Washington Mutual - Occasio Branches

Washington Mutual's digital signage network spans roughly 250 of the bank's 1,700+ branches. Referred to internally as "WM TV," the network is another of the industry's earliest and most well-publicized (at least within digital media and A/V circles).

Installation began in 2001-2 with a lengthy pilot, and has continued in earnest, albeit very slowly and most in denovo locations, ever since. WaMu has cited a number of reasons why they adopted digital signage as a component of their Occasio branches (more on them in a minute), but most accounts include:

1. The pilot proved that the medium greatly reduced wait-line fatigue, increased product awareness, and was consist with WaMu's "un-bank" brand image.
2. By at least one account, published in a local business journal at the time of the test, WaMu believed they had statistical evidence that customers were switching their primary service activities to branches with screens because they were so much more pleasant to visit.
3. Quicker time to market or, per Les Gruner, the bank's VP of media and production, "the beauty of (the) system is that we can craft messages...that speak to products we may be featuring this month."

The bank has utilized a number of different (read: inconsistent) display formats and placements, including 42" plasmas behind the teller podiums/area, a "what's new" information wall, 3-wide banner displays above product walls, and short-lived above-ATM screens. With the exception of the banners, which run a substantially shorter loop, all the other screens I've seen run a roughly 20-minute show, half of which is daily-updated syndicated news and the rest of which is devoted to brand-building or soft promotion.

It's unclear why WaMu hasn't opted to deploy the system beyond a few core locations in Seattle and its denovo builds, but at least one explanation is the fact that the network seems inextricably linked to the overall "Occasio" retail format, which the bank launched as part of its national branching push in 2001. This is in many ways very unfortunate since, despite the silly show the bank made of patenting the format and the press it received in industry rags, anyone who has visited an Occasio branch knows they've been a pretty blatant failure.

Developed to be unlike any other branch format, Occasio, or "favorable opportunity," promised to eliminate lines, provide more personal service, and improve efficiency. Tactically, this manifested itself in a rotunda shaped interior where no staff are hidden behind desks or walls, the installation of free-standing service "podiums" rather than a teller counter, and cash dispensers along the wall, all wrapped in a garish color palette and dropped by the dozens in the bank's new markets across the US. A link to a virtual tour of an Occasio is available here: Link.

In practice, which is readily observable during any lunch hour here in New York, the design (completed by retail agency Design Forum) actually created two lines--one for the teller podiums and one for the cash dispensers--and a massive amount of confusion, as customers figure out where to wait. It's telling, by the way, that the three executives responsible for the concept are no longer with the bank (two are at Barclays plc...enjoy, my English bretheren), and many of the branches have since been shuttered. But I digress...

Impart provides software, network management, and syndicated news services for WaMu and, as I understand it, most of the content is handled largely in-house these days. Design Forum designed the Occasio branch format.

(Photos taken from Impart, Washington Mutual websites, Digital Signage Quarterly magazine)