St. George Bank (Australia) - Partial Rollout

Over the past few years a number of the leading Australian banks--many of whom are now consolidating--invested heavily in upgrading their branch infrastructure in an effort to regain direct relationships with their customers, as the 'broker' model had made inroads in home lending, small business, and other key customer/product segments. St. George Bank, long viewed as the "fifth" of the "four pillars" (the four large banks who control >80% of most financial product categories), was chief among them.

Starting with its branch-of-the-future prototype in 2007, St. George began investing in branch upgrades and refurbishments across their ~500 branch network, with the key objective being to create an environment more conducive to sales / exploratory discussions. Elements of the new plan included a more open floorplan which minimized barriers between customers and staff, better training for sales personnel, and both dynamic and interactive digital signage elements to prompt enquiries and facilitate sales conversations.

Screens displaying product promotions, community news, and providing updates on customer queue position ("now serving...") are located above teller stations, and large-scale plasmas (50-65") are placed in windows in high-traffic locations. St. George's digital signage content engine is integrated both with its queue management software (to drive queue prompts) as well as its CRM engine, which dictates what product advertisements should be displayed at what location.

Larger, higher-volume locations also receive a "lifestyle wall" treatment--grouped into themes such as simplification and retirement--which includes a series of interactive touchscreens, which enable customers to access product information on a self-directed basis or, more commonly, serve as sales tools for staff to conduct more detailed product conversations. Interactive screens are supported by collateral materials, located proximately on the wall.

It is not known what branch design, software, content, and integration partners St. George uses, nor is it clear in the wake of St. George's acquisition by Westpac (who have their own digital signage solutions) how far the program will continue to be deployed. It is, however, an excellent example of how digital merchandising elements can play a pivotal tactical role in changing the nature (and/or frequency) of important branch interactions.

If our Australian readers have additional information to share, it would be much appreciated!

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.

HSBC - 5th Avenue Flagship

These photos come from HSBC's flagship branch/brokerage center here in New York. As retail formats go it's certainly not among my favorites, but it is one of the earliest branches to employ digital signage and proto-interactive applications (circa 2000?) here in the city. The branch, to my knowledge, remains unique among HSBC's 400+ retail locations in the US.

There are three core electronic communications elements in the branch: 1) the three 2 x 2 arrays of plasma monitors in the windows, which glow by night but are exceedingly difficult to see during the day, 2) an LED stock ticker that weaves its way throughout the interior of the branch (the rotating barbershop pole of brokerage centers here in New York), and 3) a forrest of interactive "web terminal" totems for customers to check their account balances and make trades in the lobby.

The branch cuts a striking figure at night, when the entire lobby and the digital windows glow from the street, but due to glare--a factor known and accounted for today--the leigibility of the plasma screens is maligned substantially during the day, to the point where I've never actually seen someone stop to read them. The content probably also has something to do with that...it alternates between network news (without sound, what's the point in watching a talking head?) and the same sequence of 4-5 content spots that has been playing since the signs were installed. Nor have I ever seen more than 1-2 people checking their account balance at the preponderance of interactive banking terminals. Perhaps their value is more strongly brand-oriented; when the facility was built I suspect offering internet banking and account access still seemed like the vanguard of retail banking and brokerage. I would like to see the bank come up with some more inventive ways of using the fixtures, however, as they send a different, unintended message ("nobody banks here") today.

In summary, HSBC and its design agency, BrandPartners, are to be applauded for their early adoption of electronic communications media, and for the ambition displayed in the variety of applications employed. It's time for a refresh, though, guys...even if it's just a few new content spots! Retail format design was supplied by BrandPartners, content is produced by DDC, and the signs are managed using software from 3M Digital Signage.

(Photos taken from BrandParnters, DDC websites)

Umpqua Bank - Neighborhood Store

The photos above showcase Umpqua Bank's new "neighborhood store" concept, a high-design, low-cost retail format meant to "integrate into established neighborhoods like cafes," according to a bank press release. Despite the fact that the footprint of these stores (as Umpqua refers to all its branches) averages 750 sq. ft., cafe service, internet access, and merchandise from distinctive local business will be available in addition to full-service banking.

How did Umpqua pull this off and still find space to conduct banking sales conversations, given that these branches are no larger than your run-of-the-mill in-store branch? Through the use of what they refer to as a "Discovery Wall," a choreographed, interactive, multi-screen experience that allows customers (or staff assisting them) to access a wide array of information on banking products, or lifestage-specific topics. Content is triggered when a customer picks up one of a number of RFID-tagged objects--the colored, upside-down coffee cups seen in the picture above--and includes a video presentation as well as the offer to print out relevant information on a nearby printer.

Having played with one of these the last time I visited Portland, I can say it presents a pretty seamless, and totally differentiated experience, but then again it's hard not to be seduced by the design-chic Umpqua aesthetic in the first place. Given the errand mentality most customers have when they enter a bank branch, it's hard to believe that many stop to "browse" the Discovery Wall on a regular basis. One can imagine, however, that in those rare moments when customers actually do consider purchasing an additional product, an application such as this would be an invaluable sales tool (especially since the average branch employee can often only describe the value of 10-12% of a bank's products).

Unless I am mistaken, Umpqua worked with Portland-based Ziba Design on the overall branch concept, and uses software from Nanonation to drive the interactive and digital signage elements.

Well done.

(Photos taken from Nanonation website)

Jyske Bank - video of branch environments

Customer-experience-crowers take notice (that means you, US banks): Jyske Bank of Denmark is doing some remarkable things with their branch environments, including the use of a number of interesting retail technologies. Jyske has provided a three-minute video of their new branch formats to provide customers with a sense of what to expect when they visit these new facilities, which you can find here. Definitely worth a look...

Jyske Bank uses Planar's CoolSign software to drive its digital signage network.