By  Scott Brown

Sports arenas have to do all they can to sell tickets. There’s only so much hard-sell that you can do. And beyond a point, discounts will hurt business. The answer lies in engagement. Arenas that engage with patrons and prospects can offer competition to not just other outdoor entertainment venues but also to at-home entertainment tools such as television and audio systems. This is a battle for attention and if an arena can leverage digital signage creatively then it can bring down the cost of marketing and achieve a better ROI on what it spends.

Digital signage at sports arenas offers a basic utility – wayfinding. But the technology lets you do so much more than provide this basic service. If you can guide a fan to a washroom, then digital ads placed at urinals and faucets can engage with the viewer to achieve an objective that you may deem relevant at that point in time. You can point a fan to his or her seat or to the exit.

Nearly 9 out of 10 fans use smartphones to check social status while watching a game. Digital signage can communicate with smartphones to display information that fans are searching for online. Or, it can flash tweets and images posted by fans. In short, with DOOH you can elevate a fan’s experience of the event. You can flash personal information about players; stuff that is more than just drab statistics. You can set up kiosks where fans can track performance of other teams in the league or create their own virtual teams and have fun in a fantasy league.

Through near-field communications, digital signage can gather a wealth of information about a fan, for example the fan’s preferred seats or favorite team. You could learn about the snacks that people prefer. There are many nuggets of information waiting to be unearthed and exploited.

Digital displays can create an immersive experience for fans and lead to wonderful engagement. A sports arena can take this to another level by offering experiences such as augmented reality. You can get very creative with digital displays and a sports arena offers many opportunities to do so. At the very least, the views provided by giant digital screens are better than what you can experience on TV screens at home. Plus, the atmosphere at the venue is something that the couch at home cannot match.

With a plan around how to use digital signage, sporting arenas can provide a better experience when the venue is used for non-sporting events such as concerts or corporate functions.