Food-service franchisor Big Orange, which specializes in fresh fruit drinks, bubble tea, waffles and desserts, has begun deploying digital menu boards across its network of stores in Canada and the U.S.
The Big Orange name was first used in 1996 at a store within Metrotown Mall in Burnaby, B.C. The company began franchising in 2002. Since then, 12 stores have been opened in Canada, the U.S. and Malaysia.
Traditional ‘static’ menu boards have proven problematic for the chain in recent years, as they did not offer enough space for local franchisees to promote additional items or specials. The costs of changing, modifying and updating the menus’ content became unsustainable over time. As such, the company’s managers began to look for ways to improve their in-house processes and the appearance of their stores.
After considering proposals from a variety of vendors, Big Orange awarded a digital signage contract to Calgary-based E Display, which had previous experience deploying digital menu boards for Famous Wok franchises. The new project rollout began with the installation of four commercial-grade LG 1.2-m (47-in.) high-definition (HD) liquid crystal displays (LCDs) at a Big Orange store in Cambridge Centre in Cambridge, Ont. The screens were mounted uniformly in landscape mode, in conformance with Big Orange’s existing menu layout, using commercial-grade installation hardware.
The system was connected to media players running E Display’s proprietary, cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) digital signage platform, which can be accessed on a personal computer (PC) or any mobile device via the Internet to manage multiple content zones, news tickers, Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds, Internet Protocol (IP) video and animation.
Big Orange has opted for a fully managed service, rather than self-managed, so E Display handles content changes, monitors the network and liaises with manufacturers to fix or swap malfunctioning hardware according to warranty terms. As such, E Display worked with Big Orange to redesign the menu content, particularly in terms of adding full-motion graphics.
Based on positive feedback for the deployment in Cambridge, Big Orange is now planning to deploy the digital signage network across its other Canadian and U.S. franchises.
