Digital Signage Content Ideas: 60 Things to Show, and How to Make Them

The best digital signage content ideas answer a question someone in the room already has: what is on, what it costs, how long the wait is, where to go, whether to take an umbrella. After that comes one thing you want to sell, and something that makes the screen worth a glance. Below are 60 ideas grouped by what they are for (to inform, to sell, to welcome, to entertain and to reassure), and each one says how you would actually make it: an app you fill in once, an image, or a short video.

Most screens need less designed content than people expect. A menu, a weather panel, a QR code and one promotion make a perfectly good playlist.

Three ways to make any of these

Every idea below uses one of three routes, and each means a different amount of work.

• An app. You fill in a form in the dashboard and the screen draws the content live: a clock, a countdown, the weather, a QR code, a menu. SignageStack has 32 of them, all included in the plan. The self-contained ones (clock, text, countdown, QR code, menu board) need no internet at all once they are on the screen.
• An image. Designed in whatever you already use, exported in the shape of the screen (1920 × 1080 for landscape, 1080 × 1920 for portrait) and uploaded. It is cached on the device, so it plays offline.
• A video. Short, and made to work without sound, because many screens run muted. A phone is good enough to film a product or a process. Upload the file rather than linking to YouTube if it has to play while the internet is down.

Three shortcuts sit between these routes. The Canva and Google Slides apps show a design that someone keeps editing elsewhere. The PDF app plays a document you already have, page by page.

Digital signage content ideas that inform

Information is what earns a screen its glances.

1. Opening hours. Text app. For a holiday closure, add a second item and switch it off again when you reopen; nothing takes it down for you.
2. The next public holidays. Public holidays app, set to your country: the next holiday shows large, with its date and a countdown such as "in 3 days". It knows countries, not regions.
3. Today's weather by the exit. Weather app. The "Hour by hour" layout answers the umbrella question.
4. Outdoor air quality. Air quality app, for a school, a gym or a clinic. It reports the air outside for a place you pick; it is not a sensor in your building.
5. The time, large. Clock app, with a digital, analogue, split-flap, words or orbit face.
6. Today's meeting-room bookings. Google Calendar app in the Schedule view. Share only free/busy with the connected account and meetings show as busy, without their details.
7. Team numbers from a spreadsheet. Google Sheets app: edit the sheet and the screen follows within a minute. The office TV dashboard guide covers this in detail.
8. The shift rota. Google Sheets again, or the PDF app if the rota already comes out as a PDF.
9. News headlines. BBC News, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian and the other news apps, or the RSS feed app for any public feed. Each story can carry a QR code, so people can finish reading on their phone.
10. Your own blog or newsletter. RSS feed app, if your site publishes a feed. Most blog platforms do, usually at /feed.
11. Exchange rates. Exchange rates app, with daily reference rates, for a hotel reception or a travel agency. Label it as a guide, not as your buying and selling price.
12. Hourly electricity prices. Electricity prices app, for a workshop, a laundry or anywhere heavy use can move to cheaper hours. It shows the wholesale price, not the bill.
13. Directions inside the building. An image with arrows, or one Text item: "Toilets and lifts: left, past the lockers."
14. The notice that used to be taped to the door. Text app for a few lines; PDF app for a full page someone else wrote.
15. Timetables. Google Sheets for a class or course timetable that changes weekly, Google Calendar for events.
16. A band of short messages under everything else. Ticker app, with your own lines or headlines from a feed, scrolling along the top or bottom of whatever is playing.
17. Public transport departures. Web page app, but only if the operator offers a public departures page that allows embedding. Many pages do not, and those show blank.

Content ideas that sell

Selling works best when it is one thing, shown large, at the moment someone is deciding.

18. The menu. Menu board app: type the items or import a CSV, pick one of 11 designs, and each category gets its own pages. The guide to digital menu boards covers the whole setup.
19. Breakfast until 11:00, lunch after. Two menu boards on the same screen. SignageStack does not switch them by the clock: at 11:00, switch breakfast off and lunch on from your phone, and the screen follows within seconds.
20. One product, one price, large. An image. One product per slide: three products are three slides.
21. Today's special. Text app, changed by whoever opens up, or a photo of the dish uploaded that morning.
22. A promotion with an end date. An image in the playlist, and the end date in your own calendar. Switch it off or delete it on that day, so the Easter offer does not run into May.
23. A countdown to a sale or a launch. Countdown app, with a message for the moment it reaches zero.
24. The add-on at the till. A portrait screen beside the queue: the pastry, the extended warranty, the car wash.
25. Deals and bundles. The Combo design in the Menu board app lays items out as offer cards.
26. A QR code to the online shop. QR code app, pointing at the product page, or at the sizes the shop has run out of. The article on digital signage for retail goes further.
27. A QR code to book the next appointment. The QR code app again, pointing at your booking page: for hairdressers, garages, physiotherapists.
28. A product in use. A short silent video with captions: the coffee machine descaling itself, the jacket in the rain.
29. Before and after. Images, for a car detailer, a hairdresser or a renovation firm. Get the customer's permission in writing before their car or their hair goes on the wall.
30. Gift cards and loyalty. An image, or the QR code app with a caption such as "Join the club".
31. Seasonal campaigns, prepared once. Build the autumn, Christmas and summer playlists in one sitting, add them to the screen, switch them off, and switch each one on when its season starts.
32. The menu and a promotion at once. Zones app: the board in one panel and a promo video beside it.

Content ideas that welcome

Welcome content is for the first ten seconds someone spends in a place they do not know yet.

33. A welcome for a visiting company. Text app: "Welcome, the team from …" Put it up in the morning and take it down after lunch. Use company names, not private individuals.
34. Guest Wi-Fi. QR code app, set to join a Wi-Fi network. Use the guest network, not the one the till runs on: anyone who scans the code can join.
35. Who works here. Photos of the team with names and roles, as images, with each person's agreement.
36. What is where. A floor plan, or a simple list: reception, lifts, meeting rooms.
37. Several languages. The same short message as several Text items, one per language, one after the other.
38. What is on today. Google Calendar app on a shared events calendar, for a hotel lobby, a coworking space or a school.
39. Follow us. QR code app pointing at your Instagram or Facebook page. There is no social-feed app; the code does the job.
40. House rules, politely. Text app: dogs welcome, laptops away at lunchtime, last orders at 22:00.

Content ideas that entertain

A little of this keeps people glancing up between the useful items.

41. Quote of the day. Daily Wisdom app: pick topics such as Motivation or Health & wellness, and a new set arrives every day. You cannot add your own quotes; put those in a Text item.
42. On this day in history. On this day app, from Wikipedia's list for today's date. The events are not filtered, so some days include wars and disasters. Leave it out of a children's area or a clinic.
43. Days since opening. Countdown app, set to count up since a date.
44. Days without an accident. The same app, reset by editing the date. A factory-floor classic, and it works offline.
45. A countdown to the holidays. Countdown app to Christmas, New Year or the summer break, with a message at zero.
46. The match. Live stream app, for an HLS or DASH stream or a live video on YouTube or Twitch. It needs the internet, and showing a broadcast in public may need rights you do not have.
47. A YouTube video. YouTube app, one video per app. It streams, so it is skipped while the screen is offline.
48. A quiz. One image with the question, the next with the answer, in that order in the playlist.
49. Staff picks. Book of the month, coffee of the week: an image or a Text item.
50. Photos from the last event. A Google Slides deck anyone on the team can add to. The screen follows when the deck changes, and slides marked "Skip slide" stay off it.

Content ideas that reassure

For people who are waiting, worried or unsure what happens next: in clinics, at service desks, anywhere with a queue.

51. How the wait works. Text app: how people are called, what to do if they have waited a long time, when to come back.
52. What to have ready. The insurance card, the order number, ID, the car's service booklet.
53. What happens next. The steps of a process as one image: drop-off, inspection, a phone call with the quote, collection.
54. Today's delays. A Text item reception can edit in a few seconds: "We are running about 20 minutes late this afternoon."
55. Accessibility. Step-free entrance, hearing loop, the quiet room. Text or an image.
56. Cleaning and hygiene routines. An image, kept factual.
57. A way to give feedback. QR code app set to write an email, or pointing at a feedback form.
58. A review request. QR code app set to leave a Google review, using your Place ID. It works best near the exit, after the service.
59. A prepared emergency message. Emergency Alert app: write it in advance and leave it switched off. When it is needed, one switch covers every chosen screen within a second.
60. A sign that the screen is alive. The small clock in the corner of the Weather app, or any clock, shows at a glance that the screen is not frozen on an old picture.

For clinics and dental practices, the waiting room TV guide goes further into privacy and pacing.

How to turn the list into a playlist

A playlist is a loop, and a loop needs a shape. A café screen above the counter might run:

1. Breakfast board, 20 seconds
2. Weather, 15 seconds
3. Autumn promotion video, 25 seconds
4. Instagram QR code, 10 seconds

A few rules make any mix work:

• Nobody watches from the start. People look up at a random moment, so if the loop is long, put the thing they came for in it twice. A menu that appears once in a three-minute loop is missed by most of the queue.
• Mix in apps that change by themselves: weather, quotes, news, a live spreadsheet. A loop that never changes becomes wallpaper within a week.
• Put the end date of every offer in your calendar, and switch the item off or delete it on that day. The screen should never be the last place a finished offer is still running.
• Keep a core that never expires. The screen loops whatever items it has until you change them or its working hours end, so when an offer comes off on Friday, the menu and the weather carry on. It is never dark by accident, only outside working hours.

For the look of each slide, the digital signage design tips cover type size, contrast and how long to hold a slide. For finished combinations by setting, see digital signage examples.

What to leave off

• Anything that only makes sense with sound. Many screens are muted, and the panels of a split screen are always silent.
• Paragraphs. A few words in large type can be read across a room; a paragraph cannot.
• Pages that need a login. The Web page app shows public pages and share links; a page behind a login, or one that forbids embedding, shows blank.
• Content nobody owns. Every item needs a person who will notice when it is wrong.

Where to start

Pick three ideas: one that informs, one that sells, and one that changes by itself. Make them in an afternoon and put them in one playlist. The setup guide covers pairing and working hours, and the app catalogue shows the form behind each app. The 21-day trial includes every app, on one screen, with no card needed.