HCV Digital Media

Digital Signage Market Grows Down Under
13 Aug 2010

Australia’s fledgling digital signage systems market is expected to grow at a steady compound rate of more than 12 percent per annum to reach US$53.2 million by 2013.

The findings were released in early July in the “Australia Digital Signage Systems Market Report 2010,” an examination of Australian market trends, opportunities and a competitive analysis issued by consulting company Frost & Sullivan.

The report defines digital signage systems as any network of displays that can be remotely managed and whose business model revolves around merchandising or advertising.

Although the global financial crisis has forced many companies to cut back on spending and some vendors are experiencing lengthy sales cycles, interest in digital signage systems is growing. A primary driver for sales in 2009 was the decline of hardware prices, particularly among plasma and LCD display systems. The report suggests that a continuing shift in advertising dollars from print media to channels such as the Internet and digital signage will further increase momentum, driving growth in the digital signage systems market in the years ahead.

While the market for digital signage systems is still in the early stages of growth, vendors including Cisco and HP are actively increasing their push into the local market. Additionally, telecommunications carriers have identified the opportunities offered by the market, and within the last few months Telstra and Alphawest/Optus, for example, have begun to align themselves with partners for key components such as hardware, software, content processing, content management and content display.

Service providers, apart from having a control over the network, are looking to be an end-to-end solution integrator in this market. Telstra, for instance, recently launched its digital signage solution and in the months ahead will broaden that to encompass digital media IPTV.

The report notes that at present the market remains very fragmented and many channels do not have the right expertise to handle complex projects that require many components of digital signage. Frost & Sullivan anticipates that this will drive mergers and acquisitions in the next two years as participants seek to acquire companies that enable them to fill gaps in areas such as hardware, software or content creation.

Interactivity with digital signage systems is expected to increase with the evolution of mobile devices such as the iPhone and the Google Android. Growing use of social media such as Twitter also will create closer linkages between advertising, social media and mobility with digital signage systems.

Demand for digital signage systems in the past 12-18 months has primarily centered around public display areas such as airports, customs halls, cinemas and retail outlets. Frost & Sullivan expects demand in such locations to continue but also predicts the rise of new signage opportunities within financial services outlets, transport locations such as train stations and bus stops, real estate companies, educational institutions, car dealerships and medical centers.

“The single biggest issue facing the digital signage systems market remains the challenge of demonstrating ROI,” said Audrey William, ICT research director - Australia and New Zealand, Frost & Sullivan. “Every company needs to be able to identify the right metrics to measure activity that links their screens to actual customer purchases. For those that successfully solve this, there are vast opportunities to get in early and capitalize on the many public locations in Australia that haven’t yet moved toward digital advertising.”