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Delivering content used to be so simple: print, radio, television, banners and signs. But add in the digital dimension and delivery is just the start of the problem. For buyers of signs and displays, the bigger question is to decide what content works best in what context: on the web, in print, as a digital sign or a blend of all three. The fluidity and portability of digital data mean that all of these possibilities are real and that campaigns can be designed to exploit all of them. This much we know and understand, but then there is the mobile dimension, a dimension that we don't really fully understand, although we like to think we do.

For instance ComQi, who make technology for digital signage, recently launched five new 'place-based mobile applications interacting with digital signage displays in a retail venue'. Eh? We had to wonder for a while what a 'place-based mobile application is'. But wondering didn't help so we looked more deeply into what ComQi's all about. They do lots of clever things, but we managed to work out that their five mobile apps are like any other apps that can be downloaded to an iPhone or iPad (other smartphones and tablets are available, but they aren't very nice compared to the Apple ones, in my opinion). Light bulb moment! The ComQi apps are Voting, Information and Couponing, Group Buying, Quizzes and Games.

These apps allow people to interact with digital signage as a means of keeping them happy while they shop. During those awful shuffles around the racks of shirts or skirts one can be entertained by interacting with the digital signage using ComQi's new apps. The more important dimension for this is that these apps give brand owners a hook into their customers, so that they can stay close to them and develop a more intimate relationship and dialogue.

It's all very exciting for retailers, but are people really so very bored and lonely that they want a retailer or a brand as their new best friend? I have to admit to a severe aversion to pretty much all forms of shopping, so for me being fed up in a shop has an easy solution: leave. But for the target market for ComQi's technology, these new apps are probably extremely enticing. ComQi reckon that people will feel empowered. Based on a combination of digital signage and social media, they can use their mobile phones with URLs, QR codes, near field communication (NFC is short-range wireless connectivity) or a mix of all three, to develop relationships with brands and retailers. It's either going to work a treat or turn out to be a very expensive gamble.