By Mic Wilborn
— January 15th, 2026
It’s time to stop thinking about digital signage as just another message distribution channel and instead look at screens as a core part of an organization’s attention infrastructure.
Screens in the right place, populated by carefully planned and well-executed content, have the power to capture attention and then influence behaviors and mindsets—whether the settings are workplaces or busy public spaces like airports, malls, and hotels.
But attention doesn’t happen by default. Screens don’t earn it by simply existing. Attention has to be earned. Attention requires strategic planning. It requires re-thinking digital signage messaging, looking at it as part of an organization-wide attention infrastructure—one that may already include other tools like email, intranet, and collaboration platforms.
Earning Attention
A good way to start thinking about this is to imagine yourself on a couch back home, remote in hand flipping endlessly through TV channels and streaming platforms…maybe muttering, yet again, that there’s nothing worth watching.
The same dynamic applies with screens that were budgeted and put in place for communication purposes. To capture and hold the target audience’s attention, what’s on those screens needs to be relevant and valuable to them.
Just as publishers and broadcasters rely on editorial calendars and programming plans, impactful digital signage communications need a thoughtful strategy and plan for what’s on the screens, why, when, and where.
Too often, these systems are marginalized—treating the networked screens like nuisances or operational tools, with content updates seen as an after-thought. We’ve all seen content that should live on screens for a day or two, but instead stays up for weeks or even months, because there’s little or no ownership or strategy.
In some cases, they’re orphaned systems—"owned” and operated by technical people who keep them running and secure, but have little or no input or involvement with the people who work on ensuring those screens are optimized with the right content.
When done well, however, digital signage is an extraordinarily powerful awareness channel. It’s always on and present, and doesn’t rely on people hopefully opening and then reading emails or notifications, logging into collaboration systems or leafing through printed materials.
It’s almost universally understood that in both offices and industrial workspaces, employees who rate internal communications as clear, transparent, and collaborative are more engaged, more loyal, and less likely to leave.
In public spaces like airports, malls, retail spaces, and hotels, clear communications are critically important for safety, guidance, enhanced experiences, and for both supporting efficient operations and driving business goals.
Complementary Communications
The term Attention Infrastructure refers to the underlying systems, architectures, practices, and processes that organize how human attention is captured, measured, managed, and then redirected across digital and physical environments.
It’s about the technical systems, but also about practices and processes. It’s also about the business and governing models that address a simple reality that in just about any environment, there are lots and lots of things competing for the increasingly scarce, endlessly divided attentions of people.
No one tool is king, and a critical principle of effective attention infrastructure is recognizing that communication tools should be complementary, not competitive. They reinforce and amplify one another. Let’s look at just employee comms, as an example.
Emails are great—but they don’t all get opened and read, 100% of the time.
Notifications from smartphone apps are also useful…for some people, some of the time. Helpful, but no guarantee everyone engages with that content.
Intranet articles are also useful, and most people would agree, a critical part of an internal comms solution. But how are you getting people to go to that page?
Enter digital signage. Ok, so this one’s also not 100% effective—because no single channel is. But while screens around different environments aren’t measured and burdened by metrics like open rates, logic dictates that people on the go will invariably see them. Well-positioned, prominent screens with compelling, contextually relevant content have the power to complement other communications.
The simple truth is that not every communication channel works for every person in every situation. But if you take a step back and view each as part of an Attention Infrastructure, you can start to craft more meaningful communications experiences for your audiences.
One channel can complement another, driving people toward the right information. And that simple fact is as applicable to employee communications as it is to communications in public spaces like hotels, airports, casinos, and more.
Screens With Benefits
Digital signage struggles for attention and relevance if the big programming question isn’t much more sophisticated than what content is available. The conversation should not be about what piece of video, image, or presentation slide can be used to refresh your screens. It should instead be about what messaging truly matters to the target audience.
In a workplace, that might be news about enhancements and changes to benefits programs. A simple message with an eye-catching visual might be what gets the all-company email with the details opened and read more widely—or that content could point directly to an intranet page where all the details can be found.
In a busy transportation hub, on-screen, real-time guidance helps get people through disruptions and delays, reducing passenger frustrations, easing congestion, and answering a torrent of questions that might otherwise overwhelm staff during rough travel days.
It’s important to remember that most digital screen interactions are brief. People glance; they don’t linger. Effective content is like effective roadside billboards—getting the desired point across in a few short seconds. One visual, and a few well-chosen words.
You can think of effective screen content as headlines that drive people to get the full story, or in a very 2026 mindset, “clickbait” statements and visuals that actually link to useful and relevant material. But the trick is to keep two things in mind: “what action am I trying to drive?” and “how can I best capture attention to drive that action?”
Boosting Outcomes
As a critical component of attention infrastructure, digital signage helps organizations across industries and scenarios reduce noise, boost relevance, and drive communications objectives.
It works best when supported by a platform designed for enterprise scale, and does more than just update screens. Poppulo’s unique platform enables organizations to deliver targeted, multichannel messages across networked displays—from door signs at meeting rooms to giant LED screens—but also to email, mobile apps, and integrations with the key tools like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and other critical systems.
With Poppulo, users get a system that spans physical and digital environments, and helps drive two particularly coveted words in a world of scarce and divided attention: awareness and action. So, if you—like so many other people right now—are reviewing your signage network and planning optimizations for the year, don’t just look at your displays as screens. Reframe them as part of a larger Attention Infrastructure. That might unlock how you leverage your signs, and the value they deliver to your organization.