BroadSign about the importance of programmatic media buying

Maarten Dollevoet, Sales Director, EMEA, BroadSign International, LLC:

One of the most gratifying and motivating observations about the digital signage space in 2014 is that digital signage deployments are no longer science projects. Many end users have a certain degree of experience and as such, have expectations about proper execution and raising the bar compared to competitors.

Every component of digital signage is seeing attrition in its category and best-in-class solutions are rising to the top – a necessary element to becoming a mature industry. As a software provider, BroadSign has seen that only a few contenders from the hundreds, if not thousands, of software options are being evaluated for enterprise-level deployments requiring smart and automated platforms.

Certain verticals are growing due to lowered barriers to entry, and a factor of this is the increased demand for and falling cost of media players. While heavy-duty media players will always be in the picture, networks that can use a „good enough“ player to power more basic needs with the same efficiency are benefiting from significant cost savings. BroadSign Xpress, our Android-based smart player, is a testament to this trend, having sold over 10,000 units in its first year on the market.

Finally, what was once a controversial topic has been debated and discussed to the point that widespread opinion agrees programmatic media buying will catapult our industry to new levels. It makes campaigns easier to buy on the agency side and brings incremental revenue to network operators. Complete with campaign targeting and reporting, programmatic media buying will quickly gain traction in 2015.