Digital signage industry leaders and organizations have been working on various strategies to bring digital signage to standardization. Irrespective of their efforts, there is some distance to go. Certainly, the industry will never be where industry evangelists would like; where full standardization would require. Further exacerbating the issue are the rogue bandits who continue to gobble up market share from small business. The spirit of competition may keep things lively, but it also forces improvements all around. Roger Bannister’s story really does a good job of illustrating the importance of healthy competition, whether in life or in business. It is also interesting to note that in the times when Bannister was running against his greatest rivals are the moments when he secured his lowest times.

The digital signage industry is no exception. A little competition is good for us. Thomas Jefferson once related the following regarding the need for resistance:

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

While one may not agree with this statement itself, I think it important to agree with the idea. Without resistance, we will not move forward. There must be resistance for muscles to be built. That idea is not new. But how to deal with the issue is something else entirely. When digital signage software companies want customers, sometimes it seems they’ll do just about anything to work toward that end.

Fragmentation and Standardization

Take one glance through the digital signage industry directory, and you will see where the industry stands as far as fragmentation is concerned. To standardize in the scope of every company in the entire industry would be an impossibility. There has to be another motivation to make this happen. What this will be, is anyone’s guess. There may even be more entrants for software and hardware providers, vendors for displays, and suppliers for peripherals, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the industry is extremely fragmented.

Standardizing will even be more difficult and may only happen as companies continue to be acquired. The acquisitions will take place, and standardization within will improve, but will this really take the industry where the industry wishes to go? Probably not, but improvements are on the horizon.

Capitalistic Competition

Competition is capitalism at its finest. A direct result of industry competition, is industry fragmentation. No one company can hold all the industry cards, so entrants continue to flood in, attempting to gain a market foothold. It would seem those most suited for entrance would be companies who already perform many of the major requirements digital signage is asking for, that is: hardware companies and content creators.

Improving Standardization Improves Preparedness

The big buzz around the digital sign industry deals with the entrance of large advertisers for buys on digital signage networks. While the days are coming, they may be a bit off as well while networks still work at improving ROI techniques. When the major media buyers start knocking, then those who have prepared themselves, may well benefit from the media purchases that will take place.

The Education Imperative

Many of the problems with fragmentation in digital signage could be alleviated with a little bit of education. Seriously? Does anyone even know what digital signage even is? I would submit that such a buzzword is virtually unknown. When people are online, what do they search for? How are they learning about the industry? Where are they getting their information? How are they finding out about the “next big thing” in advertising? There are a lot of headaches here. And, the industry terms only represent a miniscule portion of the whole headache.

Consolidation

Recently, and the last six months in particular, there has been a large rise in the consolidation of many industries, including digital out-of-home. Industry-wide consolidation is always a double-edged sword. While consolidation increases standardization, it can also bread difficulty within the remaining companies, but that is a story for another day.