The year was 2014, when a moderate cosmetic brand in Sweden, Apholosophy designed a smart digital signage campaign in a subway station and shot to fame in a blink. The campaign was so simple yet so effective; it caught every passerby’s eye. They simply installed video LEDs with specialized ultra sonic sensors, displaying a still model waiting for a train. As soon as a train would pass by, the model’s hair will start flowing in the air all over the place but would fall smooth upon the train’s departure.
The idea behind the hair care products was its ability to make users hair come alive and through this powerful campaign, they managed to convey just that. This is the power of digital signage.
The world we reside in is a global village today with digitalization taking over every aspect of the life we live. Drive down any Broadway today and the square would be littered with high resolution LED displays. It is the rage in the industry of marketing and advertising, with all major brands signing up for digital signage. But is installing a simple digital display enough marketing strategy?
Well, our experts at signage companies in Dubai suggest otherwise. Simply installing a digital display is not enough. The world has past the stage where a digital screen was enough to send viewers in awe of it. It’s a common sight now. This points to the fact that more needs to be done to truly engage the audience today.
While designing a digital campaign varies from brand to brand and company to company, we are pointing out 4 simple pitfalls to avoid making your signage truly effective.
Visual Hierarchy
The most basic area that creates the maximum issues in a digital sign is the visual hierarchy.
Visual hierarchy involves using design, formatting, and spacing to clearly distinguish the importance of on-screen elements. Especially on the internet, this is the basic format you’ll encounter.
The general approach is to have a main bold font header to describe the overall piece. It is followed by a sub-heading that offers quick summary of details. The concept is that the biggest and boldest items displayed will get noticed first.
This is what you need to keep in mind when designing your display. Give more visual weightage to the more important statements of your display.
Focus
Like all forms of effective advertising, digital signage needs to be designed to garner attention from the targeted audience.
Do proper research to study your target audience. What places are they more likely to visit and at what time of the day? Which type of content are they most likely to respond to? What exactly are you trying to achieve through this campaign?
The answers to these questions should be the pivot point of your campaign. The focus should always be on your audience.
Over-Cluttering
Most digital campaigns fail because they lack proper structure. Having no structural strategy to project your content leads to over-cluttering, discontinuity, and overall failure to grab attention.
You need to properly map out the number of slides you intent to use, the duration of rotation, and the time of the day each slide needs to target. Make sure that each of your slides only offer a single takeaway and design the rest of the content around it.
Always remember that each slide will only have a few seconds to grab your viewer’s attention. A viewer cannot focus on everything in those few seconds. Design your slide in a way that provides only a single yet vital information that the viewer can actually takeaway.
Color Contrasting
While having the wild, vivid colors are a sure way to catch the passerby’s eye, you need to keep in mind that not all colors can be contrasted to work together.
Get yourself familiar with the color wheel and the elements of designing before you start the drawing process. Beware of using too many contrasting elements in a single slide and avoid using clashing colors to increase the visual appeal of the display.
Remember that too much vividness can burn the viewers eyes, not literally, but enough to make them loose the focus. It can even lead to ghost shadowing and color shift that makes your content unclear to notice.
Takeaway points
Designing a digital signage is a lengthy process to do in-house, which is why so many signage companies in Dubai offer design services along with installation and rest. If at any point you feel like you aren’t doing justice to the design, you can contact professionals.
For in-house designing, remember to start with a proper content creation plan backed by market research. Establish a singular key takeaway point for each slide, and design the visual hierarchy around it. Strategically format each slide for white spaces, complementary colors, and images.
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