Bank of America - latest network failure (bsod)

Much has been written here about the disappointing execution of Bank of America's digital signage network--poor screen placement, primitive TV/bank content mix, etc.--but the feared black-screen-of-death ("BSOD") captured across at least nine screens in a high-profile location during rush hour is without doubt a new low. Network operators, this is a lesson on why local cache-ing of content ("store and forward"), PC redundancy and/or local service should be non-negotiable criteria for your digital signage technology.

Maybe the "no sync" message on the screen is meant to signify that the bank and Creative Realities, its digital signage provider, just "don't get it"...

Content Worst-Practice #3

3. You've split the screen into multiple content windows
This is likely a controversial addition to the list, given that so many digital signage networks partake in it, but splitting the screen into multiple content windows—generally in the form of a main panel, a side-bar, and a news/stock ticker or two—is an unabashedly bad practice. For a moment, let’s explore two most common reasons for doing so…

The big television news networks do it. Yes, the networks do, but they don’t have anything invested in what particular bit of content their viewers are watching on their screen. Banks, on the other hand, are generally footing the cost of the network in hopes of selling additional products to their customers…why would they want to provide an alternative to watching their ads while they are running? Given the choice between reading a news ticker, watching the weather, or watching an ad for home equity, which would you choose?

The news material keeps customers entertained, and alleviates wait-line fatigue. Yes, news, weather, and sports material does keep customers entertained, but there’s no need to provide it all at once. In fact, exit interviews conducted during a pilot test for one of the US’ largest retail banks indicated that customers preferred when syndicated content was provided one bit at a time (ie. separate spots for news, weather, and sports sprinkled throughout the loop), finding it easier to read. And on the wait-time point, branches whose screens displayed multiple content windows faired no better than those in which the entire screen was dedicated to one spot at a time.

It helps keep the content fresh. Bosh. XML feeds can be incorporated into other content just as easily as they can into a ticker. If anything, keeping content in four panes fresh should be more difficult, because there are more “mouths” to feed.

In all, just a bad idea.

Content Worst-Practice #2

2. Your digital content changes out less frequently than your print

Two of the most frequently cited benefits of digital signage are the ease and low-cost of message change-out, but don’t tell that to a number of banks, who change their print materials more frequently than they do their digital content.

This actually occurs pretty frequently in cases where there is either a sub-scale network or stalled pilot program (Citi here in New York, ABN Amro in Chicago, or US Bank and Fifth Third in Cincinnati come to mind) and frankly it’s understandable. Given limited time and capital, resources should always be concentrated on the programs reaching the largest audience, ie. existing print. However, in a number of scale bank digital signage networks, print is still changed out more frequently than digital content….in a word, inexplicable.

Take Wachovia’s 30 branches here in New York, which are equipped with digital screens located above tellers and in the windows, along with some fantastic, large-scale print campaign fixtures (disclosure: Wachovia is my bank, and they’re fantastic from a service perspective). In the last six months, I can remember the print campaigns changing at least four times (high-rate money market account, $100 bonus checking offer, student checking, and co-op equity line). During that same period, I think the digital content has changed once. Let’s explore the economics, based the following assumptions:

• 3 print merchandising fixtures per branch
• 2 campaign graphics per fixture (2-sided) @ $ 50 per graphic
• $ 20 shipping and $15 installation per campaign, per branch
• $ 20,000 agency and print production fees per campaign

Using these figures, and assuming the Wachovia NY branches receive unique material (believable, given that the offers are different here than elsewhere in the network), the cost to produce and install every print campaign is $ 30,050, or $ 120,200 for the four campaigns I saw over the past six months. Let’s assume, generously, that Wachovia spent $20k for the 2 new spots they produced for their digital signs during the same period (likely overstated given the low production value).

If you believe those figures, in an environment where all branches have both print and digital campaign capabilities, Wachovia is allocating its branch marketing budget 85/15 in favor of print materials, spending 6x the dollars on print, and changing campaigns 4x as frequently. If you believe the statistics on media effectiveness, which skew heavily in favor of digital…what gives?

(Final note: my personal opinion is that large-scale print graphics are more effective than digital when it comes to windows-based messaging, but it still doesn’t justify the change-out frequency skew)

Content Worst-Practice #1

Your screens show competitors' ads

The last 2-3 years have seen a boom in banks installing flat-screen televisions in their teller areas, most often playing CNN, MSNBC, or another broadcast news station to entertain customers while they wait for service.  While seemingly innocuous, in reality these banks are exposing their customers to thousands of their competitors' advertisements...while they wait in their own branches! 

If we assume banks show 2,250 broadcast hours per year (9 hours/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year), and that there are 15 minutes of advertising per hour at 30 seconds per ad (network averages), it means branch visitors are exposed to 67,500 ads on a yearly basis.  Having watched CNN for more than a few hours in my lifetime, I think it fair to assume 1 in 5 ads are financial services oriented, meaning 13,500 competitor ads grace screens in bank branches annually.

The TV epidemic is visible in many different banks here--Citi and Signature Bank are two examples--but perhaps worse yet is Bank of America's network, as I wrote earlier in the week.  BofA, who have the mechanism already in place to deliver their own content, is mixing their material seemingly randomly with broadcast TV, which is what led to E*Trade's high-rate savings ad to be played (while BofA advertised an inferior rate on their print materials!) while I walked by the branch the other day.

Come on, guys.  Seriously.

The Top-7 Content Worst-Practices Countdown

My hatred for the phrase "Content is King," well-known among my close associates, is due largely to the fact that it has been hackneyed to the point of meaninglessness. But if in fact "Content is King," then there are a number of pretenders to the throne among financial services networks.

Although banks using digital signage deserve a tremendous amount of credit in other capacities--the industry, afterall, has probably been the quickest to adopt the new medium--when it comes to content a great number of them deserve a bit of scolding. At some level this probably shouldn't be that surprising, given that the industry's traditional lack of humor and (more likely) rigorous compliance requirements gave birth to that timeless slogan "Great Rate, Ask Us How." Some institutions, such as Harris Bank, Synovus, Citizens-Charter One, Chase, and SunTrust, are definitely getting it right, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Over the next week or so we'll be counting down the "7 Content Worst-Practices" perpetrated by FS digital media marketers, many of which can be seen every day here in New York. More detail will be provided for each worst-practice in an individual post, but without further adieu...

The "7 Content Worst-Practices"

7. You're using your web or broadcast content in-branch
6. You're using (or not using) audio
5. You're showing local news...in the wrong locality!
4. Your loop is 1-2 spots long
3. You've split the screen into multiple content windows
2. Your digital content changes out less frequently than your print
1. Your screens show competitors' ads

Bank Hapoalim - Network Rollout

The Middle East has been a hotbed for financial services digital signage networks lately (albeit mostly on a small scale) but Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest consumer bank, maintains the largest. Starting nearly two years ago, the bank began a rollout of a comprehensive digital communications system to its 250 branches. According to a press release at the time, each location is now equipped with digital signs in four different zones--the teller counter, the business banking zone, the retail lending zone, and the personal banker zone--each showing a unique "channel." Content consists of 30% entertainment and 70% advertisements, as well as displaying customers' positions in queue (a clever "now serving" application), and a permanent Reuters information ticker on the bottom of the screen. Ad targeting is done generally on a regional basis, but also using attributes such as branch size, services available, and customer mix.

Note to bank marketers: Including news/stock price tickers on the bottom of the screen is a bizarre obsession of many network operators and, according to at least one test, an absolutely dismal idea. Results from a pilot I conducted on content effectiveness showed across-the-board declines in standard media measures (awareness, recall, etc.) for the "main" content displayed when tickers were present, likely a by-product of the increased visual clutter and distraction of customers who read the news instead of watching ads. Even forgetting the test for a moment, intuitively, if you want customers to watch your ads, why would you provide them with a competing alternative?!

As well as its use as a marketing vehicle, Hapoalim also uses its network to communicate to its staff before- and after-hours. Content is developed by the bank's internal marketing department, and the network is managed using C-nario's software application.

(Photos taken from C-nario website)

Hey, Hey BofA...

...do something about your content in New York, and stop mixing it with a live broadcast feed!

This article deserves to be expanded more broadly to encompass the general "crisis of content" plaguing so many bank digital signage networks today (well documented here, as well), but I couldn't help but comment on the Bank of America branch in Grand Central this morning, which includes at least a dozen screens of different shapes and sizes.

There, broadcasting on all screens during the morning subway rush, I watched a fanastic advertisement for E*Trade's new high-yield checking account. Not a bad idea, Bank of America...maybe I'll close my account with you and open one up there.

Citibank & US Bank - Award-Winning Content

The inaugural "Fourth Screen Awards," honoring the best creative content in brand, promotional, interactive, and public service announcement dynamic media campaigns, were announced by the Strategy Institute during their digital signage conference in Las Vegas this past February. Per the official announcement,

"The Fourth Screen Awards 2007 was an opportunity to congratulate and learn from the most innovative, creative and effective content developers the out-of-home digital media industry has to offer," says Adam Remson, Publisher of Other Advertising Magazine. Adding “it’s a way to foster innovation and growth in content production. The Fourth Screen Awards celebrate those groups who have raised the bar for everyone in alternative out-of-home digital media.”

Two banks were among the award winners--US Bank took home a bronze medal in the interactive category for its in-branch Health Savings Account promotion, and Citibank won bronze in the public service announcement category for its Syndicated News, Weather, and Sports spots. Agency services were in both cases provided by John Ryan Performance.

It's nice to see financial institutions honored alongside such illustrious brands such as Nike, Nokia, Toyota, and Ralph Lauren. If at all possible we're going to try to locate and post screenshots of these two spots in the blog. If you have an inside line on them, please drop us a line.