ING - Orange Cafe (additional photos)

After our initial post on the ING Cafe in Chicago, a reader was kind enough to share a few additional photos -- this time of locations in New York and St. Cloud, MN -- and some information on the technology solutions supporting it.

Having experimented with a number of different vendors over the years (Gensler, John Ryan, etc.), ING seems to have settled on Rise Vision, of Toronto, as the provider of software and integration services for its digital signage network. Rise Vision nows drives the screen network in each of ING's North American locations, with a number of others (Honolulu, a 2nd Manhattan location) on the books for the coming year.

In terms of screen positioning, the common elements for all stores are digital merchandising placed in proximity to the cafe counter, and internet kiosks for online banking located in the seating areas. In recent stores, ING has also experimented with exterior signage and interactive elements, which enable users to select from a series of informational / educational content. No common screen vendor was identified.

Citizens-Charter One - Network Rollout

With "video merchandising" deployed in roughly 850 of its 1,600 total branches, until recently Citizens-Charter One maintained the world's largest financial services digital signage network. While the network has been profiled in a couple of different industry publications over the years, it origins have often been confused. It also merits re-visiting due to its sheer breadth, both in terms of size and usage, and the number of learnings that have come from it over the years.

The network as it exists today consists of two separate digital signage initiatives, assembled when Royal Bank of Scotland purchased Citizens Financial Group (RI), and later Charter One Financial (OH). Citizens had begun to deploy digital signage in their "NICE" concept branches and had built a network of roughly 75 locations, less than 10% of the total footprint. Charter One, on the other hand, had made the decision to use their "digital communications network" (DCN) as their primary branch communications medium, and had deployed it to their entire network of 650 locations.

Screens (generally 42") were located above the teller counter and on kiosks in the branch lobbies of Citizens' branches, whereas they were located behind the teller counter in most Charter locations, as well as in a large "feature wall" dioramma facing the waiting area and the lobby. Both banks, and especially Charter, also maintained in-store locations, where larger screens (up to 84") were frequently mounted on the exterior wall facing the checkout counter or toward co-located Starbucks locations. In both cases, the bank's conducted a number of tests in select pilot branches, with results indicating that:

1. Improved the impact of promotional messaging (increased recall)
2. Improved customer perception of key brand attributes
3. Increased the number of products which could be put on display
4. Reduced perceived wait-time and improved satisfaction

In terms of content strategy, in a recent interview, Bill Harrison, director of branch marketing for Citizens-Charter One, commented that the network is aimed at making a three-tiered impression on customers,

It starts with the brand. The first impression when people walk in is 'This is a nice branch.' Their second impression is 'This bank has everything I'm looking for today.' And their third impression is 'I need to go and check that out now.' This exhibits itself through brand spots, spots that show product breadth and spots that tell you what to do next. you need to give consumers enough content that it's...entertaining and worthwhile.

Based on a few select branch visits over the past few years, Citizens-Charter uses a roughly 15-20 minute playlist of 20-30 second spots, although the timing of the loop is deceiving as a number of key spots are repeated more than once. News, weather, and sports updates for 21 unique regions appear prominently in the mix, and I would say that brand interstitials are featured more prominently than in other, more promotional networks. In addition to customer communications, the bank also uses the network to reach its employees , delivering training videos, product launches, and other corporate communications before- and after-hours. Sound does not seem to factor prominently in the multimedia experience, although ambient music does play in the "NICE" branches, and I can remember seeing content in the old Charter One branches that included an audio track.

The Citizens "NICE" branches were originally designed by Lippincott, and employed Impart software and content services to manage the network. Charter One's branches were designed by John Ryan and managed using the company's ScreenRed software and content services.

(Photos taken from ScreenRed, Impart, and Lippincott websites, ABA Bank Marketing article)

TCF Bank - Network Rollout

TCF Bank ("Twin Cities Federal"), whose network spans Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado, may be the possessor of the least well-known large digital signage networks--by now implemented in the majority of the bank's 400+ branch locations. According to a press release from 2005, the bank made the decision to move forward with a network rollout after piloting screen-based communications in some of its largest and most patronized locations. Reasons for adoption cited by Mark Foster, then the bank's SVP of Marketing, included that the medium was "unique" and capable of "targeting messaging down to the individual branch level," thereby increasing the relevance of the bank's communications to the local market and the likelihood of reaching customers who may be in the market for a given product.

As deployed, TCF's digital communications network consists largely of screens mounted behind the teller counter in traditional and in-store branch formats, although in some cases displays have also been installed in windows (I've seen 2-3 branches like that in Chicago) or on promotional kiosks in branch lobbies. The content loop appears to be roughly 3-4 minutes long, and alternates between general branding spots (open 7 days, etc.), product/category awareness (solutions for students), and specific product promotions (rates, etc.), interspersed with local news, weather, sports, and financial markets updates. Most of the content appears to be video-based, but the syndicated news spots, at a minimum, must have a flash overlay component, as they seem to site- or city-specific, and updated regularly. According to the release, the bank uses John Ryan's network management software and content services.

(Photo taken from Business Wire press release)

Bank of America - Collated Pilots & Rollouts

With nearly 6,000 locations, Bank of America possesses by far the largest retail network of any US retail bank. While the bank, which prides itself on technological innovation, has been making waves in the digital signage industry for years now--including this 2004 article in Business Week, which many at the time believed (incorrectly, it turns out) was the bellwhether moment for the digital signage industry--but has yet to make any large-scale commitment to date.


That said, over the past 2-3 years a number of "small scale" rollouts have occurred among within the bank's network (the largest of which was inherited in the acquisition of FleetBoston), and many of these would dwarf a full rollout for almost any other client. The bank is notoriously tight-lipped about results from any of its pilot tests, but rumor has it that customer satisfaction improved dramatically in RBSi branches, where Teller Zone Media was originally tested, and that branches with the interactive mortgage fixtures witnessed a 10-15% increase in applications during a limiting pilot test (if that's true, it's shocking the bank didn't deploy those babies everywhere, as 6-12 additional mortgage sales per year would easily cover the cost of ownership).

Rather than detail them individually over time, I have attempted to provide a comprehensive list below:

• Teller Zone Media (400-500 sites) - 19"-42" screens located above or behind teller counters, displaying live news feeds interspersed with bank content, primarily in New York, Washington, DC, and in denovo (RBSi) locations from the past 3-4 years
• Lobby/Media Wall (300-400 sites) - a 42" screen located in the waiting area of denovo (RBSi) branches, playing the same mix of news and bank content as the teller area
• External LED Signage (<10>sites))- massive LED banners and walls serving as external signage, primarily in high-visibility locations in New York
• Digital Windows (10-20 sites?) - 19"-60" Screens located in windows of high-traffic New York locations, some in 'portrait' mode and some in 'landscape' mode, primarily playing the same news/content mix as the interior screens (where they're even working these days)
• Investor Centers (40-50 sites) - 1-2 42" screens located in the Banc of America Securities offices, mostly in California and Texas, showing financial news almost exclusively
• ATM Vestibule (~50 sites) - primarily small screens in New York branches, frequently incorporated into the ATM surround itself
• Interactive Web Kiosks (~300 sites?) - all over in New York, DC, and Boston (although rarely being used and with less pomp than those displayed in the photo below), touchscreen kiosks enabling customers to access account information, print out information, and use various "tools" available on the Bank of America homepage
• Interactive Mortgage Centers (15-20 sites) - a very cool application, which since may have been de-installed, the interactive versions of the ubiquitous "Mortgage Center" fixtures allowed customers to learn about mortgage products or watch informational videos, and were located primarily in Las Vegas and Florida
• Interactive Window (1 site) - an ersewhile pilot test in Chicago, probably designed to generate buzz (which it did: link), which played primarily the same content used on the mortgage fixtures

As you would imagine, this many projects takes a small village of suppliers to manage and complete, including Prism Technologies, Creative Realities, Planar/CoolSign, R/GA, GestureTek, Convergent, and Sony, among others I'm sure.

Harris Bank - Network Rollout

Harris Bank (owned by Bank of Montreal) is one of Chicago's oldest community banks and, with roughly 200 branches in the metropolitan area, one of its largest. Starting in 2001, the bank began experimenting with digital signs in its branches, first in high-traffic urban areas, and eventually made the decision to roll out to its entire network.

The bank adopted digital signage to address two key recurring issues: 1) long teller queues in its urban locations, cited as a primary source of customer dissatisfaction, and 2) generally low awareness of its broader (non-DDA) product portfolio, which was inhibiting cross-sell opportunities. The bank's branch communications weren't helping either problem--in fact, in one audit only 39% of customers could recall seeing a marketing message during their visit. In 2001, the bank initiated a pilot test, where it installed an LCD screen behind the teller counter in 13 urban locations, and eliminated all other print communications from the branch. The screens showed a mix of brand, promotional, and community relations/sponsorship content spots, interspersed with local news, weather, and sports updates.

At the end of three months, 89% of customers surveyed could recall a message they saw during their visit (compared to 39% in cohorts), and more than half indicated the screens improved their branch experience. The bank has also hinted that it observed a lift in cross-sell ratios during the pilot, but has yet to publish the results. In a Chain Store Age article, Joseph Teller, VP of Marketing Services, said the bank had finally found a medium that "successfully intermingles the product and services messages in a format that attracts and retains customer attention."

While there is certainly nothing revolutionary about the screen-behind-teller installations, to my knowledge Harris was one of the first to begin customized content (community events and news) on a branch location basis. Marketforward provides network management software and content services for the network.

(photos taken from Marketforward website, and digital retailing expo conference presentation)