What is digital signage for transport?

Digital signage for transport, what is it? We’re not talking about the print advertising that is found on the sides of buses or on the outside of taxis. Instead, we’re talking about the large digital board or screens that you might have already seen in an airport displaying flight departures and arrivals.

Why use digital signage advertising in the transportation industry?

Maximum exposure

As long as transport is running in your town or city, which is often from early morning until late into the night, it means that digital billboards and advertisements will be operating for maximum effectiveness and exposure.

Viewed on mass

There’s an incredible amount of power in advertising via digital signage on transportation, mainly as the exposure to the masses is so vast, guaranteed and seemingly never-ending.

Great coverage in the target area

If you’re looking to advertise in a particular area, then this type of advertising method will gain you great coverage - adverts are seen quickly and can often be viewed multiple times at different times of the day.

Think about the average bus journey length, it is roughly 25 minutes - so for almost half an hour, you have a group of people’s undivided attention. For larger screens, people will look up from their smaller screens. If adverts are placed inside these modes of transport, then it offers enormous dwell time for detailed information and messaging.

How can digital signage be used in the transport industry?

• For information

Digital signage is great at keeping your customers up to date with the latest travel information and it can be tailored to their specific journey to ensure that their travel experience is a good one. Customer enhancement features can also be integrated to display local weather or news updates and even view live tweets from people in the surrounding area.

• For a better customer experience

If people are using public transport, they want to get to places as quickly and as efficiently as possible. To enhance their travel experience, you can provide a better experience with digital signage, such as letting them know updated travel times and delays to the fastest routes and perhaps even keep them updated with the news or social feeds. This will ensure customers are always kept in the loop and receive transparent, and up to date, information. 

• Easier for transport employees

From a customer point of view, digital signage can help enhance travel, as well as make it an easier process for transport employees. One of the many benefits is that it can also help you deliver key information, such as shrinking perceived waiting times and letting customers know of any delays.

Using digital signage in airports and railway stations

• Innovation and efficiency at airports

There are a number of different ways airports can use digital signage, such as integrating digital arrival and departure boards, using digital signs in terminal restaurants as a new form of advertising. Compared to the rest of the transportation industry, airports are one of the leading users of digital signage with the rest of the industry rapidly making headway to catch up.

By embracing technology, airports have modernised their mode of transportation in a truly inspiring way. Not only has it helped modernise the facility, but it has also greatly improved the travel experience for passengers as they can now use digital signage without even realising it. 

Queues can be streamlined and faster thanks to self-check-in kiosks, and digital signage boards that display information clearly on screens. This has a dual purpose; it is aesthetically pleasing to travellers and it conveys information in a more convenient way. Digital signage allows for a safe and secure environment, while also aiding the constant flow of traffic through the airport terminals.

• Wayfinding

When digital signage is used by the transportation industry, it can also aid with passenger wayfinding. Airports, train stations and bus terminals can be extremely busy and large buildings (or multiple!), therefore having excellent and clear signage throughout, can help. 

Large screens can facilitate clear directions and customer signposting, as well as be used to display advertisements or incredible visual displays and key customer information. It is a worthwhile investment, especially when compared to physical signage, large banners or stand up signs.

For the transport industry, wayfinding can help direct travellers to arrivals and departures, boarding gates, baggage claims or lost property services, taxis and to customer services. It can also be useful for displaying popular local destinations, restaurants, shops and hotels. 

• Video walls

One creative way to use digital signage in transport hubs is through installing video walls, particularly where there is a lot of foot traffic. For example, you could place a video wall at the main entrance of an airport or railway station. Immediately, this will engage visitors, and provide them with a useful and informed journey, right from the get-go.

Digital signage video walls allow the transportation industry to provide a very clear and large space for their public messaging. Not only impressing visitors, but it adds to the company’s branding and improves the overall experience. At an airport, simple instructions and directions can be broadcast, allowing people catching their flight to head in the right direction for ‘bag drop’, ‘checking in’ or heading through to passport control and the departure lounges.

• Waiting rooms

In busy transport hubs, waiting rooms or departure lounges and arrival areas receive a lot of traffic. Sometimes people can be waiting in these areas for hours. When digital signage is ideally placed in these locations, it can be used as a form of communication or even as entertainment. When used in this way, it allows you to create the illusion of wait times being shorter as people aren’t sitting around waiting with very little, if anything, to do.

Since the turn of the century, airports and busy transportation hubs globally have seen increased security measures being implemented. With travellers finding that there’s an increase in waiting times at security checkpoint areas. Digital signage screens can aid this increased regulation by displaying messaging or marketing.

• Shopping

When people are going through a train or bus station they don’t have much time to browse, which in turn means that you, the marketer/ advertiser, don’t have a great deal of time to influence their buying decisions. 

In comparison, a bustling airport often has a large retail environment with customers that have several hours (or longer, if they are mid-transfer) worth of spare time. This environment easily lends itself to capturing their attention and trying to influence their buying decisions.

In either of these two transportation hub scenarios, you can install digital signage screens and mount them on shop windows. When these screens are facing outwards, it will encourage customers to come inside the store and check out the goods, whether that’s for food, drinks or items for sale. To coincide with this approach, inside the store you can strategically place screens, strengthen the visual merchandising, all of which encourage people to spend.

Other transport uses: cruise ships or public transport such as buses, tubes, and taxis

The main reason advertising, and particularly using digital signage, is successful in the transport industry is that people have to wait around. This excess of time and the boredom or loneliness that accompanies it, lends itself well to this type of marketing.

On other modes of transport, you can also utilise billboards and interactive screens, such as in bus shelters or on the underground tube services. Inside a tube station, there is a lot of wall space to make use of, perfect for displaying advertising, information and more. Another use for digital signage in transport is inside taxis. New technology means that advertising screens can be installed on the back of the seats.

Contact AOPEN

If you’re looking for digital signage that you can rely on then check out AOPEN’s extensive range. We supply and manufacture a wide range of digital signage media players. If you need assistance, you can call our team on +31 (0)73 646 6400, or drop us an email with your enquiry to request@aopen.com and we’d be happy to help.