Although the worth of the electronic digital sign (EDS) industry may be useful to companies considering entering the field, it’s truly difficult for anyone to determine and present an overall value. EDS is a new and diverse field; each venture is different. Project managers, for example, may work with electronic- systems engineers, scientists, software engineers, graphics specialists, filmmakers and scriptwriters. The final task may involve several technologies, for instance, the linking of LED and LCD displays to present HDTV videos. Also, forecasting analysts must consider the surprise element of new, replacement technologies, improved fabrication methods and, finally, the experimental nature of the players.
Keep all this in mind as you read the following valuations.
I recently received a press release from Weinstock Media Analysis (WMA) that addressed the value of the electronic digital sign (EDS) industry. WMA has published a purchasable study of the EDS industry -- “The U.S. Digital Signage Industry: Ready to Boom.” In a related press release, Neal Weinstock, WMA’s founder and principal analyst, said the overall EDS technology sales (North America) increased from $810.4 million in 2002 to $972.3 million in 2003.
One week earlier, I’d asked Sanju Khatrian, an iSuppli Corp. senior analyst, what she considered the industry’s value. She said, in 2003, the total value, worldwide, of displays applied in retail signage amounted to $501 million. She projects growth to $2.35 billion in 2009.
ISuppli defines retail EDS systems as those with full-motion, color video. Its evaluation includes information-management systems used in retail and commercial environments. It doesn’t include the value of the accompanying computer systems, software, production and content-development fields.
WMA defines electronic digital signage as server-based advertising distributed through networked video displays. It expects sales to rise to $2.2 billion in 2008. Interestingly, WMA characterizes EDS as a sector of the audiovisual, not sign, business.
There’s more. CAP Ventures (Weymouth, MA), a market research and consulting firm, projects total industry revenue from electronic displays, control/management software, integration, and advertising/network operation -- the whole hog, in other words -- will approach $2 billion in 2006. It’s measuring from a 2002 level of $388 million.
Last March, Signs of the Times, in its second annual survey of the EDS industry, said 2003’s total sales for the companies surveyed was roughly $1.2 billion. Unlike the other surveys, ST’s included LED signmakers and installers. Further, ST’s 46 responding companies reported multiple activities: 82% reported routing-system creation or installation, 62% display installation, 60% retail-display creation, 56% program-software creation or installation, 53% narrowcasting, 49% display-sign creation, 47% audio-video system usage, 42% script writing, 40% computer-graphics creation, 33% display manufacture, 31% web-system usage, 29% video production, 22% story production, 13% wireless-system installation, and 13% said “other.”
The ST survey defined the industry’s workers as audiovisual producers, component makers, content- and routing-software production staffs, electricians, electronic and computer engineers, executives, graphic designers, integrators, investors, marketers, resellers, scriptwriters, signmakers, software programmers, software-systems installers, video and web producers, welders and fabricators. It didn’t include such ancillary operations as computer makers, camera and accessory manufacturers, advertising agencies or related tradeshow producers.
Lyle Bunn, a senior partner of Apogee Partners (Toronto and Long Beach, CA), told me that EDS will absorb a portion of American retailers’ and product manufacturers’ $149 billion (total) advertising budgets. He asserts that 75% of buying decisions are made at the store shelf, and that EDS will eclipse present, point-of-sale advertising methods.
Chris Gibbs is the vice president of Digital Retailing Expo, a digital-retailing tradeshow that debuted at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center on October 11-12. Gibbs believes EDS opportunities are enormous, both for the sign integrators who design and install the systems, and for the retailers who will benefit from their use. He says a vast territory of walls, windows and freestanding spaces are waiting for the appropriate digital EDS sign.
Gibbs’ Digital Retailing Expo drew more than 1,100 registrants from the United States and 10 countries.
ExpoNation has scheduled its second Digital Retailing Conference for May 2005, at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
