It’s a young industry, creative and ambitious. The market for digital signage applications is growing, and with it the interest in the possibilities this medium has to offer. Since 2007, the nominees and winners of the Digital Signage Best Practice Award, staged by viscom in cooperation with Dockter Marketing, have demonstrated an immense variety of possible applications, technologies and content. At this year’s International Trade Fair for Visual Communication, Technology and Design, to be held in Düsseldorf from 13 to 15 October, the award will go into its fifth edition already.

The competition aims at rewarding particularly efficiently designed, creatively implemented, innovative and successful digital signage projects. The objective is to broaden acceptance of the medium and at the same time to encourage more companies to make more use of this type of signage. Presentation in public is to stimulate the implementation of new projects and to provide additional impetus to the business of the winners.

This means a boost in attention, which is exactly what xplace GmbH experienced after winning the special award for its overall concept for the Instore TV system for the Media Saturn Group. “The Digital Signage Best Practice Award is an important and recognised prize. With our application, we aimed to make the ‘xplace Instore TV at Media Saturn’ project and xplace itself even better known in the international digital signage sector. After winning the award we can score in our list of references not only on the basis of our large and varied practical experience but also of our position of award-winning supplier of digital signage“, says xplace Managing Director Michael Volland. The company, which specialises in interactive customer information systems for the retail sector was awarded the prize for what was truly a gigantic project. For the Media Saturn Group, more than 800 outlets in 16 European countries were fitted with the Instore TV system within one year, each in the respective local language and with an average of ten channels per outlet.

The possibilities offered by digital signage in the out-of-home sector in combination with interactive elements were demonstrated in 2010 by Sedley Place. “We were very proud to win the Interactive category last year. At that point there were no other digital out of home awards in the UK and we knew that our Coca-Cola World Cup 2010 Piccadilly campaign set new standards of interactivity in the industry and were seeking to have this recognized for us and our client. Coca-Cola Great Britain was extremely impressed and as a consequence has since invested more in similar campaigns. No doubt we will be entering again this year", says Patrick Alastair of Sedley Place.

For their system for controlling digital information and advertising systems, Macnetix received the Digital Signage Best Practice Award for the second time already in 2010, thus increasing its degree of recognition even further. “We were delighted at winning the Digital Signage Best Practice Award in the last two years”, says Macnetix Managing Director Dirk Wahrheit. “We are now applying for the award to win the seal of quality for yet another digital signage product of ours called editIT / playIT which already established itself very successfully. Among other things, we used it as a professional guiding system at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre with great success. With existing customers, the award has a reinforcement effect, and in future it will also assist potential customers in making their decisions”, Wahrheit continues.

Other winners last year were GnosySoft, who had set up a new digital signage network for Ad Airport Media, people interactive GmbH with the Telekom Shop 2010 as well as ~sedna GmbH with a Mac-based digital signage solution operating for Gravis.

Applications now open for the Digital Signage Best Practice Award 2011

Until 1 August, companies can still submit their digital signage projects. The five categories for which manufacturers, service and retail companies, agencies and integrators can register their products are Retail Signage (digital signage applications in the retail sector), Information Signage (digital signage projects from the areas of internal communication, public display or education), Guiding Signage (digital signage projects for guiding purposes), Content for Digital Signage (Best DOOH Campaign, Best Content Concept for Digital Signage) as well as Interactive Signage (digital signage projects with a focus on interactive components).

In each category, three products will be nominated which will be presented to the visitors at viscom düsseldorf 2011. From these 15 projects, one winner per category will be selected by the jury. Particularly innovative projects may also be honoured with a special jury award. The prize giving ceremony will be held on 14 October 2011 during viscom night.

For more information and registration documents please go to www.digital-signage-best-practice-award.eu.