Reminder: 200+ Pages Of Profiles, Insights And Research On Digitl Signage Available As Free Download

October 16, 2023 by Dave Haynes

I get calls and emails frequently – had one just last week – asking if I knew of good resources for research on the digital signage industry. I always reply that it is very hit and miss in terms of what’s available and worthwhile.

There are a handful of credible research firms – like Omdia, Futuresource and DSCC – who look at the industry, but almost entirely from the point of view of displays.

There are seemingly dozens of research factory operations in Pune, India – but with “headquarters” in maildrops in the US – cranking out expensive but very dubious reports that look at digital signage software and anything else that smells like an industry. Invariably, the forecasts are sunny and business will boom! Good luck to uyou if you want to drop $2,500 on whipped air.

There is very little credible research available on the software and services side of the industry, though the trade association AVIXA does have some material. That owes, I’m guessing, to the relatively small size of the industry and therefore the numbers of companies that would subsidize and buy such reports.

So I was surprised to hear last week that downloads for the totally-free 2023 version of the annual invidis digital signage yearbook are where they are – plentiful, but not what I’d expect given what it is and its breadth.

The publication – done both as an oversized print magazine and as a PDF – has some 200 pages of stories, studies, analyses and market data, primarily about the European market. For the past two years, Sixteen:Nine has been helping out with North American content and what passes for insights from me.

The 2023 version has several themes:

• “Green Signage 101” explores environmental, energy and sustainability issues – huge in Europe and spreading globally;
• “Engaging Experiences” lists the do’s and don’ts in content creation and illustrates how good digital signage content is created;
• The “Market Compass” provides an overview of the development of the individual markets;
• The Technology chapter looks at how Generative AI is impacting the digital signage industry. Software providers will learn how to elevate their platform into a modern architecture;
• The DOOH section tries to decode programmatic, and looks at the impacts and impacts of Energy Saving Ordinances that do things like force screens off during non-peak hours;
• The “digital signage market” digs into everything else that is currently occupying the industry. Some of the big trends: Friend-shoring and Business Critical.

The yearbook is published in German and English, with the German one being longer because of additional, country-specific advertising. You click on this link and register your email, and then take it from there. The page is originally in German, and auto-translates to English or whatever language the reader has set. If the translate results in two links saying Download the German version, the first of the two is really the English one.

You’ll figure it out!

The publication is purely editorial, and not riddled with articles posing as editorial … but really just advertorial.

This is easily the best and most ambitious report out there about our industry, and I am happy to have been a contributor. It is particularly good that the yearbook is ad-supported and therefore free to readers. As noted up top, there isn’t much out there about digital signage and services (except that mountain of crap from the research factories).

It should be required reading for anyone serious about this industry.

Interestingly, introducing the simple ask of an email address this year has reduced downloads. Letting the publishers know who is downloading a big report is a pretty fair trade for all that free content, and if someone then feels spammed by emails that follow (if they even do follow), they can unsubscribe pretty easily.

There is a huge amount of good content in there, and even if a lot of it relates to people and companies in Europe and the Middle East, it’s still very relevant and insightful to people in the US, Canada and elsewhere.

I’m already talking to the editor about 2024 content.