When it comes to wowing you customers, nothing does it quite as well as Video Walls. People are visual by nature, and even one screen can grab our attention from a distance. It’s just the way we’re wired.
Factor in an entire video wall, and now we’re talking about a whole new level of engagement. The best thing about video walls is that they’re great for any industry, too, from retail and hospitality to financial, healthcare and even auto dealers.
With that said, it’s important to remember that there’s a right place and right time to deploy video walls at your business. As with any element of your customer experience, you want to make sure there is a specific strategy behind your video walls. Some questions to ask yourself are:
- What will they show?
- Are they intended solely for décor, for promotional purposes, or a combination of both?
- What is my budget?
Your answers to each of these questions will help guide you through the most important question of them all: where you will put your video walls? For any digital signage solution, location is the second-biggest factor (second only to content). As you can imagine, placing your screens at different locations throughout your business will yield different results. Let’s take a look at how.
The Entry Point & First Experience
We all know about the importance of making a great first impression, and a video wall at the entrance gives customers the impression that your brand is cutting-edge. It sets the tone for an elevated experience throughout your location, and generally speaking, is simply a great way to attract customers. Whether you go with ambient visuals, lifestyle videos or promotional content, you just can’t go wrong with a video wall near the entrance.
Back of Store
If you’re a retailer in a mall, installing a video wall in the back of your store or behind the checkout area can be an effective strategy to encourage customers to browse your entire store. The idea is that the video wall will serve as a sort of focal point that leads your customers throughout the store until they finish their journey at the point of purchase. This placement strategy can be a great way to inspire greater spending.
Corridor Video Displays
Ditch the faded paintings and give your business the feel of a next-generation art gallery instead. Creating video walls in hallways is a great way to enhance the experience at your location and show that you’re a relevant brand in the digital age. Ambient visuals really shine in this application, but lifestyle and branded images can also be effective in creating a stunning customer experience.
External-Facing Video Walls
If you really want to expand your audience and go big, then go with an external-facing video wall. This application gives you a wealth of options and can serve a variety of purposes. You can go the traditional route and use it to promote your offerings on a grand scale, or even get creative with your content.
For example, FirstBank of downtown Denver, CO uses external-facing video walls to show ambient visuals that change throughout the day. They also use their video wall screens to show a series of news clips, and at other times they showcase digital images of artwork from Denver-area artists.
Special attention to detail should be paid to two main factors when considering external-facing video walls.
- Sunlight and time of day. There are digital screens that can auto detect and auto-adjust nit values when sunlight is shining on the screens. It is also important to understand that direct sunlight can shorten the lifespan of the physical screen.
- Local municipalities and laws. After the sun sets, signage appears brighter and more vibrant. Before deploying an outward-facing video wall, consult with your local community to understand the laws of displaying motion graphics at night. Flashy screens can cause distractions to drivers and cause accidents. For the safety of all, please review local laws as it pertains to displaying any type of outward-facing digital signage at night.
Video walls can truly bring the wow factor to your business and enhance your customer experience, but as we mentioned in the beginning, you need to put some thought into content and location strategy. Once you have a strategy in place, make sure you do the research and seek out a digital signage expert that is highly experienced in deploying video walls.
If you have any questions at all about Video Walls or want to bounce your ideas off of a digital signage pro, contact us and we’ll connect you with our Visual experts. We live and breathe digital signage and would love to discuss your vision with you.
– Submitted by Brian Elles, Visual