Rather than serving as a wall decoration, digital signage offers a means for financial institutions to validate their audience and return on investment.
By Louie Hollmeyer
Many banks are spending large sums of money to renew and upgrade their branches, yet those same banks are doing little to digitally shape, measure and choreograph the customer visit.
Banks remain fixated with digital signage as the “pretty poster” that personifies the digital branch 1.0, yet they do nothing to analyze foot traffic, identify audiences, and interact and vary messages by viewer.
Transaction-related visits are fundamental to bank branch visits and remain the bank’s best opportunity to cross-sell services, build customer loyalty and deepen relationships. With a measured media approach, banks have a continuous improvement model where digital signage and complementary technologies such as traffic pattern analysis, audience measurement and interactivity are leveraged to track, measure and elevate sales and the branch experience —creating a holistic, closed-loop feedback system for optimization … and the digital bank branch 2.0! Here’s how to go about it:
1. Establish a Traffic Baseline
Throughout the bank branch, a number of key locations exist — lobby areas, teller lines, waiting areas and transactional kiosks — where digital signage most effectively communicates with customers. As with any successful implementation, executives must first establish key locations where digital signage should be placed, particularly since each branch has its own unique traffic patterns.
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“A digital signage 2.0 transformation is taking place where the branch is once again becoming a priceless, adaptable asset in the customer acquisition and management process.” — Hollmeyer
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With consumer traffic pattern analysis technology, marketers can identify optimal digital signage placement prior to installation. This technology uses highly intelligent IP cameras to analyze ongoing consumer traffic patterns within the branch by counting patrons and tracking their flow and dwell through the environment.
2. Measure Multi-Zone Deployments
Traffic pattern analysis can make a critical difference when deploying a multi-zone digital signage system, dramatically improving the customer experience and increasing message effectiveness. After optimal locations are identified and digital signage is installed, the traffic pattern technology remains in place for continued analysis to determine effectiveness and changes in customer traffic flow triggered by the digital signage.
3. Leverage Audience Measurement
Once the digital signage network is in place, audience measurement is proven to be the most effective tool to optimize ROI (Return on Investment). Audience measurement helps marketers and advertisers know who is watching what content when and further allows content customization to specific audiences.
Audience measurement provides viewer data analysis and metrics, including dwell time, impressions per merchandised object, impressions by time of day, impressions by product or category and basic consumer demographics. With audience measurement, marketers can tailor messages to a particular audience and engage viewers with content customized in advance based on the customer’s interests, needs and habits. With this comprehensive technology, product promotions can easily be targeted for the prospective viewer, making digital signage much more intuitive.
4. Utilize Mobile Devices
Through near-field communications and proximity marketing technologies, marketers can interact with consumers and deliver targeted content to smart phones and Bluetooth-enabled devices. Content can vary from text with special promotion codes to media downloads such as animation, video and podcasts. Interactive applications can be delivered that permit two-way correspondence and allow the viewer to interact with the digital display. Marketers also can track frequency of visits based on the unique identifier.
When used in concert, traffic pattern analysis, audience measurement and interactive technologies can determine not only where customers travel within the branch but also what digital messages and content resonate and stimulate action. This holistic, measured approach provides proof of viewership, proof of effectiveness, tangible ROI metrics and a platform for measured media impressions, analysis and optimization.
5. Recognize the Paradigm Shift
As point-of-purchase viewership and customer receptivity to digital becomes accepted and proven, optimization techniques occur and “eyeballs” are engaged in the branch where brands are enhanced and sales are affected. Tactically, bank marketers that target professionals and affluent households find that digital signage offers superior coverage, control and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional marketing and communications channels. Digital signage delivers more measurable sales impact and is closer to the purchase decision-making point.
As a result, digital signage is affecting the consumer in ways never imagined before. A digital signage 2.0 transformation is taking place where the branch is once again becoming a priceless, adaptable asset in the customer acquisition and management process.
Louie Hollmeyer serves as vice president of marketing for STRATACACHE, a global provider of digital signage software and advanced digital marketing and merchandising applications for highly distributed retail and financial environments. Hollmeyer is an advocate of the “5th screen” (digital out-of-home) and its emergence as a powerful, proximity marketing medium. Hollmeyer can be reached at lhollmeyer@stratacache.com.
Stratacache CEO Chris Riegel will be leading a Lunch & Learn discussion on Thursday, February 25, at DSE 2010 on the topic “Deploying an In-Branch Digital Signage Network with a Clearly Defined Content Initiative.”