Souvent délégué aux équipes techniques, voire aux installateurs, le choix de l’emplacement des écrans d’une solution d’affichage dynamique constitue un élément significatif dans une stratégie de communication digitale. Avant tout, il est nécessaire de comprendre qu’un lieu, quel qu’il soit, se compose de plusieurs zones, lesquelles présentent des atouts et un potentiel de communication différents.
While the multitude of different installations, scenarios and objectives makes generalization difficult, it is nevertheless possible to identify the right questions to ask, the main mistakes to avoid, and a few tips and best practices for positioning your display screens.
Screen location, a crucial factor
Une solution d’affichage dynamique est un outil digital qui permet de communiquer sur des écrans de manière extrêmement efficace (plus d’informations pour bien comprendre l’affichage dynamique). Plus attractif que de simples affiches, et permettant de diffuser de nombreuses informations simultanément, les écrans sont les parfaits alliés des communicants pour véhiculer simplement et rapidement un message.
The messages have to be seen.
The screens have to be looked at.
To guarantee optimum impact, messages need to be well-constructed (in both form and content), aimed at the right people, and the screens need to be installed in the right places. It's obvious, then, not to dissociate the target audience, the content broadcast and the location of the display screens. Instead, they need to be part of a more global communications strategy, with clear, identified objectives. In fact, it's often this very strategy that gives rise to the desire to install such a system, and it's important to bear this in mind when positioning the screens. This desire is also accompanied by objectives, communication objectives, communication with a target, an audience.
Véhiculer efficacement des messages à des personnes représente alors évidemment le but ultime qui motive l’équipement d’une solution d’affichage dynamique. Informer, divertir, vendre, faire patienter, promouvoir, éduquer… les objectifs possibles sont nombreux, divers et variés, tout comme les cibles. Mais un écran, situé à un endroit, ne pourra pas tous les servir. Il existe de nombreux cas d’utilisation différents, de nombreux objectifs imputables à un tel système, et autant d’exceptions. De sorte que chaque situation est un cas particulier, et s’atteler à suivre “une éventuelle recette miracle” pour le positionnement des écrans serait illusoire. En revanche, ces quelques lignes vous aideront à soulever les bonnes questions et à détecter les emplacements aux plus forts potentiels pour votre affichage dynamique lumineux.
Two identifiable zones, two different strategies
Once the objectives have been identified, one of the first questions to ask concerns the target, i.e. the people to be reached. A good study and understanding of the latter, through observation, will lead to a good knowledge of their expectations in terms of information (which will guide the content), as well as their movements and behavior in your establishment (which will guide the choice of location).
In addition to identifying the main visitor flows, this analysis will enable us to detect areas of heavy traffic (which should obviously be given priority), areas where people are waiting, stopped ( waiting areas), and areas where people are passing through, generally without stopping ( transit areas).
Display screens in the waiting area
In these times of digital transformation, many companies are working day after day to improve the experience of their consumers (at the point of sale), or of their employees (internally). These efforts are aimed, among other things, at reducing waiting times, and involve modifying the services offered, or adding digital tools (automatic order terminals, drive-throughs, queue management systems, etc.). But, despite their efforts, we are confronted every day with moments when waiting is unavoidable (doctor's waiting room, supermarket queue, waiting at the car dealership, at the bar, in front of the coffee machine...). The examples are endless.
These moments, often overlooked, are moments when the mind is free, or at least not too busy (the task that required concentration is done). At this moment, the mind is open, receptive, and even looking for a message, any message, to distract it. The eyes will be looking around for a place to rest, something to read, something to occupy them. Put yourself in the person's shoes (physically, in your establishment) and detect where your eyes naturally rest... Isn't that the ideal place to position a display screen?
This type of location, in a waiting area, brings with it the particularity of a relatively long exposure time (durations obviously depend on the context). A screen positioned in such a location will keep a person occupied for several tens of seconds (or even several minutes). The content displayed can be entertaining, educational or informative. It's best to avoid showing exactly the same thing during the same patient period (which could convey a bad image). This format therefore allows for relatively long and detailed content (provided it is well structured), and requires a reduction in the frequency of content broadcast (for example, by increasing the number of messages to be broadcast).
Display screens in high-traffic areas
On the other hand, when we're not waiting in a parking zone, we're on the move, moving fast. Or, even when we take the time to stop for a few moments near screens, our gaze rarely remains fixed on them for very long.
Such areas are characterized by a relatively short exposure time, of the order of a few seconds.The content strategy must therefore beadapted to this particular zone: the aim of such a display is more to attract attention, to instill an idea, an emotion, to introduce or recall the name of a brand, or even to tease, i.e. an extract rather than to convey complete information!
And to do this, the format has to be short: a few seconds of exposure leave only enough time for a few words. Obviously, the message will have been created for the occasion, taking care to maximize the readability of the content (large, legible fonts, strong contrast with dynamic luminous displays...). Similarly, a quick animation can help to attract the eye, but should not hinder reading... It's a mistake to waste 2 seconds on an animation out of the 4 seconds a visitor spends looking at a display. Finally, the frequency with which each piece of content is broadcast can be high: since people aren't inclined to look at the screen for long periods, they won't see repeated messages.
For example, in the case of a store offering promotions on new products, it will probably be more effective to announce the promotions only briefly in a high-traffic area and reserve more details on these promotions for a waiting area, or for an area close to the promoted products, where interested parties will be looking for this precise information.
Screen position and content strategy: two inseparable elements
Installing display screens, and more generally a digital signage system, is costly: it's therefore essential not to neglect any aspect of its installation. In the same way as the content strategy deployed or the understanding of target audiences, screen placement can play a major role in the success or failure of a digital signage project (a poorly placed screen, or a poorly shaped or targeted message, does more to damage brand image than a well-positioned screen, or a quality message, does to enhance it).
It goes without saying that these 3 aspects need to be fully integrated into your overall screen communications strategy, and that you need to identify the objectives you want to achieve and the people you want to reach before you start rolling out on a large scale.
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