Weinheim, 21st July 2010: Printing posters is old-fashioned and digital signage is too expensive. So what can be done for effective sales promotion at the point of sale? The first step is leaving your prejudices behind! Poster printing still has its place in advertising, and the constant reduction in the price of visual display monitors-at the same time as increasing resolution and quality - is making digital signage affordable for more and more companies: from the scales display at the butcher's to the large-scale monitors in specialist sports or fashion outlets.

Print or digital – the target of communication is what makes the decision
In digital displays, are we seeing a long-term replacement of print media at point-of-sales? With application in large-scale, emotion-charged brand promotion, it's not entirely improbable. At the campaign stand for the Wein der Woche (Wine of the Week) promotion in week 45, the price poster will attest to this in the long run-even if competition from electronic pricing displays will be breathing down the neck of classic price labels and posters more and more in the future. Poster or visual display unit? Today, and for the foreseeable future, the question really is: when do I go for the poster and when do I go for the visual display unit?

It is important in operative application that the print signage and digital signage transports your messages to the consumer in the form of a cross-medial and universal corporate design. It is about the content, not how the content is displayed. The medium is not the message  however, the communication targets are often identical: the image information, be it photos, videos or logos, bridges the gap to classic forms of company advertising in TV adverts, print campaigns or leaflet handouts, therefore creating an effect of recognition on the part of the customer - thereby generating more impulse purchases.

Print or visual display unit? For users of PRESTIGEenterprise 3.0, the market-leading software for poster printing and digital signage, the choice of medium makes no difference. The software supports both print advertising forms as well as the control of digital displays. The user can therefore concentrate even more on the actual strengths of the respective medium.

PoS print advertising: simple - quick- reasonably-priced
PoS print advertising still speaks for itself: it is simple, quick and reasonably-priced and does not require any electricity, cabling or a huge amount of technical knowledge. "On offer this week! 500g for €1.99." Short, sharp and to the point. It's just about the price, the number is right at the forefront. Reaching out to the emotions or to the dwell time of the customer? It's not important where the price sets the decisive purchase impulse. Also, print media can be put in your pocket. Whether it's receipts, wine information or coupons  with print media, it is easy to offer the customer added value at the point of sale that they can take home with them.

More emotions - print or digital signage?
Is this enough to establish brand products and to charge messages with emotion? Certainly not. For this, more colour and more movement must be brought into play -be it as a large static image or as a dynamic digital signage display. High attention factor, high level of flexibility with the desired format; the ability to be implemented easily and cheaply at any time and in any location- these are the strengths of large-scale print media; in decoration, as a vehicle for brand promotion in brand management as well as with extensive advertising forms for special offers, sales islands and secondary placement. Focusses and possibilities vary from sector to sector.

More movement, more information – 1:0 to digital signage!
Or would you prefer digital signage as an alternative to large posters? Dynamic content such as advertising trailers and video clips - and in the high-end forms, the high level of interactivity which becomes possible with touch-screen monitors - are real advantages with digital signage. In this way, customers can click on products on a touch-screen monitor to display detailed information on the item taken from the company's internet catalogue. Even gender-specific and age-specific displaying of content on the monitor is possible using connection with the appropriate cameras and software. In this way, offers are addressed to a more precise group of potential customers.

Generate lucrative increase in turnover: set purchase impulses extremely precisely!
Particularly attractive in the food trade: digital signage at food counters in shops, especially on customer screens at the scales at delicatessen counters, because when it's about the price, most customers look very closely. Digital signage on the scales display is therefore guaranteed a high level of attention. This attention can be used  by providing an appropriate database connection in order to generate animations for additional purchases  such as a short advert for sauces to go with the steak the customer just bought, or a wine suggestion for the cheese that's just been purchased.
 
"Communication targets, brands and sectors cannot all be lumped together when I am looking for the right answer regarding when I should go for print advertising and when I should go for digital signage," says Jürgen Berens from Rautenfeld, managing director of Online Software AG. "If you go into detail, you almost always find a "we can have that, as well as that" solution - print media here, digital signage there. This is exactly where the great strengths of PRESTIGEenterprise 3.0 are. The software gives the user all the room to manoeuvre they need, so that they can make a decision without any compromises or limitations regarding programming and technology. Advertising and marketing goals stipulates the direction of the advertising, and PRESTIGEenterprise 3.0 implements this."

Additional information regarding Online Software AG
Online Software AG is a modern, innovative software company focussing on the development of solutions for the international wholesaler and retailer. Online is the market leader in the area of professional branch advertising with the poster and label-printing software PRESTIGE having over 31,000 installations in 35 countries and in 20 languages. Online supports his customers in cross-media marketing of products using the market-leading PRESTIGE software. PRESTIGE supports all kind of media such as posters and shelf labels, as well as new technologies only to mention flat-screen monitors, kiosk systems, scale systems or touch screens even using RFID to trigger an event.

Further information:
Online Software AG
Bergstrasse 31
69469 Weinheim, Germany
www.online-software-ag.de

Sandy Schulze
Marketing Manager
Tel.: +49 - 6201 - 99 88 - 682
Fax: +49 - 6201 - 99 88 - 77
sandy.schulze(at)online-software-ag.de