LITITZ, Pa - An update of the 1970 Five Man Electrical Band song might go "Sign, sign, everywhere a [digital] sign."

Or, more precisely, a digital sign by Connectedsign.

Displays designed by the small Lititz company already guide retail shoppers, college students, airport travelers, motorists and apartment residents throughout the country.

Now, says President Loren Bucklin, the signage is becoming a hit with corporate managers seeking to communicate more effectively with workers.

The company that he runs with his wife, Brigitte, and four employees recently announced the inking of an account with the Pepsi-Cola Co.

Pepsi is the latest A-list client in a portfolio that Bucklin says also includes Boeing and Circuit City.

And it's just the tip of the iceberg, according to Bucklin, who says he aims to grow his $1-million business to $12 million over the next several years.

It's all part of a global trend that some industry analysts predict will top $3.8 billion by the end of the decade.

Why the boom?
A digital sign can go virtually "anyplace you might put print," Bucklin says, but "it's eclipsed the cost of print."

Brigitte Bucklin says a single-screen setup costs around $3,500, including the software and player. The price tag goes up from there, depending on the size of the system.

However, Mrs. Bucklin adds, screen costs have been dropping as the technology advances.

The Bucklins say digital signage is infinitely more versatile and attention-getting than a static display.

The signs can be quickly reformatted to deliver news or weather bulletins, event postings, directions and emergency warnings.

They can convey messages in many languages and reach production workers who don't have computers.

Signage can be plugged into in-house cable television, which is what the Bucklins did at Peter Cooper Village-Stuyvesant Town, an upscale apartment complex in Manhattan.

Digital displays can be interactive, as in the case of campus directories with multiple information menus.

They can be big or small, plain or fancy, like the signage Bucklin's company designed for the Pentagon.

The Pentagon system features a bulletin screen with four pairings of colors — black and yellow for construction is one combo — to alert travelers to different types of messages.

"They've got 15 levels of evacuation," Bucklin says. "It used to be so simple. The alarm rang, you ran."

Reading sign
Life is less simple these days. Stimuli fly in from all angles. People have learned to tune out irrelevant or off-putting messages.

That's why digital content must toe the line between flashy and boring, Bucklin says.

Designers must use motion correctly, "not for cleverness's sake."

Digital signage should be "nice and pretty and readable." It should be "dynamic with relevant information."

Where appropriate, it can boost readership by adding "user value" features such as the weather.

It should avoid disparity.

"You don't want Coke and Pepsi on the screen at the same time," points out Bucklin, who has a background in computers and instructional design. Get it right, and "people flock to this."

Connectedsign appears to be getting it right.

Bucklin, a Michigan native who lived here during a previous marriage, started the company about a dozen years ago.

He and his wife met in Baltimore; she formerly did marketing for WBAL-TV there, and WGAL. The couple pondered moving to Los Angeles or Chicago but liked Lancaster's ambiance.

They settled at Bent Creek a little more than a year ago.

Brigitte Bucklin is Connectedsign's director of sales and marketing.

The Bucklins are planning to hire eight more employees, they say, and they're looking for office space.

But the company they coordinate out of their home is already flowering.

Proceeds last year doubled those of 2006, Bucklin reports. And Connectedsign is on track to earn as much in the first quarter of 2008 as it did in all of 2007.

 "People know us as subject-matter experts," Bucklin says.

Connectedsign's hundreds of customers hail mostly from North America, he adds.

But the company partners with Navori SA, a software designer in Lucerne, Switzerland, and other software and hardware vendors from around the world.

Bucklin says that's because the rest of the planet is about 2½ years ahead of the United States in digital signage technology and use, and because applications and demands from customers are so varied.

Generally, he adds, messages and formats may be set up to accommodate walk-bys (think school corridors), "lingering" venues (hotel lobbies) or sit-down areas (waiting rooms).

Interior signage represents about 80 percent of Connectedsign's market.

"We're not a fan of bigger is better," Bucklin says, noting that two small screens at opposite ends of a room are sometimes more efficient than one big sign.

Screen sizes vary from 10½ to 50 inches, and customers may choose from among LED, LCD or plasma displays.

Digital information can be stored on servers with multiple administrators and conveyed via Internet cables and commonly used programs such as Windows.

Digital signage has subtly infiltrated American life, Bucklin says.

And yet, he reiterates, this country is still playing catch-up to the world.

Remember when an advertisement customized its pitch to the Tom Cruise character in "Minority Report"?

A version of that sales technique already exists in Asia, Bucklin says, and it's coming to a mall near you.

Digital sign clients will use video more often in the future, too, he predicts.

People are only beginning to imagine the ways they can manipulate the technology, Bucklin says.

"They don't know what they don't know yet."