Digital signage trial yields results
Study compares digital signage against static billboards with real commuters
Outdoor advertising agency Kinetic and True Colours Distribution have completed a study assessing the effects of digital signage on real commuters passing through London Bridge station.
The trial used True Colours Distribution’s TruMedia equipment, according to the firm’s sales director, Iain Campbell.
“We wanted to measure the number of people and their attention to the signage,” said Campbell.
“People who went right looked to the right, at the digital signage. Interestingly, people who went left along the platform looked right too.”
Campbell said the study showed that people paid more attention to moving, digitised signs than they realised, especially at off-peak times of day. In rush hour, more people appeared to suffer from tunnel vision and notice less.
Nick Mawditt, global marketing director at Kinetic, said 155,000 people had passed the ad during the 11-day trial. Kinetic worked with True Colours and Titan, which lent the advertising panels.
“It was a real-life scenario, with actual people looking at a real ad,” said Mawditt. “We used a static poster ad and then for the digital signage we used three animations: one with no movement, one with a little movement and one with lots of movement.”
A little animation proved preferable to none. However, once people’s attention had been won, adding even more movement to the same ad provided no perceptible benefit.
While lots of research has been done on tracking eye movement in a laboratory, few real-world situations had been analysed, said Mawditt.
“We measured the actual footfall and the entrances used [at the station], not just hypothetical people.”
Ivan Clark, digital and creative solutions director at Kinetic, said advertisers have queried whether more people would look at digital signage than static posters.
“Our findings allay concerns advertisers may have had about the value of sharing space with other customers using such media,” he said.