So, you’re looking for a digital signage vendor. You’ve narrowed down your options but are debating whether UPshow or Atmosphere will be the ideal platform (and partner) for your business.
We’ll cut to the chase with this TL;DR:
UPshow is the top digital signage company powering screens for businesses. We offer robust entertainment options and, most importantly, features that enable you to better market your business and grow revenue. We transform businesses’ on-premise screens into revenue-generating tools by curating exceptional customer experiences. With our technology, organizations get their own private TV networks they can fully control and customize. Plus, our ad-free approach means your customers won't see anything on your screens that you don't want them to.
Atmosphere is a digital signage provider primarily focused on entertainment. They describe themselves as “the world’s largest streaming TV platform for businesses.” While their Atmosphere TV product is free, that doesn’t mean it comes without a price. As an ad-based platform, their service is free so long as you run their third-party ads on your screens. Your valuable on-screen real estate is used for advertising other people’s businesses and offers instead of your own. Beyond entertainment content options, screen customization is limited and Atmosphere’s platform doesn’t facilitate customer engagement.
Want more details? You’re our kind of reader. We’ve outlined essential points of comparison between UPshow and Atmosphere so that you can make the most informed decision for your business.
No Ads, Ever
Your TV screens should be used to market your business, not anyone else’s, which is why our platform is 100% ad-free. Why risk having a competitor’s ad play on your screens? Yes, we’ve heard this has happened to customers of other digital signage providers (yikes!). With UPshow, you choose what you promote, when you promote it and for how long, giving you peace of mind.
With all of our packages, you have complete control over the content you select via your own private network. At no extra cost, you get access to our best platform features such as campaigns with UPshow Connect, interactive content like branded trivia and custom content creation for compelling on-screen displays.
Customizability Comes Standard
We believe your screens should always look and feel like they belong to your brand; that’s why we don’t upcharge to create custom displays that your patrons will recognize. You likely have areas in your business for specific activities and different customers that visit each area. For example, in a restaurant, barstools might be occupied by sports fans and people looking to relax after a hard day of work, while booths are filled with families out for dinner. As a business owner, you want to be able to curate the right experience for each on-premise area. UPshow allows you to do that with customization at the individual screen level. You can either create your own content or fully customize pieces from our robust library of templates as well as choose the programming that makes the most sense.
However, customization with Atmosphere’s platform is not possible: every screen has to run the same content. This means if you have multiple screens in your business that require different content (which most do), you would be out of luck.
Knowing your customers and tailoring your on-premise experience to their needs is critical to ensuring satisfaction, generating more repeat visits and maintaining your business’s profitability.
More Than Entertainment
As mentioned earlier in this post, Atmosphere is a platform primarily focused on entertainment. They offer a wide selection of entertainment options that appeal mainly to small and medium-sized businesses, especially those in the hospitality industry. However, they do not provide curated channel packages, nor do they enable interactive entertainment like trivia.
UPshow has more than 500 entertainment channels, including hyperlocal sports, live entertainment, breaking news and viral videos. We also provide channel packs made specifically for businesses in the hospitality, healthcare, fitness and automotive industries at no additional cost.
Interactive content is another unique way to captivate and entertain your customers. For example, trivia could be an excellent option for healthcare clinics or hospitals to inform patients and distract them in the waiting room area as they wait to be seen by their doctor. Trivia is entirely customizable to each of your locations and your brand, like all our other on-screen content.
Holistic Measurement
Campaign tracking comes standard with our packages at UPshow. We understand how important data is to demonstrating ROI. After all, why would you invest in a technology that can’t prove the value it’s driving for your business?
Our easy-to-understand in-platform analytics help you gauge which campaigns are the most successful at driving customer engagement and revenue for your business. Insights gleaned from the data are what will help refine your marketing and further improve revenue as time goes on.
For example, if you own a multi-location fitness business and want your members to download your new app, you can create a campaign with app downloads as the goal. You can track metrics like the total number of app downloads your on-premise promotions drove or specifically which locations received the highest number of app download scans via the campaign QR code.
Atmosphere doesn’t enable marketing campaigns nor QR code technology. As a result, there is no verifiable way to identify the ROI from their platform.
Dedicated Support Team
At UPshow, we partner with you to curate the ideal on-premise experience for your customers. We want to understand the nuances of your business and use our technology to support your growth.
Our team provides thorough training on how to create on-screen promotions and offers strategic guidance on the best ways to maximize campaign success and analyze results for future optimizations. We aren’t just there for you during the onboarding period – we’re always there for you with our 24/7 online help center and email or text support.
UPshow provides a dedicated team to support you every step of the way from implementation to execution and even complete white-glove service with our Managed Services option.
As with the other features we’ve covered in this post, Atmosphere falls short in this category due to its limited customer support options. We all know that technology is imperfect. Things come up, sometimes at the most inconvenient times, and help is needed. You should select a partner you can trust and rely on during those situations.
That just about covers it! We hope you feel more informed and confident in deciding between UPshow and Atmosphere. If you want a reliable and strategic partner that will help you enhance your on-premise customer experience and grow your business’s revenue, we would love to show you our platform in action with a custom demo.
