Smart cities

Interactive Digital Signage is standing in the gap between the online world and the customer. Large-format touch enabled interactive screens and kiosks are playing a key role in creating smart cities and delivering new models of customer interaction for financial services institutions and retailers.

Smart City hardware provides visitors with a new wealth of information and civic services on a 24/7 basis. In each case, to ensure a user-friendly experience, it is vital that the user can connect through a reliable all-weather, responsive and durable touch screen interface. For example, the Citybeacon project in Eindhoven, Netherlands features a 32? Zytronic based touch display, enabling easy access to local information and directions. Two double-sided advertising screens at the top of the unit provide public service announcements and promotions.

Noting that bank branches are closing but café’s are prospering, Santander in South America, in partnership with customer experience specialists PX Group, created WorkCafé in Chile, which turns a common branch into a community space; half bank and half café. Each WorkCafé has an interactive video wall with one interactive and three static 55? screens presenting information, promotional material for Santander and other details. 

Ebebek, Turkey’s leading mother and baby product retailer and Istanbul-based digital retail specialist Phygital Mind used large-format interactive kiosks to deliver a completely new concept for the customer journey, fully integrating e-commerce with assisted sale and endless aisle. The terminals throughout support both Ebebek’s expert staff in guiding customers through the full range and allow shoppers to browse independently.

Stay relevant

Retailers are in an arms race with the online experience. The online experience is fully interactive – and customers expect to be able to control their instore experience in a similar way. Customers expect dynamic rather than static posters and expect them to respond when touched. Tech-savvy customers will also expect an experience that’s connected to their personal technology.

Examples abound showing how a well-thought-out interactive AV installation can engage customers. The travel industry is now heavily online, yet Cruise 1st opened the UK’s first interactive holiday store in Salford, Manchester in January offering customers a truly unique space in which to select their next cruise holiday. Visitors can view, configure and purchase the latest cruise holiday opportunities on touchscreen terminals in an AV installation designed by Handy AV and powered by BrightSign media players. Video content is used throughout the store to create a visually appealing, interactive experience for Cruise 1st customers including live TV content from Cruise 1st’s own channel. Customers and passing shoppers are greeted by in-window screens and a 2x2 video wall showing 4K video content and images.

Social media engagement is often a great way to draw customers in and encourage them to play. For example, Vegas EXP has embraced digitally enhanced experiential shopping. Vegas EXP is a new 3,200sq ft retail store located in the Grand Bazaar Shops on the Las Vegas Strip. The store’s highlight is a 55?, interactive, BrightSign-powered touch screen prominently located in the heart of the store. When idle, the screen displays content such as notable Instagram feeds and the local weather forecast. When customers engage with the display, they have the option of shopping the store’s online product catalogue to purchase and ship products directly to their homes. The large display also offers a “selfie mode”, whereby customers can scroll through and take selfies in front of various iconic Las Vegas backdrops.

Interactive digital signage is a key element in retailers fight to stay relevant in an online world.

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