbols on LCD tickers, for example, and enterprising retailers have built video walls.

But only very recently have things become truly exciting with the emerging world of digital signage. As prices on flat-panel monitors continue to drop, it is becoming more and more possible to hang a display on a wall — or store shelf, or restaurant counter, or the outside of a building — and update it remotely.

Digital signage promises to be a leap of the earth-shaking variety. Most exciting of all, it is a leap that we are currently in the middle of — in mid-air, if you will, with infinite space for innovation and growth. This guide will help you make sense of what has been accomplished so far, what might be coming next and how all of it will help your business.

I’d like to thank ADFLOW Networks, a leading innovator in the digital signage field, for their support of this guide, which allows us to present it to you at no charge.

Download "Digital Signage and One-to-One Marketing"

Overview | Table of Contents | Introduction | Free Download