It appears that significant deployments of digital signage and multimedia-capable displays supporting so-called "narrow casting" content still happen more frequently abroad than at home. Given my schedule and lack of airline ticket, I was appreciative of some recent phone time with Rachel Douglas of Oakville, Ontario, Canada-based Tim Hortons to learn about the 3,000-plus-unit, bakery-cafe chain's digital marketing boards.
Hortons has one of the largest digital-signage networks in North America, with flat-panel, liquid-crystal displays in about 2,100, or two-thirds, of its stores. If there is a larger, single-brand network of multimedia displays showing so-called "narrow casting" content in foodservice on this continent, I've not heard of it.
Douglas says her chain has been installing display screens in service areas and drive-thrus for two years — almost exclusively in Canada — and plans to carry on. The content displayed on those flat panels is created, managed and distributed with the help of EK3 Technologies Inc. of London, Ontario, an application service provider known for its inPulse technology and software.
Details about the cost of the network or its return on investment were not offered up by Douglas. However, she did say the chain believes the network is driving new sales by highlighting products and supporting localized marketing that "helps us connect with our customers."
The messages shown on the Tim Hortons network come in a variety of forms, including photos, video clips, scrolling text and Macromedia Flash-like animations, such as "popping verbiage," Douglas explains. She says the information conveyed includes such things as monthly special offers and "Timfacts" — like a reminder that coffee is a dime cheaper if customers bring in travel mugs. Also shown is localized information about various community programs supported by the chain, such as the "Timbits" youth sports initiative and free swim or skating sessions at nearby pools and rinks.
Douglas says the "easy to use" hosted services from EK3 appeal to her chain because multimedia content creation and management is "not the store owners' expertise" and "we'd rather they focus on their business and customers."
Tim Hortons' team of regional marketing managers is responsible for localizing content, she says.
EK3 chief executive Nick Prigioniero says it is difficult to talk about standard pricing, because the type and number of services provided differ greatly from client to client. But a basic package featuring content management and distribution to a single screen per store might run $200 per unit per month, he explains.
Subscription fees can go higher, Prigioniero suggests, depending on such things as the amount of content created by EK3 and the sophistication of the content delivery strategy. He says EK3's "narrow casting" technology can weigh operational data, such as inventory levels or food costs, as well as other information, like weather reports, to shape content that influences customer purchases along desired sales or margin lines.
McDonald's work with digital signage in the Philippines is among other recent international news on that front. Twenty-nine McDonald's restaurants there now sport single, 42-inch, plasma-display screens at or near their counters and single personal computers serving as content "players." Two other regional McDonald's are equipped with dual screens.
The content playing on those overseas screens is being created, managed and distributed by Globaltronics Inc. of San Juan, in metropolitan Manila. It uses Exton, Pa.-based Scala Inc.'s InfoChannel 5 software.
Valentin Y. Munoz of Globaltronics says clients pay a $1,300 per restaurant "player" software licensing fee and monthly content development and management fees of from $200 per unit or lower, depending on the size of the chain.
Globaltronics' website shows some McDonald's digital-signage content amounting to menu items in motion. Scenes include falling ice cream sundaes, dancing cones and floating rice and fish dishes.
Statements by Globaltronics late last year when the first McDonald's units went live indicated that as many as 132 additional restaurants would be added this year. To date, none of those stores has yet come online.
While the growth of Tim Hortons' digital-marketing network is noteworthy, the slower-than-anticipated ramp up of the McDonald's system in the Philippines may be a sign that such initiatives are not always challenge-free.
