Digital Signage: Dayparting Opens New Opportunities to Marketers or Advertisers

Hotels, individual retailers, malls and many other venues where digital signs are often found share a common characteristic: changing demographics and/or desires of customers throughout the day.Savvy marketers can take advantage of the ease with which digital signage messaging can be changed and scheduled to tailor messages to these different demographic groups that wander by their signs throughout the day.

The concept is known as "day parting," something that TV programmers have been doing for decades.This valuable tool has only recently become available to out-of-home marketing and advertising professionals as the tools to change messaging based on the time of day have become available.

Perhaps an example best illustrates the concept behind dayparting.Imagine the lobby of busy hotel catering to business travelers.Near the elevator a digital sign keeps guests informed of hotel amenities and services.A smart marketer has seized the opportunity to daypart messaging on sign by enticing early morning elevator users of the current breakfast menu.

As the day progresses to the time business people leave for their appointments, the sign reminds them that office supplies are available from the hotel business center.As lunch arrives messages promoting the hotel restaurant's buffet are interspersed with digital signage pages promoting hotel amenities.

As evening approaches, the messaging changes to promote a duet promoting in the hotel lounge.Dayparting can be used in a similar way in a retail store to appeal to different groups of shoppers who peruse the aisles at different times of day.

Digital signage opens up this approach to marketers.Before digital signage, changing messages throughout the day was inelegant at best and impractical at worst.Printed placards and signs -prone to tatters and tears- would have to physically be swapped out several times a day to accomplish the same sort of result.

Day parting is appropriate in lots of other digital signage applications as well, such as at malls, in retail stores and in an emerging new sector for digital signage applications: transportation.Consider how mall traffic changes throughout the day.

Even before the retail shops are open, many malls serve as a track and social center for retirees to get their early morning walks in before starting their day.As stores open during the weekdays, shoppers are most likely to be adults, many of whom don't work or are getting off from an early shift.As the day moves on into the afternoon hours, teenagers will begin to appear as school dismisses.In the evenings, mall visitors are more likely to be folks coming home from work or visiting after dinner.

How could marketers possibly hope to tap into demographic-specific marketing opportunities with static, printed signs in this instance?Conversely, how could they possibly ignore the chance to cash in on dayparting their messaging to match the shifting demographics of mall visitors throughout the day?

Many of today's digital signage media servers come with software that makes scheduling messages to match changing demographic audiences a breeze.Doing so gives out-of-home marketers and advertisers the chance to tap into dayparting to increase sale opportunities and better serve the informational needs of their audiences.

Too often, people tend to look to the future weighed down by the past.While past experience can be a good teacher, it shouldn't blind one to the opportunities that arise from new approaches.Dayparting is one of the many powerful opportunities presented by digital signage, and it's there to be seized for those who recognize its potential.

About the Author

David Little is a digital signage enthusiast with 20 years of experience helping professionals use technology to effectively communicate their unique marketing messages.

For further digital signage insight from Keywest Technology, visit our website for many helpful tips and examples.

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