Do you only listen to one playlist on iTunes or Spotify? Of course not. Then why are you only showing one playlist on your digital signs? Just like different moods demand different songs, your audience needs different content at different times and places. Here are some of our top tips to maximize the impact of your messages through good management of digital signage playlists.
The Basics
Each message you want to show goes into a playlist. You then assign different playlists to different content blocks in your layouts. It’s important that you “balance” your playlists for effective engagement.
Since your audience is usually on the move, you can’t expect them to see every item in a thirty item playlist. As a matter of fact, the more items you put in a playlist, the lower the odds for each of ever being seen. Instead, keep your playlists small and show messages more frequently so they get as much exposure as possible.
- Show a maximum of 7 items in a playlist
- Schedule each message for no more than 7-12 seconds
- Repeat messages at least 10x daily
Where & When
If you have a lot of messages that you need to show, you can handle that through dayparting, changing layouts or showing different playlists on different screens throughout your facility.
If it doesn’t make sense to show manufacturing safety tips in the lobby – don’t. Just schedule that playlist to your production floor signs and use different content on your lobby welcome screens. Since you’re already changing layouts throughout the day, you can use completely different playlists in each to keep the message reel shorter.
If for some reason you’re limited to a single playlist that shows in every layout on every screen, then use dayparting. Dayparting lets you schedule a specific message for only a part of the day or specific days. You could have one playlist in the morning, another in the afternoon, and another before people take off for the evening commute. Or, you could have some messages show Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and others show on Tuesday and Thursday. Try to schedule the right messages for the right audience at the right time.
Automated Content
One great timesaver is to schedule auto-updating content like news feeds, weather and event schedules. These allow you to set up a message one time, and then the data is automatically pulled into that message as it updates from the source. This eases the burden on content creators, and ensures that you always have relevant, real-time info on your screens.
> Want more tips on your digital signage playlists? Download our white paper Great Digital Signage on Day 1