Help Size And Rank The Digital Signage Industry Through This Survey

April 14, 2023 by Dave Haynes

Two things happen all the time for me with respect to the size and characteristics of the digital signage software and services market:

• Industry contacts, investors and consulting firms email or call me asking what research is available (precious little, I respond);
• I react in writing to third-party posts and presentations that reference junk research from Indian report factories that cover anything and everything that looks like a business. For the 876th time, a company in India that also issues reports about o-rings and fertilizers and baby formulas (and scores of other subjects)  is not going to be terribly well-versed in display technology.

While there is some good, credible data and insights available from real research and consulting firms on the display and computing markets, there is very little available that sizes things like CMS software companies, integrators and solutions providers. There ARE things like rankings of top AV systems integrators, but those pull in ALL the work a company does – meaning ACME AV Systems might be a big player overall, but most or all of that work is in areas like video conferencing or kitting out broadcast studios. They might not do much or any digital signage work.

While the digital signage industry is substantial and growing, the numbers of companies that can afford $3,000 (or more) research reports is limited, which helps explain why “real” research firms have not put their resources on this.

So if this industry wants real data focused just on what it does and delivers, it’s going to have to be done within the industry. Which leads me to efforts by Munich-based consulting firm and publisher invidis to develop a survey and rankings of the industry in the EU region AND in North America. Sixteen:Nine shares content with invidis, which produces news and analysis in the German language, but covers all of the EMEA region.

A browser’s auto-translate does a nice job of making German accessible to me. The only German I know is Hefeweizen.

This year’s edition of the annual digital signage yearbook produced in print and digital by invidis, with contributions from Sixteen:Nine, will include the results of an industry survey we’re collectively asking industry executives to complete.

The invidis yearbooks with industry rankings have been providing a reliable overview of the economic development of digital signage providers since 2011. Based on sales and software licenses, they show the position of the players in the market. The results will be published at DSS Europe 2023 on July 5th.

Here is the survey for the industry rankings (there are EMEA and N. America versions):

EU region: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/invidis2023

US/Canada: https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/invidis169

Book yearbook ads now

Interest in the invidis digital signage and DooH yearbooks has been growing for years. Since 2011, invidis has published the “Industry Bible” every summer for the DSS Europe Conference. Tens of thousands of yearbooks are downloaded throughout the year.

Since the first issue, we have been distributing the yearbooks free of charge, funded solely by advertising. For more information on the range of advertisements – here are the media data (DE) and the media kit (EN). Don’t miss the opportunity to show your presence in this important publication!

Because most companies active in the digital signage sector are privately-held, we’re all doing semi-educated guesswork trying to sort through who the major players are for areas like CMS software and solutions. I just had a call yesterday asking me if I had a sense of the annual revenues of Company X.

“I’m thinking $3M,” I said, “but that’s a bit of a guess.”

The annual yearbook, which through Sixteen:Nine now has North American content included, is excellent. Do the survey and make it an even better resource!