Digital Signage Resources & Case Studies - The Rise Vision Blog

Elevator Digital Signage: How and Why to Use It

Written by Hannah Pacheco | 11/8/23 5:00 PM

When people hear the words elevator digital signage, more often than not, they think about advertisement displays. However, digital signs in elevators can serve many other purposes, from sharing information to entertaining guests. If you’re on the fence about putting up a digital sign in your building’s elevator, read on to find out all the reasons why that would be a good decision.

What Is Digital Signage Anyway?

Digital signage is a form of media technology that uses digital screens, such as LCD or LED displays, to convey information, advertise, or entertain. There is also digital signage software involved in the background, making sure that the messages are displayed correctly. While billboards might be the most popular form of digital signage, they’re far from the only one. You are also likely to find digital signs in places such as airports, hotels and restaurants, shopping malls, and more. Digital signs in elevators are also becoming increasingly popular, much owing to their wide practical applications.

4 Uses of Digital Signage in Elevators

Elevator rides are rarely something to write home about. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, especially if you use digital signage to engage, inform, or entertain the passengers. Let’s take a look at four great ways to use digital signs in an elevator.

Digital Advertising

Advertising is one of the main uses of digital signs, regardless of the location. For starters, digital signage lowers the costs for advertisers, making it one of the favorite ad media. Additionally, unlike paper-based ads, digital advertising can be harder to miss and is more effective in fighting banner blindness. 

However, ad displays in elevators can be especially effective, depending on the types of ads displayed. For instance, an elevator in a hotel can contain ads for local restaurants, bars, and other places of interest for tourists. On the other hand, an elevator in a residential building can be used to display ads relevant to the residents, such as for local food delivery services, car repair shops, plumbers, and so on.

This unique audience targeting opportunity is another reason why advertising agencies are fond of elevator digital signage, meaning that your signs will be easy to monetize and turn into a stream of revenue.

Building Information

Elevators are a very convenient way to communicate important building-related information to visitors or residents. For instance, shopping malls often use digital signs in elevators to display directories with lists of shops located on each floor, the opening hours of the mall, and so on. Hotels, for instance, can display Wi-Fi login information, the room service offer, room numbers by floor, or interesting places and events to visit in the vicinity. 

Residents and visitors could also benefit from details such as the emergency exit displays, the building manager’s contact information, emergency phone numbers, rules of conduct, and so on.

Emergency Display

“There are approximately 900,000 elevators in the United States and the odds of getting stuck in an elevator are 1 in every 100,000 elevator ride”, wrote risk management expert Keven Moore for NKYTribune. While this might not seem like too often, it can still be a frightening experience. In such cases, elevator displays can show important information on who to call, what (not) to do, and how to keep oneself from panicking. Additionally, they will serve as a source of light if necessary.

Important Announcements

Since most building residents and visitors use the elevator (aside from those going to lower-level floors), elevator signs are also a great place to share important announcements such as scheduled cleaning and maintenance, ongoing construction, weather alerts, planned power outages, and similar.

Entertainment for Passengers

Lastly, you could use digital signage in your building’s elevator to simply make the ride a little more fun. You can entertain customers, visitors, or residents by showing music videos or short and fun video clips.

For hotels and other tourism-oriented establishments, these screens could display fun facts about the town or nearby places of interest. You could make the display even more engaging by turning it into a trivia quiz and giving passengers something to do aside from just looking at the screen.

Benefits of Using Elevator Digital Signage

Now that we’ve covered how to use digital signage in elevators, let’s go over some reasons why you should do it in the first place:

  • Monetization: According to Home Advisor, the costs of elevator maintenance and repairs can run up to anywhere from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars.  Advertising is a great and relatively easy way to turn your digital signs into an additional source of revenue to offset some of these expenses. Additionally, this money can also be used for building maintenance or other building-related expenses. 
  • Low Installation Costs: Although the precise numbers will depend on the number and type of displays you want to put up, the cost of setting up digital signs is low and will pay off quickly. In general, display installation can be as inexpensive as $200, while quality digital signage software can cost as little as $7/month for a single screen.
  • User Experience: If you’re managing a commercial building, be it a hotel, shopping mall, or something else, digital elevator signage can vastly improve user experience by offering useful information and entertaining passengers.
  • Flow of Information: Digital displays in elevators make spreading information much easier. Instead of having to post notices all over the building (or having to share the information with each resident personally), you can simply display the message on the elevator sign.
  • Optimized Building Management: The previous point is closely related to the overall streamlining of building management operations, too. When everyone is aware of what is going on in the building, there will be less confusion and fewer hiccups along the way.
  • Time- and Cost-Effectiveness: Whenever there is a new announcement to be made, all you have to do is use the digital signage content management system to share it through the elevator displays in real time. This is much more time- and cost-effective than having to print out paper announcements and post them all over the building or having to email everybody individually.

Place Digital Signs in Your Elevators

By now, it should be pretty clear that elevator digital signage can bring many benefits, regardless of the type of establishment you’re running. However, setting up the LED signs in your elevators is only half of the job. You will also need a reliable, cloud-based digital signage software solution behind the scenes. 

This is where Rise Vision comes into play. With our easy-to-use program, you can remotely control your screens, delegate display management, integrate other platforms, and so much more, regardless of the digital signage player you’re using. Get in touch with our team to learn more, or start using our digital signage software for free.