How to use Infotainment to Improve your Digital Signage Messaging

Digital signage is very effective at engaging, alerting, and informing viewers.

It is also just as effective in entertaining audiences.

Adding infotainment to your digital signage means showing pure entertainment — not fun company messages or funny HR videos, just pure entertainment e.g. sports stats, billboard charts, trending tweets and more.

The entertaining messages will keep people interested in your screens, and as they continue to look at them, they’ll see your other important messages.

Showing these fun messages will also improve the perception viewers have of your business. It tells your viewers that they’re more than just customers, employees, students, or patients — you’re recognizing that they are human beings with hobbies and interests outside of work.

For the best results, you’ll want to loosely tie the content to company culture in a very subtle way e.g. if your company is publicly traded, show a daily stock ticker of top performers; if you’re in a corporate office, display healthy tips videos during open enrollment for benefits etc.

So how do you know what to display? Simply ask your audience. A simple poll or survey will collect enough data on what people like, and that will guide your content strategy.

In addition to showing what people like, be careful to balance the amount of fun and targeted messaging. Follow the three exposure rule i.e. show 1 fun content for at least 7 seconds long, and repeat it 3 times in one message loop. Remember that the goal of digital signage is to improve communication — infotainment is simply meant to attract viewers to the screen so that they can see the company communications.

To get you started, we have compiled 4 types of infotainment for digital signage:

1. Trivia Quizzes

Quizzes are applicable in almost any industry. There is general trivia that will work in any setting and there is industry-specific trivia e.g. health. Companies can come up with unique, interesting trivia questions to splash across the screen, offering a blend of entertainment and actual industry knowledge.

For example, a healthcare clinic installing digital signage in its waiting rooms could ask the following question:

• Is LDL the “good” cholesterol or the “bad” cholesterol in your blood test results?

This is a simple, relevant question that may actually improve a patient’s knowledge about his/her health, particularly when it comes time to see the doctor. (It’s the bad cholesterol, by the way).

But while questions like these can be used for educational purposes, remember, the goal here is entertainment. To make the quiz even more engaging, add photos, images and animations to make it pop.

An alternative to curating the quizzes in-house is getting a content subscription with ready-made quizzes.

2. Helpful Spotlights

This is a great option for businesses in the hospitality/travel industry or those in tourist cities.

These businesses get a lot of out-of-town travelers who are not familiar with the area. Displaying information about the locality is not only informative for these travelers, but it’s entertaining as well.

Display fun facts about the area, local landmarks, popular restaurants, area parks, local community, sports or music events and more.

When presented as helpful recommendations rather than sales pitches, these messages will be received well and they’ll add value to the traveler’s experience.

3. Travel Inspiration

An American Psychological Association paper stated that offices devoid of pictures or any other similar distractions are the most toxic spaces you can put a human into. The paper also observed that employees were 15% more productive when workplaces are filled with just a few photos.

To improve the energy in your space, try displaying travel destinations and beautiful scenery. Pictures of broad horizons or far off places allow the eyes to adjust and refocus and they bring about a feeling of freedom which helps to relax employees.

Travel inspirations is content that will work in any area with a dwell time of more than 7 seconds. Think lobbies, any waiting rooms, in queues, at the DMV, food courts etc.

The sky’s the limit (no pun intended) when it comes to travelling tips. Display stunning footage of different destinations. Simplicity is the key to getting maximum visual impact i.e. use voice-over narration or simple text and captioning for low- and no-sound environments.

4. Social Media Feeds

While social media can be used to inform and even alert, let’s review it in the context of entertainment.

When you show social media as infotainment on digital signage, we’re not talking about displaying your own twitter or Facebook posts on your screens. We’re talking about displaying top social media posts about:

• celebrity quotes
• breaking news
• trending topics
• highly-rated posts

You can argue that digital signage viewers are already getting this information from their smartphones, but the trick here is easy access. To see the week’s top tweets, they just have to look up instead of opening their phones. When your audience gets in the habit of looking at your screens for information, you’re guaranteed to improve communication.

Other infotainment content includes:

5. Lists — this includes entertaining “best of” rankings e.g. top-grossing movies, top of the music charts, top TV ratings

6. Quotes — display famous quotes to share wisdom from diverse perspectives and to inspire and motivate your audience

7. Healthy bites — show health tips to promote active and healthy lifestyles at work and at home e.g. 6 reasons you should drink water every day.

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For more examples of infotainment for digital signage, or to get started with digital signage, contact us at www.mvixdigitalsignage.com.