How to engage your audience with interactive signage?

An interactive display defines a static or dynamic display medium(poster, screen, etc.) enhanced by an interface enabling visitors to interact with it, and in particular with the message being broadcast.

Today's digitalized spaces (with the digitalized store at the forefront) are the scene of numerous events, often featuring innovative technologies and designed to offer visitors an immersive experience. As part of this drive to differentiate and improve the customer experience (at every level: window, reception, waiting, choice, test, purchase, after-sales...), interactive displays offer immense potential.

Interactive digital signage, a two-way communication channel

Interaction with the interactive digital sign can beinitiated by the visitor (pressing a button, using a tablet...) or by the display itself (triggered by a gesture recognition system...). Although the boundaries are blurred, it's important to distinguish between several levels of interactivity, from simple motion detection triggers to interactive games based on the direction of the visitor's gaze. Complexity and installation costs differ, as do benefits and returns.

Interactive displays are mainly used by brands to enhance customer experiences and journeys. These interactive broadcasts are ideal for engaging visitors, with high memorization rates. They are therefore the channel of choice for effectively conveying messages, promoting know-how or simply, thanks to playful experiences, increasing sympathy.

Cenareo's interactive applications

Facial recognition systems, remote controls, interactive synchronization, connected buttons (Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, Sigfox...): there are many innovations that bring interactivity to the offline customer experience. Here are a few examples: 

 Gamifying the point of sale: the game of the wheel

Inspired by game shows where viewers are invited to spin a wheel on the set and win a live prize, the interactive Wheel Game application lets visitors spin a virtual wheel. After entering their personal details (email address, name, gender, age, telephone number, etc.), an animated wheel, synchronized between the screen and the smartphone, shows the visitor the prize won.

This example of interactive display allows us to really engage the customer (motivated by the prizes), to encourage acceptance of new screens, to enrich customer databases, to animate a point of sale, to communicate about partners (logos, sponsored prizes...).

This application boosts your business by offering an interactive service that's fun and engaging for visitors, and offers high added value for your brand.

The interactive film

The interactive film lets visitors interact directly with the broadcast and choose what happens next. In the style of "books in which you are the hero", the interactive film lets visitors take control of the story and decide for the hero. A terminal with physical and connected buttons invites visitors to choose in the hero's place.

This interactive broadcast reinforces the brand's image through a unique, immersive experience, and collects customer data (the end of the film is only available after visitors have entered their personal details). What's more, visitors' attention during their participation in the film can be monetized by triggering contextualized content on a secondary screen (the film features a hero driving a car to a gala evening. At that very moment, a second screen shows the promotion of a car of the partner's brand. Even better: the model of the car changes according to the weather at the interactive experience location...)

Primarily used in schools and museums for educational purposes, the application is also successful at point of sale.

And how will interactive signage evolve in the future?

In addition to 2D (QRcode) or 3D codes, touchscreen tablets and motion sensors, which are already in widespread use, new forms of interaction are making their mark on the interactive display landscape. Physical buttons, sound, luminosity, pressure and temperature sensors, as well as voice, facial and gesture recognition systems, are enabling new experiences. Facial recognition, in particular, is attracting a great deal of interest, both for advertising applications (precise targeting) and for entertainment, education or signage (eye-controlled games).

But these technologies applied to this field are only of interest if they provide a real service. Indeed, anyone can have a tablet pointing to their website and call it an interactive experience, but what does the device actually do? What does the user get out of it? What kind of experience, what kind of service? So, in this anthology of interactive display technologies, only interactive applications coupled with real uses corresponding to real needs are worthy of interest.

At a time when consumer behavior is evolving in step with technological advances, the customer experience is more fundamental than ever for retailers. In this context, what could be more effective for message memorization and customer loyalty than gamification of the point-of-sale, interactivity with visitors and the use of the smartphone as an integral part of message conveyance? The point of sale becomes the stage for a singular, new and fun experience, the ideal cocktail for inspiring trust and sympathy. It's an original and effective way of revitalizing in-store competitions, questionnaires and surveys, gamifying information gathering and, ultimately, message transmission. However, this interaction is only one of the tools available to communicators, and cannot be effective without rich, engaging, high-quality content.

In addition to controlling screens via smartphones, in reality all connected objects are capable of triggering broadcasts, as well as online services. Connected buttons, motion, temperature and sound sensors can all trigger on-screen animations. Why not launch a video when the coffee maker runs out of water?

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If you have a digital signage project, ask for a demonstration.