5 for 5: What was trending in digital signage in April?

Gaming, scoring and banking were big in April, as was the latest media player-minus display to hit the digital signage market.

What was trending on Digital Signage Today in April? Read on to find out; here are the most-read digital signage stories from April:

5. "Game on: Restaurants winning with gamification" - Digital signage and gamification can foster increased engagement, productivity and profitability for restaurants.

Customers don't have time to wait in line these days, and restaurant owners are solving that problem by incorporating social media, digital signage and mobile technology to offer a seamless way to order and pay. While these solutions are readily available, another technology is also present that restaurateurs can use to gain traction amongst customers: gamification. Gamification is certainly not a new phenomenon; however it is a solution that can solve these everyday hassles and tremendously help the hospitality industry.

Gamification is the application of game design principles to business applications designed increase engagement, productivity and overall profitability for enterprises and their customers. All these aspects make gamification very useful to service companies because of the ability to reinforce certain types of behaviors in consumers and employees...

Read the full article here.

4. "Scoring content for digital signage" - Digital signage expert Lyle Bunn offers a scoring system for assessing digital signage content.

Digital signage hangs on one single word — "benefit" and it is content, the media presented on digital signage, that delivers this benefit once the technology infrastructure is in place. But the quality of content and the merit of investing in this has been an ongoing frustration for network operators. Perhaps this is in part because impact analysis is not commonly conducted and no easier mechanism exists for assessing content quality. What follows is a framework for evaluating content quality toward improving specific and overall benefits through improved content.

The ability to display motion, animation in content that is suited to the audience, time of day and location of presentation make the medium inherently powerful. Too often the fuller advantages that can be gained from the medium are not realized, as basic messaging is considered adequate to achieve suitable viewer impact...

Read the full article here.

3. "Pro hockey, pro hoops try out digital signage projection tech" - Projection-mapping digital signage is lighting it up on the court and on the ice, from Canada to Cleveland.

The Halifax Mooseheads and the Cleveland Cavaliers are putting digital signage in play.

The Mooseheads, a hockey team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in Canada, and the Cavaliers, a basketball team in the National Basketball Association in the U.S., both recently turned to projection mapping technology to put on an in-venue digital signage light show for fans...

Read the full article, and see more videos, here.

2. "Bank on in-branch digital signage turning tellers into sellers" - STRATACACHE CEO Chris Riegel talks using digital signage to move tellers to sellers and taking the retail bank branch into the future.

It is no secret that mobile and online banking is pushing banks to rethink and modernize their marketing and advertising models. Despite popular belief, however, the branch is still an important element in the banking cycle.

Nearly four out of five customers (78 percent) say that they expect to be visiting their local bank branch just as frequently — or even more frequently — five years from now, in large part because 66 percent of them still prefer to "talk to a person" rather than purchase a banking product online. Two-thirds say they consider branch closures more than a minor inconvenience, and nearly half would switch banks as a result. Branches also remain banks' primary engine for sales. Nearly 60 percent of traditional retail bank products were sold via the branch, according to a recent survey. Right now, in short, the branch remains the pre-eminent channel and demands attention from savvy marketers.

Marketers that realize the importance of modernizing the branch are using digital signage to create an integrated experience online, across mobile channels and in bank branches, where engagement with customers is still significant. These cutting-edge banks are transforming the branch from a transactional hub where customers engage with tellers to a dynamic source of information on financial products, services and information — through the use of digital displays. The result — tellers empowered to "sell" banking services to clients, re-invigorating the potential of branches and modernizing the retail banking experience...

Read the full article here.

1. "First look: Samsung's latest SOC digital signage displays" - Samsung upgrades its assault on the external media player in digital signage with its new D Series displays.

Samsung's new D Series commercial displays that introduce the next-generation of its Samsung Smart Signage Platform become available this month. The SSP, according to Samsung, is built around an enhanced system-on-chip that now provides support for more advanced applications including touch and video wall configurations — all without the need for an external media player or PC. In addition to the system's quad-core processor, the D Series also adds an SD slot for flexible memory expansion, as well as built-in Wi-Fi as a standard feature for many models, the company said...

Read the full article here.