Woodforest Bank - Network Rollout (600 sites)

It was announced this past week that Woodforest National Bank, a roughly $2.8 BN in assets bank who have rapidly expanded their retail branch footprint over the past three years, would deploy digital signage to all 550+ locations. Woodforest, whose network spans 9 states including Texas (its headquarters) and much of the South, is known primarily for its partnership with Walmart to develop in-store branch locations, its marketing and efforts to serve the underbanked (eg. recent immigrants, those with prior credit problems), and its adoption of a 7-day operating model.

Woodforest's digital signage network will consist of screens located at the entrance to its in-store branches, where they will be visible from the store checkout area and retail floor, as well as located behind the teller counter. Content, which will include promotional spots as well as news updates, will be developed and managed centrally.

Woodforest had been experimenting with digital signage in its in-store locations for the past few years using the Inlighten software platform, but chose instead to move forward with Omnivex for its full deployment. Cindi Stewart, the bank's VP of marketing, indicated that Omnivex's ability to handle data at scale was a key factor in the decision.

Key Bank - 650 branch (slow) rollout

Sorting through the inbox this weekend, we noticed that Diebold have quietly announced a substantial rollout at KeyBank (long rumored), starting with 8 of the bank's recently refurbished upstate-New York branches. The rollout, which is slated to address ~650 of the bank's 950 branches over the course of three years, is part of a broader upgrade of the bank's customer-facing electronic interfaces--including large-scale electronic displays behind the teller counter (visible displaying Key's logo, above), enhanced ATMs, and self-service deposit machines.

According to the press release, the core objective of the program is to migrate customers to more self-directed service options, freeing up branch staff to provide more in-depth assistance on more complex, consultative issues, and ultimately reducing transaction-driven branch traffic.

Once deployed, much of the content on the screens will be centrally developed and directed, but each branch will also have the flexibility to program its own community content (e.g. uploading images from community events) and provide customized local offers. Content will be delivered over the bank's existing network infrastructure, and managed using software provided by Diebold. Ostensibly, content will also be delivered to the ATM screens, where offers can be customized using the bank's CRM data.

This is one of only a few cases we are aware of where an ATM provider such as Diebold is also providing digital signage infrastructure and software, but it would seem to us to be a logical extension of the existing service agreements such companies provide.

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)

PNC Bank - Network Rollout

A reliable source from PNC Financial Services, who offer banking, lending, insurance, and wealth management services through nearly 1,100 branches on the Atlantic seabord, has confirmed that the bank is in the process of rolling out digital signage as part of a comprehensive merchandising program to its entire branch network.

PNC, which began experimenting with digital media in its flagship branches as early as 2002-3, made the decision to move forward with the new program after a lengthy pilot test earlier this year, which produced impressive results. While the exact figures were not provided, key decisioning metrics included lifts in awareness and recall (~2x better than the current merchandising system), as well as a noted lift in the percentage of customers asking questions about promotions they saw while in queue. The new merchandising system has since been expanded to the bank's ~200 Washington, DC-area branches, recent denovos, and flagship locations already outfitted with plasma screens, with plans to extend the program to the remainder of the branch network over the next 1-2 years.

One notable element of PNC's program is that the digital screens are but a single element in a broader, fully integrated merchandising program. Other elements include a variety of environmental elements, a promotional fixture which holds 3-dimensional graphics to attract attention to the bank's most important current promotion, and a clever queue fixture that houses product brochures, flyers detailing community events, and other branch-related information. According to the source, each of these elements is reinforced by messaging on the digital screens (the ubiquitous behind-the-teller-counter and waiting-area varieties), and localized to fit each branch's surrounding community. This mutually-reinforcing approach--rather than the "fish out of water" screen which shows information unrelated to other branch promotional material--is exactly how all institutions should be including digital media in their retail communications mix.

Gensler provided the new environmental branch design for the PNC program, but the merchandising system and digital signage network are being handled by John Ryan, using its ScreenRed software platform.

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)

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)

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)

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)