How can digital signage support event promotion?

In the ever-shifting world of events, organisers and venue managers are on a constant quest to grab the attention of potential attendees, get them to buy/sign up for tickets, attend the event from start to finish, and return again in subsequent months and years. That’s no mean feat.

So how can digital signage help?

Well, that depends on whether you’re managing a venue with an ongoing list of events at the same place, or you’re organising a series of events in different venues.

So let’s look at both separately, diving into how digital signage can be used to take your event promotion to the next level.

Venue-management  

Busy venues have a constant stream of events. If you don’t have an event promotor working on your behalf then you need to be as efficient as possible with your time and marketing budget. Although digital signage involves a fairly sizeable initial outlay and ongoing content creation, it can deliver an impressive return on investment. You can also outsource the content creation and management to a third party, reducing the time you need to spend on it.

Appeal to passing footfall

Unless your venue is located in an isolated area with no passing footfall or traffic nearby, you should consider using digital signage externally to keep drawing attention to your upcoming events.

Digital signage gives you a 24/7 promotional space to promote whatever you like for as long as you like and whenever you like.  Those who’ve never visited your venue before and regular visitors will be reminded that you exist, and that you have events coming up that might be of interest to them.

If your venue and budget are relatively small, you can use window displays or wall-mounted outdoor displays to display details of your forthcoming events. You’ll need high-bright, commercial screens to counteract the sun’s glare so, because these are designed to be used 24/7 and are much brighter than a domestic TV, so they’re more expensive.

If you have a larger budget and a busy road nearby, you could consider mounting an outdoor LED wall on the side of the building, making your venue a spectacle that’s hard to ignore. LED walls aren’t cheap to buy, but they’re long-lasting and relatively energy efficient for the size of display you get.

For low-rise venues and/or those set back from a main road, you could consider positioning a freestanding digital signage totem adjacent to the road so passing motorists can see what events you have coming up. These will need commercial high bright screens and an enclosure designed for outdoor use.

Appeal to visitors inside your venue

Your event promotion doesn’t clock out when a show starts. Place screens within your venue to highlight forthcoming, similar events while another event’s in full swing.

If you have interactive displays you can encourage event attendees to look at your event calendar and sign up for future events whilst attending another one.  Promotional offers available only during the event (e.g. or the same event the following year) accessed using QR codes on displays can be a great way to create a sense of urgency with ticket purchases.

Show off your line-up

Unlike printed posters, digital signage allows you to create and show an almost unlimited amount of promotional content about your event. That being the case, you can give your attendees a taste of what to expect from an event.

Show off photos and videos of the star speakers, performers, or athletes who are gracing your event. Tease them with glimpses of your past events. Give them a taste of the excitement to come and you’ll leave them eagerly anticipating your events and keen to get their hands on a ticket/s.

Feedback capture

Touchscreen displays aren’t just for scrolling through event calendars. You can use your touchscreen displays to collect feedback and reviews. This can be done with a simple user interface that says ‘Did you love the 2023 jazz festival?’ and have a thumbs up or thumbs down icon to touch. You could add a multiple choice survey or on-screen keyboard and ask what people liked/disliked the most.

Once you’ve collected this data you can use it for future marketing. Drop stats like “89% of the 2023 event’s crowd wants to do it all over again” or “85% of attendees thought their ticket was great value for money”. It’s like gold for future promotion.

Event coordination

If you’re a coordinator managing lots of different events in different places, make sure you’re using all the digital signage you have available to you.

Digital Out of Home (DOOH)

Unlike out of home media that relies on print and is in place for weeks on end, with digital out of home (DOOH) advertising, you only have to pay to produce content digitally and for as long and as many times as it appears on screen.

If your budget allows, speak to a few different media companies to find a package that gets your event the profile you want for the budget you have. Ideally, you should display event-specific content on strategically placed screens near the venue or during the optimum time for your target audience.

Use other venues’ digital signage

More and more businesses now have digital signage and have promotional space that they can sell to you at a fairly reasonable price.

Collaborate with independent venues that can sell you advertising space. If targeted well, this can help you get many more eyeballs on your event promotion materials and to get more bang for your marketing budget bucks.

Create urgency with countdowns

Because digital signage is dynamic and involves no print costs, you can create a sense of urgency the closer your event gets. Show real-time countdowns to create a buzz among potential attendees, nudging them to snag those last-minute tickets before it’s too late.

If you’d like to know more about using digital signage at your event venue, get in touch. Our team can help you identify the best options for the location, building and budget you have.

If you’re an event coordinator/promoter and would like to speak to our team about creating impactful digital signage content, get in touch. We have a specialist in-house digital signage content team who can help.