Putting your own ads and artwork on the screen

The screen is on all day whether you use it or not. An idle screen showing your branding is free advertising; an idle screen showing a stock image is wasted wall space.

The two kinds of screen content

• Idle or standby content — what plays when nobody is using the machine. This is the one that matters most, because it runs for the overwhelming majority of the day.
• In-session content — what appears while someone is browsing or checking out. Use this sparingly; anything that slows down a purchase costs you the purchase.

Uploading

1. Open the advertising or screen content section of the platform.
2. Choose whether the content is idle or in-session.
3. Upload the image or video and assign it to the machines it should play on.
4. Set the display duration and the order if you are using more than one.
5. Save, then go and look at the machine. Screens vary and an image that looks right on your laptop can be cropped or washed out on the machine.

Getting the artwork right

Match the screen's own resolution and orientation. Most of these machines use a tall portrait display, and a landscape image will either be letterboxed with black bars or cropped through the middle of your message.

• Build artwork at the screen's native resolution, in the screen's orientation.
• Keep anything important away from the edges — bezels and rounded corners eat more than you expect.
• Use large, high-contrast type. It is read from several feet away, often at a glance, sometimes by someone walking past.
• Test it on the actual machine in the actual lighting. A dim image is invisible under fluorescent light or near a window.
• Keep file sizes sensible. Large video files load slowly and can make the machine feel sluggish.

What to put on it

In order of usefulness: what the machine sells and that it takes card; your brand and contact details, so someone who wants a machine of their own knows who to call; and current promotions. Machines are seen by thousands of people a week and cost nothing extra to advertise on — several operators get more inquiries from their idle screens than from paid ads.