How Often Should You Change your Digital Signage

Content?

This question is often asked

by digital signage

customers or those looking

to start a digital signage

program.

While there are many considerations such as type of

message, cycle speed and length of message, how new the

concept is, how complex it is and how many frames of digital

signage content are being displayed simultaneously, there is one primary rule of thumb.

…That is the rule of three

What this rule says is that you want to adjust your digital signage (DS) content so that the average person walking by it will see any particular message at least three times.

This basic theory was developed by a GE

employee in the 1970s when he was studying

the effects of attention and learning of GE’s

advertising. He broke the three-exposure rule

down to these three basic elements:

1. The first time a message is seen the viewer thinks,

“What is it?” The first response is to try and

understand the nature of the content stimulus.

2. The second time makes the viewer

think, “What of it?” and “Ah ha, I’ve seen

this before.” This completes the basic

reaction to the message with

understanding taking place.

3. The third exposure becomes the true reminder where the message sinks in. By then the “sale” has taken place and your message has been understood and “bought” by the viewer.

Equally as important to the third exposure is that it’s also the

beginning of disengagement and withdrawal of attention. In other

words, it’s time to take that piece of content out and replace it with

something new.

This simple rule of three can be applied to any digital signage system. Whatever system you use, just make sure to adjust

the content controls so it will stay up long enough to be viewed an average of three times - and not much more.

This will significantly increase the communication, learning and

engagement between you and your employees.

Communication Learning Engagement

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