Hewlett-Packard is beefing up digital signage offering with two new low-cost media players, which the company says is ideal for deployment in the retails and hospitality industry as well as education and public service sectors.
The latest addition to HP’s fledgling digital signage lineup, are the HP MP6 and MP4 digital signage digital players.
Priced at around $599 per unit for the MP4 and $999 per unit for the MP6, the players are ideal for organizations that want to cut cost in their digital display deployment program, according to Dmitry Sokolov, category business manager for retail solutions and thin clients at HP Canada.
“The use of digital media screens has seen solid growth in the retail and hospitality sector in recent years,” he said. “However, more recently, HP is seeing some demand in the education and public services space as well.”
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HP began rolling out digital signage products only about a year ago when it recognized the opportunities in the market.
Digital displays, he said, were traditionally used in the travel industry in such applications as providing travelers bus, train of aircraft schedules. Many consumers are now also very familiar with huge video and even interactive touch screen advertisements.
“However, organizations and advertisers continue to discover new and more engaging ways to employ digital displays,” said Sokolov.
For example, spice manufacturing firm McCormick & Co. uses variety of HP digital signage systems in its exhibition facility in Baltimore.
“Most people think of McCormick as the red caps – the core spices and herbs that we have,” according to Kathleen Haley, director of corporate branding at McCormick. “But we’re so much more…and technology is helping us tell our story.”
The company uses five different HP display systems to provide users with spice-focused interactive games, touch screen information centres and informative videos.
“Today’s consumers are very savvy,” said Haley. “Straight selling doesn’t work anymore. You have to engage people.”
Toronto-based real estate developer Neudorfer Corporation realized the same potential that digital signage has for customer engagement.
The company is using a kiosk with a 42-inch HP display screen to enable potential condominium buyers to interact with a 3D model of the project Neudorfer is working on. People can rotate the model on the screen using the screen’s touch interface, view the overall site plan, zoom-in on particular aspects of the design and even view amenities and price lists.
“It’s an amazingly effective sales tool which has a real wow factor,” according to Rob Falus, sales, marketing and customer service manager for Neudorfer. ”Buyers walk up and explore the model in fine detail and get all the information they need prior to working with an agent to make a purchase.”
Sokolov said the same self-help information retrieval and user engagement benefits offered by digital displays can be employed in other settings such as healthcare centres, schools, government offices and public service venues.