For our industry electronic digital signage is new and rather confusing. And in dangerous echoes from its own past, segments within the digital print industry, who perhaps feel threatened, are voicing open disdain.

 

I recently read a disturbing assessment of the electronic digital signage market in a UK-based trade publication serving the large-format inkjet print market. It was disturbing because the un-named author’s core message was this: Don’t bother. There’s nothing in it for us.

 

The blog-like screed was probably intended to stir the pot of discussion. But the story’s discounting and marginalization of opportunities with electronic digital signage seemed to be counter productive and, if heeded, could undermine the industry’s best interests. Some points made in the article:

 

• More electronic digital signage means less printed signage. 

• There’s no money in electronic digital signage for sign and display graphics providers—not from hardware, not from software, not from content.

• It is a disjointed and unfocused market.

 

The summary postulates that electronic digital signage will grow and impact print markets, but that printers will play no part in it, and add little value. Ultimately, the article states it’s waste of time, effort and money, and that graphics providers perusing it are “chasing a dream which doesn’t actually exist.”

 

Anyone who was around in this industry in the ’90s remembers how negatively (and arrogantly) many wide-format screen printers viewed the then fledgling wide-format inkjet world. The feeling put forth from them at the time was that this upstart digital technology is clumsy, slow and produces less-than-satisfactory output. The core message was, Don’t bother. There’s nothing in it for us. 

 

As we know, inkjet did not go away. Those who chose to look the other way were eventually robbed of their markets, forced to adopt the technology in some capacity, or if they refused to change—driven completely out of business. 

 

I firmly believe that if one keeps his eye on the fact that we are in the industry of graphic communication (rather than say inkjet printing, channel letter bending or vinyl cutting), we can more easily see where the opportunities are with different technologies. Forming partnerships with shops that have an expertise you lack can help you sell jobs where multiple graphic disciplines might be successfully integrated. 

 

Electronic digital signage isn’t going away, and people will never want to look solely at video screens. There will always be call for a well designed wall graphic, mural or wrap. Best to find ways to work with it rather than against it. Ignore it at your own peril.

 

Ironically, the very industry that seems to be pooh-poohing electronic digital signage today may be in danger of being caught flat-footed by the same disruptive core technology that allowed them to catch the analog print industry with its collective guard down—the binary world of digital. Food for thought.

 

Okay, back to work.