Digital Sign Trends

Digital signage trends don’t always change much from one year to the next, but that’s not the case for 2021. With the ever increasing advances in technology, Digital Sign trends have exponentially increased from where they were just 5 years ago. Here are the digital sign trends to consider integrating into your marketing and design.

Upgrading To Full Color LED Signs

Most of this year’s digital sign trends are heavily influenced by the changes in consumer habits created by social distance shopping. Due to the outset of the Covid-19 novel Coronavirus, many businesses upgraded to Full Color LED signs in 2020 to communicate their COVID protocols and provide essential communication from a distance. For example, to communicate their changing hours of operation and capacity control with a digital sign placed in their window. To show people new protocols, and to wear masks as well as socially distance.

With social distancing still in place businesses across every industry are upgrading their single and tricolor signs to full color LED signs. Full color LED signs are the most versatile digital option as they can post text, motion graphics, animation, images, and video—and alternate a timed and scheduled mix of communication and ads. They are also the best way to support most of the digital sign trends that follow.

Automated Content Creation

Don’t say goodbye to your digital sign designer quite yet, but you may be able to start designing more of your signs in-house. Signage software companies are recognizing industry trends and the increased need for DIY digital sign templates. This includes templates that display text-based communication in a manner that is more engaging than scrolling or static text, as well as clean and simple designs that you only have to upload images, video, and text to. Consider software such as Rise Vision, ScreenScape, Enplug Digital Sign, and ScreenCloud.

These software systems empower you to update your signs in real-time if safety protocols have changed or if you need to deploy essential communication. When it comes to your marketing materials you may continue to work with a professional sign designer to ensure maximum impact. Feel free to ask your designer if they can create matching templates within your digital design software for your text-heavy communication displays.

Personalized Signage

In 2021 you will see commercial IoTs being integrated to include the consumer in a variety of ways that personalize digital engagement. We’ve seen a bit of this over the past several years, but this is the year that will tip the scales.

Branded apps are increasingly integrated with GPS and beacon technology to send personalized digital promotions to consumers who are nearby and in-store. This goes beyond the digital signage trend of letting consumers know your current specials to creating ads and promotions targeted to the individual shopper. This is the difference between a generic Happy Hour promo sent to returning customers who are within a 2 block radius to a promo for the specific drink or food item they purchased the last time they dined-in or ordered from your restaurant.

AR and VLC technology will be utilized for everything from trying clothes on virtually to facial recognition when in-store, and populating consumer-specific ads and communication on targeted screens—such as digital signs placed outside dressing rooms that suggest clothing items that pair well with what they are trying on.

App To Map

A continuation of personalized signage, many businesses are supporting social distancing and minimizing gathering around printed and digital directories by providing in-app maps—also referred to as digital wayfinding or interactive wayfinding. Just like GPS driving directions, these apps pinpoint precisely where consumers are in a store or building. It’s a signage industry trend that actively guides them to the most efficient route from where they are to where they want to be. While social distancing is the primary goal for many, this feature saves consumers time in large buildings and on campuses they are unfamiliar with such as schools, airports, and hospitals.

Digital Product Catalog

When shoppers head in-store to shop, far fewer are taking the time to browse the racks, aisle, menu, or inventory—and far more are purchasing precisely what they came for and checking out. Unfortunately, this minimizes upsells and spontaneous purchases. Pre-COVID shoppers who would have come in for a new pair of jeans may have also browsed to find a full outfit or additional separates and accessories. Or they would have spent longer browsing your menu and ordered more, now they just order their usual dishes.

By upgrading to full color LED signs, you can display your products or services in a context that is less like an ad and more of a digital catalog. The quality of the images, videos, and graphics must be crystal clear HD. Add text that includes the most relevant facts such as price, color alternatives, design materials, area of the store you can find it in, what other foods and drinks it may pair well with, online shopping options, and other FAQs shoppers have during the customer journey.

Secondary Service Signs

Online sales skyrocketed in 2020, including items traditionally reserved for in-store-shopping—such as luxury goods. Luxury retailers had to think outside of the box to provide shoppers with the confidence to purchase investment pieces online such as leather, gemstone jewelry, art, and high-end fashions. This is achieved by providing easy online or in-person returns and exchanges, as well as the secondary services that come standard with luxury items when purchased in-store.

Secondary services include resizing jewelry, tailoring clothing to fit, framing artwork, and more. For safety and convenience, many secondary services are offered in-store or at satellite kiosks. These secondary services are promoted via digital signs both to ensure they are easy to find and as part of cross channel marketing designed to increase online sales.

Elevated Static Signs

If you haven’t noticed yet, full color LED signs that can communicate and advertise from a distance support most of the digital sign trends for 2021. When it comes to static signs such as logo signs, building numbers, area distinguishers, and quarterly printed pop—the options are elevated. For static signs to stand out amongst the growing trend in digitization, they must be stylized works of art. This goes beyond printing on gloss vs. matte but to printing on or designing long-term signs on non-traditional mediums with texture and depth. This includes but is not limited to:

• Canvas
• Plastic
• PVC
• Acrylic
• Carpet
• Tile
• Glass
• Ceramic
• Metal
• Wood
• Leather
• 3D printing
• And more

In The Market For New LED Signs?

If you are ready to upgrade to or add new full color LED signs to your business in 2021, we invite you to reach out to Mega LED Technology. We custom build each sign to your precise size and specs to mount or hang indoors or outside. Let’s get started!