How-To: Digital Branch Merchandising on the Cheap!
You have all seen them. The big flashy screens put up in branches to promote products and services. The ads keep rotating out like magical posters. Sometimes they give you news updates, videos or animated ads. Whatever it is that you are getting from your service provider, I have to say, you could likely do yourself a little cheaper.
“But Tony, we don’t want cheap marketing!”
Of course you do. You just don’t want marketing that looks cheap. That’s the trick!
So, this is what I have done. I checked out some of the developing technologies to find a way to deck out your branch in high tech / low cost digital marketing.
Each one of these giant screens are pretty expensive. There is no way getting around that. But you can get a nice Plasma 50” TV for about $2,400. There is still a debate about which is better – LCD or Plasma. According to Engadget and Sound and Vision Magazine - Plasma is still better.
So, now you have the TV. Don’t forget that you will need a mounting bracket for this behemoth. You will also need to figure out how you are going to get power to this. I will assume that you have some sort of facilities manager that can get you power. Or you could just hang it over a power outlet and get one of those beauty plates to cover the cords (you can get them at Radio Shack or an office supply store).
Wow, that thing looks great hanging up in your branch. It is on; all lit up and… wait… its snowy with a big VIDEO 1 in the corner. That will not do!
To solve that, we need to get a signal going into this bad boy. You have about a million options.
Option #1
Digital Media Player – This is probably the easiest and fastest ways to get something playing on your fancy digital poster. Now, I don’t care which digital media player you choose. I googled “Digital Media Player with VGA” and got a bunch of returns. The one that had the best pictures is only sold in Austrailia but it is good to show you what we are looking for. Your tech folks can probably track down a nice one for you. As long as it has a good reputation, you should be ok BUT there are a few things you should look for.
- S-Video or Composite outputs. (S-Video looks like the old round keyboard plugs and composite are those red white and yellow plugs)
- VGA or DVI outputs.
- Make sure the player can handle JPEGs and a video format like MOV, AVI or MPEG (the more the better).
The reason to this is pretty simple. The outputs are how this thing will connect to your new TV/Poster. The reason I like the VGA connections is that this means that all those 17” monitors you have in storage from your upgrade to 19” monitors and each be turned into a fancy desktop video screen (you could have one at each teller window – how sweet is that?). As for the file formats, well the JPEGs are so that you or your credit union marketing agency can create your current marketing art into nice big poster graphics for display. The video files can also be created using a program like Macromedia Flash. With this you can place your television commercials on your digital poster as well as custom created animations for in-house branch marketing. See how cool this is getting?
Option #2
Wireless Media Systems – Now this is even a little fancier. It allows you to control the content on the system from a computer located in the branch and transmit the images and videos to several screens all at the same time. But the learning curve is a little steeper. I found a system over at X10. They have been around forever and I wouldn’t have a problem buying from them (I have in the past) but I am in no way endorsing their product. I am simply giving you an option here folks.
Option #3
Frankenstien - You can hodgepodge together a complex system including multiplexers or wireless monitor transmitters and several computers with cables all over your branch. You can use old laptops or patch something together with bits and pieces of this and that. You can even make that look pretty good! My intent here was to give a quick, easy and affordable solution to the options that are already out there.
The nice thing about doing it this way is that you still have all the branding abilities of the big systems. You have all the sales capabilities of the big systems. Most of these big TVs support picture in a picture so that you could have CNN in a little box with the ads playing in the big box or vice-versa.
The best thing is that it is affordable at $2,800 for the big TV and the most expensive option (the digital media player). There are no monthly fees and you have complete control over the content.
Cheap? Yep! But does it cheapen your marketing? No way!
Give it a shot; you may be surprised how well you can pull this off on your own and on the cheap.
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Comments
I bought an 11″ digital picture frame and have dedicated it to promoting the Boardcast. I’ve placed it at eye-level on a counter near where members complete their deposit/withdrawal slips. I’ll be changing the slide show every 2 or 3 weeks. I got this idea from a cu blog (it may have been yours, Tony). It’s not quite up to the level you’re describing in this post but it’s a start.
@Jeffry - You are right and I thought about this. I was trying to make the execution as simple as possible. DVD authoring still makes some people a little nervous. Even if the DVD player can read the pictures and display them like a slideshow (like a Kodak cd or DVD) - I thought the portable hard drive would be easier and more easily conceiled and accessable. I guess it is a matter of taste though. There are also a few SD based devices that could be used. But the limitation is using a mix of video and static graphics.
@Ginny - I thought about the digital picture frames as well. While these are reletively affordable, I always thought that they were rather small. Plus, most of the displays are hard to see in bright environments. The other problem that I had was that they typically do not permit the use of video or animation. I think these would be excellent for a loan officers desk or maybe another MSR desk (even a teller window) but for larger areas where you need to present a real punch - I think they fall a little short.
Mostly this post was just to show that there is an alternative to the large screens with subscription based services that some larger financial institutions use. You can get a nice 32″ plasma for a few hundred dollars. I only used the 52″ to show how a CU could “Go Big” without breaking the bank… so to speak. 
The CU that I belong to, Veridian CU, uses a TV display like you mention in the lobby at each of their branches. I must say that it does look impressive, especially when everything on the screen is coordinated well with the rest of their look and feel. This is not the place for your high school student to throw together a crappy PowerPoint presentation for your CU, but rather spend a little time in developing the content. It’s great for relaying quick messages about products and services while standing in line or waiting for a loan officer.
Great job outlining how CUs can take advantage of this idea and get started, Tony!
As a general rule, the keys to successful digital merchandising are flexibility of equipment, flexibility of content authoring software and a web based, user friendly software provider that can deliver good content relevant to your industry. The Digital Merchandising Industry or what is more popularly referred to as Digital Signage outside of the financial space has approximately 250-300 competitors, all vying for a piece of the action. I would highly suggest that as you research providers, you narrow your search to include the ones which have experience working with financial institutions. If you can successfully do this, you will have a better shot at finding a solution which can produce a definable ROI for your institution and produce results for the long haul.
Brian, even hough your post was pretty much an ad for your company, I allowed it because I didn’t want to leave anyone out of this conversation.
For institutions that can afford it, digital signage with subscription based content can be a usefull addition to their overall brand strategy, branch merchandising and marketing strategy. But that was not what this post was about.
It was about explaining how a credit union could acquire a very similar product at a far lower expense with no subscription fees.
Any Agency worth their salt could create video, animated and static content that would work with the type of system that we have created here. It would not be very expensive and it could easily be changed and added to by an in-house designer or marketing manager in a few minutes.
I am not challenging your product and all of its benefits and virtues - I am simply providing an alternative for financial institutions that can’t devote enough of their budget to a product like yours but still would like to take advantage of the technologies out there to find a suitable substitute.
I like the idea of creating your own signage, and having it digitized lets you switch it up much faster than sending it to an agency or sending out for printing. Anybody have an example of the cost difference between a one time purchase of a large display and sending something out to be printed every time you want to change ad campaigns?
Portable DVD players work well too. They’re small and cheap. Lots of people can burn DVDs right off their computers too — even if the DVDs just contain slide shows of text and pictures.