In recent years, the exponential growth of digital signage has been obvious. What hasn’t been as obvious is how sign shops fit into the digital signage sales model. Big Screens on the Go has carved a niche out for itself by using a different sales strategy—rentals.
Launched in 2014 after the sale of two LED display companies, Big Screens on the Go was born out of President Brian Bachman’s desire to get out of the service side of digital signs. Bachman was tired of being the bad guy every time he had to dispatch technicians to fix a sign in front of a business.
He turned instead to the rental market where large companies that wanted a digital sign without the commitment could afford the rentals. He also created a new, flexible LED Drapes product that was affordable and easy to install, which granted him access to smaller organizations and events on the other side of the business spectrum.
In addition to Big Screens on the Go’s LED Drapes product, the company also offers versatile 25-by-25-inch LED modules. Both these modules and the LED Drapes can be used to build any size or shape screen. Nine-by-sixteen-foot mobile LED trailer screens that can be raised up to seventeen feet in the air are also available. These nine-by-sixteen-foot screens can also be installed on the sides of trucks.
The screens can run in any kind of weather, but those hoisted high up in the air must be taken down if the wind gusts over thirty miles per hour. Big Screens on the Go will also provide generators in remote areas if an event doesn’t already have them.
In addition to providing the best hardware solution for the application, Big Screens on the Go has focused on providing the best content as well.
Content is where Bachman feels most digital sign installs go wrong. Many companies simply recycle the same two to three images, don’t make use of motion if they’re permitted to, and don’t take advantage of digital’s ability to promote real-time offers.
“They’re not promoting different products and services,” he says. “They’re not fully utilizing digital.”
Along with inferior content, Big Screens on the Go also ran up against the dual challenges of a lack of knowledge and a lack of budget in one of its biggest market segments—non-profits.
“Well 99 percent of the companies I called on never even knew they could have a Jumbotron,” says Bachman. “They didn’t even fathom it being a realm of possibility for them.
“So at that point, if they don’t know about it and they never had an opportunity, how can they have a budget for it?”
To bridge this budget gap and solve the content problem, Big Screens on the Go created exclusive, dynamic content packages for sponsors. These packages include branded social media walls with logos and a custom hashtag, event volunteer recognition pictures with sponsor logos and messages, and custom, sponsor-branded videos filmed by Big Screens on the Go’s videographer.
All of these opportunities provide the sponsor with something different than the usual logo on a banner or Web site. This added value also makes it easier for the rental client to secure sponsors in a competitive environment, which provides them with revenue and the ability to rent a Jumbotron.
“Many of our clients tell us they not only recoup the costs of our services but also have generated three times their investment,” says Bachman.
Another appeal for the non-profits is the turnkey solution Big Screens on the Go provides. The company creates the content and installs the screens themselves.
“When you boil it down, we ask the non-profit (or any of our clients) to do nothing more than they were doing before, which is soliciting sponsors,” explains Bachman, “but we give them a better tool and more sponsorship opportunities that add true value for their sponsors.”
Big Screens on the Go put its expertise to work on the recent JDRF One Walk for Type I Diabetes in Illinois. The challenge on this particular job was that JDRF hosts its walk on one day at seven different locations across the state. Big Screens on the Go had to make sure each location had a screen up and running.
“We had some that were modules, some that were trucks, and some that were trailers,” says Bachman.
They couldn’t set the screens up in advance since some of the locations were in parks with no security, so Big Screens on the Go dispatched its crews at 2 A.M. on the day of the walk to get the screens up by 7 A.M. Each location had technicians, a videographer, a sound guy, and a site manager.
The additional challenge was how to bring the seven locations together so they felt like a united group.
“We did a simulcast from one of the locations,” says Bachman. “A sponsor and a couple of speakers came up, and we had videographers on staff at the location.
“And while we were videotaping the speaker, we were simulcasting it out to the other six screens across the state at the same time.”
In addition to races, festivals, parades, and other events, Big Screens on the Go has also used its portable, rentable screens at community movie nights. Previously these movie nights used projectors and had to wait until dark to start since the projectors aren’t bright enough to be seen in daylight.
Bachman now rents digital screens to the organizations, and for the same price as the projectors, he offers double features since the movies can start earlier—before the sun goes down.
Big Screens on the Go also provides sponsorship packages and a videographer who films the crowd and puts them on the big screen.
The rental model has certainly worked for Big Screens on the Go, and the company hopes to expand its business even more through the help of additional distributors and sign shop partners. (Note: The company currently has a network of about ten distributors.)
“One of the things that we’re looking to do is set up distributors in different areas,” says Bachman, “provide them with product down there in their area, and then provide them with technical support when we have to go in and install.”
By Ashley Bray
All photos: Big Screens on the Go.
