Points of focus
The initiative involves four main points of focus: brand enhancement, the in-store experience, customer education and driving sales.
The current strategy for Mark’s is based on communicating with customers with an emphasis on the added value of innovative clothing. A standing floor fixture with a built-in 1-m (40-in.) portrait-mode touch screen, for example, runs an interactive game, product demonstration videos, ‘what to wear when’ suggestions and an electronic flyer with each week’s promotions. By showcasing its clothing through an entertaining and visually appealing display medium, Mark’s hopes to inform customers about the products’ value in a compelling manner.
LED-based digital billboards have been installed at some stores near highways and major thoroughfares.
Beyond these sales-related goals, the digital signage strategy is also intended to help drive traffic to the Mark’s website and facilitate interactive staff training. Mediavation has developed the multi-purpose content strategy and uses Adflow’s web-based content management application on an ongoing basis to schedule when and how the elements it has created will appear on each type of display.
Mediavation’s in-house animators use Flash software and upload all of their files to the web application, where they can create campaigns, set up playlists and loops, enhance interactivity and finally preview, approve and schedule the content to be played at specific times on specific displays.
Strategic screens
The new digital media network includes large-format LCDs called World Screens, the aforementioned interactive (i.e. touch-enabled) screens called Touch Points and LCD-based video walls behind the sales counters.
The 1.3-m (52-in.) World Screens are wall-mounted in prominent locations throughout each store to help create the desired shopping ambience.
The wall-mounted ‘World Screens’ are intended to enhance the in-store ambience.
The Touch Point screens are meant to be both entertaining and educational, informing customers about the benefits of the retailer’s wide range of lifestyle clothing products, in terms of design and innovation. They are installed in pillars called Tech Towers.
“The content on these displays prompts consumers to touch the screen and learn more about the profiled products,” explains Wayne Ruttle, AdFlow’s vice-president (VP) of sales. “The displays are mounted at eye level, facing out onto the aisles.”
The video walls display high-resolution content for the purpose of brand enhancement. Given their size—each wall comprises four 1-m screens—and positioning, they are easily visible from anywhere in the store.
In addition, redesigned Mark’s stores will feature 1-m LCD panels called Product Innovation Fixtures. These digital signs will be built into merchandising areas to help drive sales.
Finally, some key stores that are visible from major highways and thoroughfares are extending digital signage outdoors with large light-emitting diode-based (LED-based) dynamic billboards. Mark’s did not want to use a separate content management system for these signs, so AdFlow was asked to integrate them into its web-based application, too.
With files from AdFlow Networks, Mediavation and Mark’s. For more information, visit www.adflownetworks.com, www.mediavation.ca and www.marks.com.
