Digital Signage Central

LG Electronics Canada Inc. of Mississauga, Ont. is putting more resources towards growing its channel base in digital signage and in notebooks.

Shawn Snobelen, director of sales for LG Electronics Canada’s IT and Commercial Sales Division, has been trying to pack in roughly two-year’s worth of work and plans into six months so that the company can continue its growth in the digital signage market place.

LG has grown its digital signage business 20 per cent from last year, but with that success comes bigger expectations, Snobelen said.

With that he has built a channel and developed an audio-visual account base with players such as Design Electronics, Edcom and Matrix for LG’s line of digital signage products. LG Canada has also struck alliances with content creators such as Adflow, Boardsign and EK3. He has also toured four cities showcasing these displays to about 700 resellers.

LG Canada has entered into a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro Canada on digital signage, Snobelen said.

Solution providers such as SoftChoice and Metafore have also deployed LG’s large format displays through its software and networking solutions.

“This business comes from everyone and everywhere,” Snobelen said.

“You get a lot of digital signage business by default because it is growing so fast, but without the right tools and marketing you will not grow the business,” he added.

For the notebook business, LG Canada is focusing on the power users, which according to various analyst reports is about 44 per cent of the market in Canada.

According to Snobelen, LG Canada is relying on its channel partners to position its notebook line as a premium model for those users who demand a full-featured product.

LG recently hired Ipsos-Reid to conduct a study for them on the notebook market in Canada.

“What we wanted to know was who is buyer our notebooks because the feedback we get is that our products are gorgeous, but expensive,” Snobelen said.

“A lot of our customers are looking for power and reliability and a notebook that performs,” he added.