Digital signage for outdoor spaces.

Widen your audience by taking your digital signage outdoors.

Digital signage is used by many types of businesses these days; you're probably used to seeing digital screens in waiting rooms, at restaurants and more. Digital signs tend to be located indoors, since weather and moisture can pose challenges for electronics. But thanks to weather-resistant screens and enclosures, it's now possible to take your digital signage content to outdoor spaces, where they can be seen by a much wider audience!

Outdoor Shopping Areas

High streets and outdoor shopping areas attract masses of people, particularly in warmer climates. Until recently, however, it's been time-consuming and expensive to constantly print and update advertising and helpful visitor information in these areas. That all changed several years ago with the advent of ultra-bright, weatherproof screens (both TVs and LED walls), and affordable weatherproof enclosures for existing screen hardware. It's now possible to deploy a massive TV or small video wall inside a weatherproof enclosure for just a few thousand dollars. Just plug a XOGO Mini Max into the TV and connect it to an available WiFi network (or an LTE modem) and you have a 24/7 outdoor communications platform, whose content can be updated from anywhere in the world using XOGO Manager.

Free-Standing Enclosures

In many cities (especially European locations like Berlin and Nice), we are beginning to see digital screens integrated into free-standing, weatherproof enclosures. These enclosures are often dual-side and located on podiums in busy pedestrian areas, both for visibility and in order to discourage vandalism. The screens are sometimes installed and owned by an advertising network, other times by the municipality itself. In either case the digital screens create an effective ad platform for local businesses, while allowing the municipality to display important information (i.e. local weather or upcoming events) along with critical information in case of an emergency.

Bus and Train Enclosures

Similar to above, some municipalities are beginning to mount digital screens in the end-caps of weatherproof public enclosures where people wait for buses and trains. These screens can be used to communicate pertinent travel information like train delays, while allowing the possibility for the screens to be monetized through the sale of ad space to businesses, either through a manual method or by leveraging a programmatic advertising service like Vistar. Bus and train enclosures virtually guarantee lots of ad impressions and a captive audience, while the use of an affordable, cloud-based signage platform like XOGO allows the enclosures to pay for themselves over time, with ad content that can be updated from anywhere on the planet.

Digital Billboards

Thanks to the availability of massive, weatherproof LED matrices from companies like LG and Planar, even road-side billboards are beginning to go digital. Gone are the days when we needed to pay a crew to paste large-scale graphics onto a wooden backdrop for an ad campaign, only to have to come back and do it all over again whenever the ad spot is sold to someone else. With digital billboards, operators can allow multiple advertisers to have X number of ad impressions per hour on a given billboard. Price the ad placements according to the time of day (i.e. higher prices during rush hour) or day of the week, according to how many cars are passing by. Note: road-side ads need to adhere to state and local laws, so operators must be careful to check local laws; for example, the number of words and images that can be in the road-side ad (so as not to distract drivers).

Car and Truck-Mounted LED Screens

As described in our car-top digital signage use case, XOGO can now be used to drive LED video screens that are mounted to the tops of cars, or even mounted to the sides of trucks and lorries. The media player typically has an LTE connection, allowing it to receive content updates even while the vehicle is on the move. This allows the operators of taxi services and delivery companies to earn more revenue by displaying paid ads on top of their vehicles as they move around the city all day. We've also had clients create what are essentially mobile billboards, by using XOGO to power a large LED screen mounted to the side of a truck or van. This can be particularly effective at outdoor events like music festivals and sporting events.

Food Trucks

Food trucks have exploded in popularity in recent years. Often found near parks, breweries and outside sporting events, food trucks tend to have a small menu and a focus on mobility and affordability. Since XOGO runs on both Android and iOS tablets, as well as Android-powered "digital sandwich boards," it's the perfect tool to show customers your menus and pricing in an attention-grabbing way. Some savvy food-truck users have even incorporated QR codes into their digital menus, allowing customers to order food from their mobile devices, or to visit the food truck's website or like its social media pages in order to retrieve a coupon. And because the system is so easy to use, the food truck operator or an assistance can update menus or pricing on the fly.

Summary

Thanks to advancements in weatherproof screens and enclosures, car-top LEDs and even tablets like iPads, digital signage is no longer confined to indoor spaces. If you're interested to set up an outdoor signage network or have questions about running XOGO on outdoor screens, please contact us via the form below. We'll be happy to set up a call with you to discuss your project in detail.

Take-Aways

• XOGO is ideal for outdoor digital signage in shopping areas, food trucks and bus enclosures

• Weatherproof LED screens are available for car-tops, trucks and even billboards

• Outdoor digital signage results in dramatically higher ad impressions (views) than indoor

• Municipalities can sell ad placements to brands while also leveraging screens for public info & alerts

• XOGO runs natively on many outdoor screens, as well as the media players that plug into those screens