Against the backdrop of refined urban governance and the upgrading of commercial visual communication, the outdoor light box industry is facing a dual requirement: on one hand, policies are increasingly strict on safety, energy efficiency, and urban style coordination, driving the industry toward standardization; on the other hand, brand owners are pursuing personalized expression to stand out in fierce competition, making customization a core demand. How to balance standardization and customization, while meeting regulatory requirements and market demands and ensuring product texture, has become a key issue for enterprises in the industry. Industry practice shows that the integration of the two is not a contradictory choice but a path to high-quality development.

In recent years, countries and local governments have continuously introduced relevant technical specifications to regulate the development of the outdoor light box industry, making standardization the basic threshold for market access. The "Technical Specifications for the Setting of Urban Outdoor Advertising and Signage (Trial)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the State Administration for Market Regulation clearly requires outdoor light boxes to comply with the four basic principles of "safety, beauty, coordination, and energy conservation", specifying that the wind resistance level shall not be lower than level 8, the surface material shall reach flame retardant grade B1 or above, and the lighting system shall give priority to LED light sources with a total power consumption of no more than 150W.

Local policies have further refined the standardization requirements in combination with regional characteristics. For example, first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have fully implemented remote control access and carbon emission monitoring for outdoor light boxes, and Shenzhen has completed the intelligent transformation of 1,842 light boxes by 2024, achieving an average power saving rate of 38.7%. Chengdu has implemented an "integrated block style" management mechanism, restricting the frame color of light boxes in key business districts such as Chunxi Road to gray, white, and dark brown, and regulating the font size, which effectively improves the urban visual order. At the same time, the mandatory energy efficiency standards represented by GB 30255-2023 require that new outdoor light boxes put on the market after 2025 must have a luminous efficiency of ≥90 lm/W, forcing 37% of the stock of inefficient equipment to face elimination or transformation pressure.

Industry insiders pointed out that the continuous improvement of standardization has promoted the shuffling of the industry. Enterprises that fail to meet the safety and energy efficiency standards are gradually eliminated, while leading enterprises have established a comprehensive quality management system around the standards. For example, Shanghai-based Quickshow Advertising Company has taken the lead in promoting a modular quick-installation system that not only meets the national structural safety technical requirements but also realizes the rapid replacement of light box screens in a few minutes through magnetic panel design, greatly improving maintenance efficiency and meeting the standardized operation needs of chain brands.

While standardization ensures the basic quality of products, customization has become a key means for brands to enhance their competitiveness and create unique visual expressions. With the upgrading of consumer aesthetics and the diversification of commercial scenarios, the demand for personalized outdoor light boxes such as special shapes, interactive experiences, and scene integration is growing.

High-end customization has become a new growth point in the market. Xiaohe Display, a Shanghai-based enterprise focusing on the high-end market, is good at R&D and production of complex special-shaped, super-large-size light boxes and light boxes for special scenes. It has created a curved luminous window display system for an international luxury flagship store and a giant special-shaped art light box device in the atrium of a large shopping mall. By using high-end materials such as high-quality aluminum profiles and imported acrylic and exquisite craftsmanship, it combines brand tone with space environment, creating a visual landmark with both functionality and artistry. In the cultural tourism and commercial complex scenarios, customized light boxes integrated with AR technology and dynamic light effects have become a new trend. Shanghai Tinghong Culture and Media has created an interactive theme light box matrix for the anniversary celebration of a large shopping mall, which attracts consumers to stop and take photos through immersive experience, and realizes the spontaneous spread of social media.

The innovation of customized technology has also improved the realization efficiency of personalization. The application of ultra-thin light guide plates with a thickness of less than 3mm reduces the weight of traditional light boxes by 40% while increasing brightness by 35%. The magnetic modular structure allows the daily theme switching of light box screens in trendy brand stores in Sanlitun, Beijing, up to 3 times a day. The flexible application of soft film light box aluminum profiles has also expanded the possibility of customization. An international fast fashion brand used aluminum profiles to build a suspended cube device in the atrium of a shopping mall. Through the combination of standard parts, it formed a three-dimensional frame, which was covered with a translucent soft film printed with brand logos, creating a futuristic visual experience.

In the actual development of the industry, leading enterprises have explored a path of integrating standardization and customization, realizing the balance between demand and texture. The core of this path is to take standardization as the basic framework and customization as the value extension, and to improve the efficiency and quality of customization through modular design and technological innovation.

Modular design has become a key bridge connecting standardization and customization. Enterprises decompose the core components of outdoor light boxes such as light sources, frames, and power supplies into standardized modules that meet national standards, and then realize personalized customization through the combination of modules and the customization of surface materials and screen content. For example, the standard aluminum profile modules launched by Shenzhen Zhongya Aluminum Industry can be combined into right-angle, arc, or special-shaped structures through buckles, which not only meets the standardized requirements of structural strength but also realizes the personalized design of different scenes such as shopping malls, subway stations, and exhibition halls. The national manufacturing single champion enterprise Absen has integrated high-efficiency LED modules that meet energy efficiency standards into customized products, ensuring that while meeting the personalized needs of customers for display effects, it also achieves the energy-saving goal of "less than 1 kWh per square meter per day".

The integration of intelligence has further promoted the balance of the two. Many enterprises integrate standardized sensor modules and remote control systems into customized light boxes, realizing intelligent adjustment of brightness according to ambient light and remote equipment management. For example, a group of interactive soft film light box advertising walls set up in a city's subway transfer channel uses standardized aluminum profile frames and sensor modules, and at the same time, through customized curved structures and dynamic light effect programming, it achieves the dual functions of passenger guidance and commercial advertising, realizing the organic combination of standardization, customization, and functionality.

Looking forward to the future, with the acceleration of the construction of smart cities and the deepening of the dual-carbon strategy, the outdoor light box industry will further strengthen the integration of standardization and customization. It is expected that 7 national technical specifications involving structural safety, energy consumption standards, and data interfaces will be introduced by 2025, which will further improve the standardization system of the industry. At the same time, the application of new materials such as recycled aluminum and bio-based materials, and the popularization of edge AI sensing technology will provide more possibilities for customization.

Industry experts said that the high-quality development of the outdoor light box industry lies in the precise grasp of the balance between standardization and customization. Standardization is the guarantee of industry order and product safety, while customization is the driving force for industry innovation and value upgrading. Only by integrating the two can enterprises meet the diverse needs of urban governance and commercial brands, create outdoor light box products with both quality and texture, and promote the industry to enter a new stage of high-quality development.