Digital Signage Trends in Outdoor Sports and Entertainment Venues

Generally, sports and entertainment venues must deliver an enjoyable and engaging experience to keep seats filled. Otherwise, would-be attendees might elect to simply watch the game or event from the comfort of their homes.

In many ways, digital signage is part of the solution for venue planners and developers. Digital signage has been used for many years for indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment venues, but display technology has greatly evolved in recent years. Today, there are a multitude of display applications available beyond scoreboards, wayfinding, and advertising to engage fans and communicate relevant, targeted messaging to a wide variety of audiences. New trends in digital signage leverage advances in software, social media, the Internet of Things (IoT), user-generated content, artificial intelligence (AI), and more.

Deliver Real-Time Messaging

One hot trend in digital signage with applications for large crowds at outdoor venues is customization.[1] Displays can use the technology of AI and IoT to deliver real-time, real-world content. For example, when sensors detect the temperature is rising, they can display a message telling attendees to buy some sunscreen or grab an ice-cold beverage. As day turns to night, you can inform audience members where to buy a sweatshirt of their favorite team or musical act to keep warm. And post-game messaging can be used to provide traffic updates and direct people to where they can pick up ride-share or shuttles.

Leverage Social Media

Social media allows visitors to show the rest of the world how much fun they’re having at a given venue.[2] And brands love positive, user-generated content. You can use digital signage to encourage attendees to tweet their comments or post their selfies on Facebook. Then, after a quick review to ensure content is appropriate, you can stream it on your digital display. You can also create an RSS feed of Twitter posts using an event-specific hashtag.

Tell Stories

Digital signage can be used effectively to create engagement through the stories of the athletes, musicians, or other entertainers at an event.[3] During games, for example, you can display profiles of the players, share their stats and history, feature a quote from them, and show videos of them in action. For musical acts, you can display their biographies before the show or share the stories behind some of their most popular songs. This helps create a connection with attendees, further influencing them to return to the venue.

Sell More

A 2016 study by Oracle found that fans spend over 40% less at a game when they encounter long lines.[4] That’s a lot of lost revenue for a mere logistical issue. Effective digital signage employs pictures, animation, and other eye-catching imagery to feature the most popular items and assist purchasers in making quick decisions. More practically, digital displays are sometimes used to show wait times for certain concessions or offer pre-ordering options.

SNA Displays offers interior and exterior LED video displays in a variety of sizes and resolutions, with the ability to work around curves and corners. For more than 25 years, we have managed, fabricated, implemented, and installed some of the nation’s largest spectacular signs while offering clients a single source for both indoor and outdoor lighting, text, graphic, and video products. We’ve also designed an ideal, open-ended digital signage system and work with the industry’s top audio/visual technology companies and content creators, ensuring the best outcome for each application. We can help your venue stand out from the rest, engage attendees, and increase sales.

Learn more about SNA Display’s LED video displays today at www.snadisplays.com.