South East Asia: Another important market for digital signage

This week, our CEO and co-founder, Bastiaan Amsing flew over to South East Asia for the first edition of Pro Integration Future Asia 2023 (PIFA2023). Bastiaan was invited as a VIP guest to moderate one of the panel sessions during the three-day conference in Singapore. Read this piece until the end to find Bastiaan’s takeaways from PIFA 2023. 

About Pro Integration Future Asia (PIFA) 2023 

The inaugural international trade show Pro Integration Future Asia 2023 (PIFA2023) is designed to allow suppliers and experts in Audiovisual and Entertainment Lighting (AVL) to showcase real-world applications to a variety of Southeast Asian vertical markets. PIFA2023 is the only AVL business trade show in Singapore, as such it showcases the following technologies: 

• Unified Communications & Collaboration
• Stage & Mega Events
• Digital Signage & OOH Media
• Parks & Attractions
• Production & Immersive Tech
• Smart Homes & Buildings

This three-day conference brought together business experts, governmental organizations, and start-ups from 25 countries and 15 important vertical markets. PIFA2023 is the place to be for anybody wishing to remain on top of the AVL industry, with a wide variety of exhibitors, and interactive AVL topic showcases.

Bastiaan’s takeaways from PIFA 2023 

As a member of the Global Signage Alliance (GSA), MagicInfo Services by ScreenCom can take advantage of a variety of GSA member perks. One of which is to attend digital signage events across the world to represent the alliance and their companies. Our CEO and co-founder, Bastiaan Amsing was selected to be the moderator for the panel discussion on “How to Monetize Your Digital Signage Investment” because of his extensive expertise in the industry. 

While there isn’t a recording of this panel that you can watch, you can pre-register for LOOKBEYOND23 (the first MagicINFO and VXT virtual event) and attend a standalone lecture, panel discussion, or workshop about how to monetize digital signage. Meanwhile, you can read about Bastiaan’s main takeaways from Pro Integration Future Asia 2023 below.

“AR has the most potential to become the next big thing in tech right now. Apple as the pioneer has the most progressive goggles on the market right now, but within now and a couple of months there will be a lot of competition with more budget-friendly solutions from Asia. Think from a content and software approach, content must be sharable and needs to be playable in all kinds of digital formats,” comments Bastiaan. “We will also see integrations of metaverse and digital audiovisual (AV) solutions into traditional AV.” 

Bastian continues: “Back in the day, content was king. While it still is, we’ll see new emerging types of content that will come to the mass market. Now, the industry has the tools to deliver content derived from multiple chunks of data. In my opinion, everything needs to be connected in the online and offline of digital signage world.” 

“Furthermore, I think that we’ll see a lot more integrations of augmented reality content. It is possible that in the not-so-distant future, we’ll regularly see AR content in our day-to-day lives. The virtual world will be brought to the real world thanks to AR.” says Mr Amsing. 

Bastiaan continues, “During the panel discussion, Mr Dinesh Singh, Marketing Director at Matchday Central, was asked by a member of the audience about how to monetize TikTok streams with digital signage. This brings me back to the point that everything is connected. As digital signage experts, we must make sure to connect the silos of data streams as one. Using an omnichannel approach will be the difference between make or break for brands.”

Another key point that Bastiaan made is regarding creativity and digital artists. Our CEO and co-founder stated the following: “Creativity is a vital part of the equation. I strongly believe that we need digital artists for ideas who can take over content creation. Companies that fail to recognize the importance of creativity will be like everybody else and just copy each other.” 

“That’s not to say that content should be the main metric that measures success. On the contrary, we should stop looking at pageviews and visitor counts and instead focus on actual sales and revenue. Creative and engaging content should be used to drive and support sales efforts. That’s the only way marketing managers can get their costly budgets approved in the corporate world.” argues Mr Amsing.

“I would recommend digital signage experts to focus on user intent. Think about what are their problems. Is your product solving those problems? If yes, how? Once you have the answers to those questions, make sure to include that information in the marketing materials and communicate clearly how your product or solution is the right one for them.” 

“Never forget that humans interact with the environment via five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, and feel). Our senses are what sensors are in IoT technology. Hardware is cheaper and more accessible than ever before and we can cross bridges that we never could in the past. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, make sure to include this into your business strategy.” finishes Bastiaan Amsing.