Charles Schwab - Network Rollout

Five years ago Charles Schwab, one of the largest retail brokerage firms in the US, would not have been considered a bank by most standards. However, the firm recently made a bid to attract core deposits through a high-yield online checking account linked to its internet brokerage platform, and is making significant headway in the mass affluent segment (among the most valuable to banks). One of the prototypical clicks-and-mortar success stories, Schwab operates a network of more than 300 full-service branches and, along with them, a nifty little digital signage network.

Installed in roughly 125 high-visibility street-level locations concentrated in the largest urban markets across the US, Schwab's digital signage network includes window-mounted and interior facing lcd "posters," and a interactive kiosks positioned a few paces after the entry to the lobby. Schwab clearly went all-out on the integration of the screens--even in their existing retail locations--as they blend seamlessly into the overall retail environment, often surrounded by back-lit acryllic panels or built directly into the woodwork.

The window displays are typically made up of multi-screen arrays (either 2 x 1 in portrait format or 4 x 1 banners) and broadcast content consistent with Scwab's mass-media advertising campaigns. Of particular interest are the "Ask Chuck" spots, picking up a theme developed in Schwab's TV and print media, which provide answers to common questions asked by Schwab customers via the firm's web portal.

The internal screens are generally single-screen "posters," which provide information on new product features, investment advice, and current stock market updates, and one of which can be used to make powerpoint presentations to customers during lunch or after hours. Given the strength of the content for the other applications, the interactive kiosks are a bit of a letdown, but they do provide nice functionality to search upcoming branch events and seminars throughout the regional area, and the ability to print out information otherwise stored in paper brochures.

The overall retail environment was designed by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, and content is developed by Schwab's internal team along with support from its interactive agency. According to my sources, the network is managed using a proprietary system Schwab developed internally--a first for the digital signage industry given the size of this installation?--which appears to run smoothly.

(Photos taken from Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill website)

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)

The Provident Bank (NJ) - Jersey City Flagship

Not much to say about this installation, other than to say its a nice looking branch, to add another to the talley of 3-wide banner display installations, and to encourage The Provident Bank (the one in New Jersey, not the one in DC) to update its content more frequently than once every two years.

The installation consists of two 3-wide digital signage banners, one of which is positioned behind the teller counter, and the other of which serves as the center-piece for a "financial solutions" center, visible from the street and the nearby Manhattan-New Jersey ferry terminal. For more, I'll quote from the BrandPartners case study:

The “Provident Hub” communications strategy came to life with six 40-inch LCD displays, fitted together to create two sets of seamless banners, each hung in designated zones. The new Digital Signage Network projects financial facts, brand positioning, product offerings and local news....the solution improves the customer experience as it promotes brand recognition and communicates product campaigns and financial services information. As a result, The Provident has been able to transition from a traditional, transaction-oriented bank to a full-service provider of expert financial solutions.

Branch design services and content are supplied by BrandPartners, and local integrator OpenEye Displays manages the network using 3M Digital Signage software.

(Photos taken from BrandPartners website)

Bank of New York - Park Avenue Flagship

Another 3-wide LCD digital signage banner installation, this time in the ATM vestibule at Bank of New York's flagship Park Avenue location. B0NY's 400+ retail branches were recently acquired by JP Morgan Chase and are in the process of being re-branded, but this branch (a one-off in the BoNY network) should fit nicely with the ones Chase has been building or renovating elsewhere in the city.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the architect's or marketer's intent was with this sign originally, as it's positioned well to be visible from the street--where employing need some sort of short flashy 'attract' sequence with 3-5 second content bursts would make the most sense--yet too high to be seen as you wait to use the ATM, where devoting 45 minutes or so of every hour to talking-head style Bloomberg financial news (does anyone other than a banker, stock analyst, broker, or trader actually choose to watch that on their free time? Granted, those guys were probably BoNY's target market) might otherwise make a modicum of sense.

The screen is broken up into multiple quadrants, one showing a live Bloomberg feed, one a ticker, one a separate text-based news panel, and one with an ad, but cuts to Bank of New York advertising whenever the telecast cuts to a commercial break. This solves one major problem faced by the myrriad of banks here in New York who have installed televisions in their denovo branches, only to broadcast thousands of their competitors' ads to their own customers as they wait for service (read: dumb). I'm assuming that Chase, who I'll profile at some point in the future, has since replaced this feed with the same content they run in their own legacy branches, but I'm guessing content/software was originally provided by Bloomberg Financial Network and The Affinity Group.

SunTrust - Retail lobby and in-store branches

I thought these were particularly nice photos of installations at SunTrust. This 3-wide format seems to be increasingly popular (largely a by-product of the steep price reductions in lcd displays?), as I've seen it recently employed in Chase's New York branches as well.

From a "showings" perspective, the Chase screens are nearly impossible to miss as you walk by their branches on the street. While I can't comment specifically on SunTrust's branches having never visited them, you'd think the retail-frontage concept of "showings" would apply there as well. Based on the published information, SunTrust has deployed these babies to 98 of more than 1,700 branches across the Southeast US.

SunTrust worked with BrandPartners on the development of the branch concept, and employs software from 3M Digital Signage to manage its network.

(Photos taken from 3M Digital Signage and BrandPartners websites)