Often, the most innovative display applications are the ones that make full use of their environment and use all the media at their disposal. Last week, for example, the winner of Ocean Outdoor's Art of Outdoor competition was named as Grey London's Jordans project, which combined a digital billboard, an existing hedge and a smartphone app to create an interactive campaign that fitted in with its surroundings. Earlier this year, a protective building wrap covering work on Prague City Museum combined a gigantic print job with an LED screen. The question of digital signage and the internet's negative effect on print and static signage has been raised many times, but these kinds of projects should show that a range of media can actually work together for brilliant results.

This spring, Ocean Outdoor also unveiled a new look for its Silver Screen digital billboard, whereby the casing of the screen had been branded to match the screen's content. The campaign, for the airline Emirates, was described by the out-of-home agency as having 'achieved a media first'. Whether this is true may be the matter of some debate; surely, if a car, wall or iPhone can be wrapped fairly easily by a sign company, wrapping the profile of an electronic sign shouldn't be an entirely new concept? Well, it's generally the case that, firstly, the advertising market places emphasis on sleek, slim digital boards without chunky edges, leaving little to personalise. Secondly, the beauty of digital signage is the ease with which content can be changed; if the wrap must be replaced every time a new digital campaign goes live, it does rather miss the point. However, for medium-term campaigns such as that for Emirates, altering the appearance of the whole display can catch the eyes of regular passersby who may have become familiar with seeing the digital screen, and thus increase impact.

What marketers are looking for with any advertising campaign is a long-lasting effect, after all, and a method of doing this is by giving the viewer something to take away with them. Many freestanding digital signage solutions are available with literature holders, for instance, allowing a passerby to watch the screen's content and then take a printed hardcopy back home or to the workplace to peruse later. At this year's Sign and Digital UK trade show, Output's stand featured one such dual-media display: a 40" (1m) digital poster solution supplied by Fairfield Displays and Lighting, together with a selection of leaflets about the magazine.

In a less tangible way, interactivity with smartphones has a similar approach. A quick response (QR) code, printed on a static display or shown on an electronic screen, can direct consumers to a website, interactive content or a special offer when they take a photograph of it on their phones. Similarly, near field communication (NFC) technology lets people see information on their smartphones when they hold their phones close to signage embedded with NFC chips. Kremer Signs has recently launched a new 'for sale' board for estate agents, which includes both an NFC chip and a printed QR code to enable house-hunters to obtain more information about the properties they visit, directly to their handsets. The interactivity demonstrated in the Jordans cereal creative mentioned above may not leave a physical reminder of the campaign, but will bequeath a memorable experience of taking part. A combination of visual materials is likely to increase that effect.

The phrase 'cross-media' often conjures up images of leaflets with web addresses printed on them, and other mere modernisations of established communications. Undoubtedly, these can be effective, but there's an almost infinite combination of media – from handmade signs and wide-format printed material, to 3D, interactive, augmented reality content transmitted on digital billboards with dedicated smartphone content – that can all be handled under the cross-media name, and can help display producers of all types stand out. It may be worth networking outside the normal crowd, attending industry events not usually on your business's calendar, and seeing if it's possible to join forces with non-competing companies to create something really special.