DSS Europe explores the age of personalisation and customer experience

DSS Europe, which took place this year 3-4 July, is a strategy conference for the digital signage and digital-out-of-home (DooH) industry.

In a packed two-day, two track conference programme nearly 500 attendees had registered to hear over 50 expert speakers discuss the latest developments in the digital signage and digital-out-of-home market.

In their keynote presentation, Florian Rotberg, Managing Director, invidis consulting and Stefan Schieker, a partner in the company, presented the most important market trends and current market figures. The global market for large format displays grew 18% to reach a value of €14.6 billion in 2018: EMEA growth was 14%. In EMEA, Germany, Austria and Switzerland accounted for 16% of the market, up 13%, followed by the UK and Ireland with 14% (up 3%) while the Nordic countries comprised 12%, growing by 13%.

“There is no doubt that the digital signage market is thriving – and that was confirmed by those who presented at, and those who participated in, this year‘s DSS Europe,” said Florian Rotberg. “The theme of this year’s conference was how our industry is rapidly becoming more customer-centric and delivering more individual encounters in an age of personalisation, experiences and AI. Technology is enabling digital signage to communicate with consumers in a way that resonates with and engages consumers like no other medium can – and we’re seeing the results of that in the way the digital signage market is growing.”

Session highlights included, Cloudy Outlook for Physical Retail? A View on the Store from the Cloud, presented by Nino Bergfeld, Salesforce’s Senior Manager Retail Industry Go to Market. He explored how the digitisation of (physical) retail and the changing role of the store is a priority for any omni-channel retail executive today. The session showed how many retailers are working hard to change the role of the store from a transactional space to an experience hub

Dominant topics this year also included the customer journey and customer experience; market consolidation; and the growing importance of LED as a screen technology; and how screen prices are expected to see a rapid decrease.