Spring has sprung and that means sales are going to start popping up. Not Easter sales in department stores. I am talking about yard sales and garage sales. The “one man’s trash” sales that encourage people to buy things they don’t necessarily need, but have to have because they are such a great deal. You can’t find jeans anywhere else for 50 cents! They are great too, as long as you don’t mind the 80’s faded look.

Yard sales. Moving sales. Garage sales. There are too many sales to keep track of. People spend their entire Saturday morning “yard-saleing” and with all those sales going on, how can you make sure that people make it to yours?

Try interesting, attention-grabbing yard sale signs!

For instance, you can reference not-so-polite words. Those are sure to get someone’s attention.

Yard Sale Sign

Or you can make your sign colorful, charismatic, and charming.

Yard Sale Sign

You can always appeal to the thrifty, second-hand types by calling it trash.

Trash Sale

Want the best way to attract those eyes to your yard sale? Skip the sign and make a large banner, complete with flags.

Garage Sale

However you decide to market your yard sale, be sure to spell it correctly. Yes, there really is a difference between “sale” and “sell.” If you want excellent yard sale tips, visit Garage Sale Pro.

In the last post, I discussed how restaurants were using digital signage to bring in more customers. Digital signage opportunities are limitless and with a little creativity, can be used in ways never dreamed of. For instance, higher education is typically seen as being at the forefront of technology; however, digital signage by universities and colleges has only been adopted within the past few years. In just a few years time, higher education has found some innovative ways to communicate with their students through digital signs.

These signs are becoming more prevalent in common areas such as student recreation centers, campus centers, and eating areas. The possibilities are endless. Some signs can promote student activities, various clubs, or vendors for the day. Other signs can feature interactive campus maps that help students locate their classrooms, professor’s office, or gymnasium. Third party clients can even purchase advertising to scroll across these large screens that specifically targets higher education demographics.

Imagine an emergency causing chaos across campus. Instead of students not being informed in time, imagine these digital screens changing to a campus alert with safety instructions. Many of these digital signage companies offer integrated features such as synching the screens with a campus emergency alert system. For instance, any time a campus alert was sent via text, the message will also display on these interactive screens. Suddenly, what was once a source of information is now a potential lifesaver.

As a university or college, you are continuously trying to recruit students to your programs. These interactive screens can also act as a source of advertising. The State University of New York did just this. Information about the 64 college system is now prominently displayed on 12 kiosks along the Thruway Travel Plazas in New York.

In today’s world, connecting with this demographic is more difficult than ever, simply because you can’t pull them away from their digital tech devices. Advertisers are having a difficult time maneuvering into an online space. Spreading the message via technology seems to be a perfect fit. It offers a medium that students are familiar and comfortable with. It seems that digital television screens are more likely to catch a young person’s eye than a simple flyer tacked to a corkboard.

Photo Credit

Digital signage has been around for quite some time, if you recall seeing scrolling message boards, plasma displays, electronic billboards, and projection screens. Digital signage is evolving, however, to include devices that can be electronically controlled via a computer, phone, or other device. “Narrowcasting” allows for constantly updated content over a variety of mediums. Think of the options that are available when you have a device that can be updated with the touch of a button to include all the latest and greatest information consumers need to know about.

Take, for instance, Top of Waikiki. This revolving restaurant sits high above the streets of Waikiki. People cannot easily walk up to the host or hostess and ask to see a menu or find out what the catch of the day is. To combat this problem, Top of Waikiki had a digital menu placed on the street below. The bottom part of the kiosk offers the night’s menu complete with photos and a touch-screen option to make reservations on the spot.

Pretty convenient for you, right? Imagine how management feels. If the unthinkable happens and the restaurant runs out of a side item, management can simply log on to their network and substitute a dish on the menu for new guests. Instead of having different inserts for the menu that showcases the catch of the day, the screen is simply updated with the touch of a few buttons. Running a special? Then simply update the screen while the special is going on and within minutes the special can be taken down.

Can you think of other great ways restaurants can use digital signs?

A tiny look into a big discovery

Neon. Synonymous with Vegas, Times Square, and that awful martini-shaped thing you used to declare your rebellion with in college. But since the invention of LCD lights, Neon is sometimes thought of as the ugly redheaded stepchild. But take a look into the world of Neon and you’ll hopefully walk away with more appreciation for this glowing wonder of science . . . and yes, advertising. First of all, Ne, the chemical element which creates the effect we know as “neon” is only found in small amounts in our atmosphere. So how can Neon signs be produced in such copious amounts? In the mid 1800’s, two chemists named William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers were screwing around with our earth’s elements like most of our beloved historical nerds did during that time. Ramsay was inspired to freeze a sample of our earth’s atmosphere until it became a liquid (raise your and if you had no clue that “air” could melt). When they warmed the liquid back up, they separated the gasses that boiled off and identified them as Krypton , Xenon, and our friend neon (Greek for “new”). Then, in 1898 another soon-to-be-rich nerd bottled the concentrated neon into tubes, and found that when electrified, it glowed. In 1923, the first neon banner was purchased by a Packard car showroom in Los Angeles, CA. Store owners soon began investing in the traffic-stopping, glass, pieces of art. During the repeal of the prohibition in 1933, bar owners found neon signs to be an affordable, and trendy way to lure people back into their water ing holes. Since the discovery and invention of the Neon light, scientist have been able to go beyond it’s natural glowing color, red by adding additional elements such argon, mercury and phosphor. Gosh, science is purd-y.

Ink and Pulp, our hero

One of the most dynamic and lifesaving tools in the history of health and disease prevention is the use of the printed sign. You can have buckets of Penicillin, but the only way to prevent the spread of a devastatingly contagious disease such as Small Pox, Scarlet Fever, Whooping Cough, and the dreadful Black Plague, is to quarantine the sick from the healthy.

The 14th century practice of quarantine began as an effort to protect coastal cities from infected ships arriving in Venice. The word quarantine comes from the Italian phrase “quaranta giorni”, meaning 40 days. This is the window in time in which infected ships were required to sit at anchor before landing. The “Spanish Flu” epidemic of 1918-1919 proved mortal for almost 40 million people worldwide. It was Wisconsin that proved to be the only state with lower death rates—the only state whose State Board of Health evacuated and shut down all churches, schools, saloons, and parks. On the doors of such places you would find a government issued sign, warning the public about the highly contagious disease, which was taking the country. Take a look at some of these morbidly interesting quarantine signs, and make a wish on your next shooting star that you never see one in person.