Summer is nearly here, and as the weather heats up, so does the frequency of outdoor events. Over the next few months, millions of guests will flock to stadiums to enjoy baseball games, soccer games, concerts, and far more.
Stadium visitors travel across the country to attend events, often entering unfamiliar environments. After struggling to find their way through foreign cities, guests crave streamlined navigation once they enter an event venue.
The classic solution to stadium navigation is, of course, wayfinding. Standard wayfinding signage, however, doesn’t offer enough information to satisfy modern guests. To meet new expectations, stadiums need to harness digital signage for their wayfinding solutions. Let’s dive into why, plus specific ways to leverage digital signage in stadiums.
Why Use Stadium Digital Signage for Wayfinding?
Almost every stadium’s wayfinding takes the form of physical signage. Similar to a street or stop sign, physical signage in stadiums offers tangible, clear directions to navigate guests through a stadium.
These signs, however, are inflexible. If something in a stadium layout changes, owners now need to replace signage with an entirely new, expensive design. Furthermore, physical signage can only share so much information. Directions are often limited to a few words and are nearly never event-specific.
Digital signage solves these problems. Adaptable to changing venues and different events, digital signage can display specific information pertinent to an event, while simultaneously engaging guests in new and exciting ways.
Digital Signage Solutions Improve Customer Experience in Stadiums
How can stadium owners leverage digital signage to improve their stadium experience? Here are a few specific ways to keep guests engaged with new digital signage opportunities.
Adaptable Stadium Screens
While most stadiums host a consistent sports team, there’s no limit to the number of events a venue can host. As such, stadiums need access to flexible messaging to cater to whatever an event calls for. Wayfinding using digital signage offers just that.
Because the messaging is digital, wayfinding screens can point guests wherever an event needs them to go. Signage at a baseball game might direct fans to beers and ballpark dogs. Meanwhile, signage at a concert can point attendees to merchandise kiosks and themed food. Directions found on digital signage are customizable and highly specific to individual events.
Digital signage also opens up incredible branding opportunities. Stadium owners can supercharge their navigation with colors, fonts, and aesthetics hand-crafted for the event. From holiday nights to synergistic tie-ins with team sponsors, design possibilities are limitless.
Keeping these screens up to date from event to event is essential to a guest’s experience. Stadiums with digital signage, then, rely on sturdy WiFi networks to update messaging from event to event.
Intuitive Guest Experience Kiosks
Looking to let stadium visitors navigate on their terms? Guest experience kiosks offer all the benefits of stadium screens mentioned above, with an additional layer of interactivity.
Using touch screens, guest kiosks can display interactive maps of stadiums. For even greater engagement, users can tap icons on digital maps to gain more information about stadium amenities, including menus and restaurant hours. Combined with other digital signage dispersed throughout the stadium, guests always have access to digestible navigation.
These kiosks can offer far more than just wayfinding. Other uses of guest experience kiosks include check-in, games, and even guest payments for concessions and merchandise. To keep interactions secure and functional, kiosks need the support of reliable, safe internet access.
Immersive Team Apps
Wayfinding using digital signage isn’t limited to stadium screens; smartphones also offer ample opportunities for digital wayfinding, especially when connected to designated team apps.
Using real-time location tracking, mobile apps can tell users exactly where they are within a sports stadium, including local landmarks and distances from other places of interest within the stadium. Just like the aforementioned kiosks, guests can also use these apps to interact with digital maps.
Mobile digital wayfinding can combine with other features to form a holistic stadium experience app. These apps can highlight additional features such as real-time score updates, player bios, and even augmented reality experiences. To keep scores accurate and support AR, these apps require a responsive stadium WiFi network.
Hospitality Network Stadium WiFi Powers Digital Signage
From interactive kiosks to all-encompassing mobile apps, digital signage offers varied ways to meet or exceed stadium guest expectations. Combining any or all of these solutions will blow guests away, keeping them coming back for more stadium events in the future.
As diverse as these solutions are, they all have one thing in common: each needs the backing of a responsive WiFi network to keep things running smoothly. Hospitality Network provides WiFi to stadiums of all sizes, from major venues to college ballparks. For football stadium wayfinding, soccer stadium wayfinding, and everything in between, Hospitality Network has the internet solutions to power it.
Want to learn more? Contact us for a consultation today.