Introduction

Iceland Foods has been on a phenomenal journey of growth since the first store opened in 1970. However, with discount supermarkets increasingly nipping at Iceland Foods’ heels, the food retailer decided to take matters into its own hands. In a bid to grow and diversify its expanding customer base, and entice more discerning shoppers into the store, the business undertook an extensive refurbishment programme to modernise a significant number of Iceland Foods’ 800 stores.

Iceland Foods contacted Signagelive partner Lumino AV to explore how we could assist to design and implement a digital signage platform to deliver their current and future in-store digital media requirements.

Opportunity for Digital Signage

The refurbishment was about introducing fresh, bold colours and concepts to create a more memorable shopping experience. Also, it was about introducing new technologies to modernise the shopping experience, whilst driving efficiencies in how the store communicates special offers to its customers.

Key project requirements and challenges

The famous Iceland Foods special offer posters in the shop front windows were replaced with two sets of high quality back to back screens mounted in a customised metal casing. The external facing screens are the Samsung OM55D Hi-Bright Screens, and the internal facing are Samsung Tizen PMF display.

Iceland Foods installed a custom digital signage solution above the open-end freezers to promote the latest deals. These synchronised three displays in a bespoke housing have revolutionised the way Iceland Foods communicates with its customers.

A key challenge for Iceland Foods was the need to keep customers informed of the latest home delivery slots available in each store. Home delivery is a key requirement for customers who want to shop during lunchtime and have their frozen and chilled items delivered when they are at home.

Signagelive worked with Iceland Foods and their logistics platform provider Route Monkey to develop a custom application that is deployed to key displays in each store where it dynamically displays live delivery slot availability based on the store location.

In addition to providing the convenience of displaying home delivery slots within the store, Iceland Foods required a digital signage platform that would enable them to be more nimble and deliver highly targeted special offers that fit the demographic, seasons, time of day or special occasions.

These solutions also helped contribute to the modernisation of Iceland Foods stores, bringing the shopping experience right up-to-date and luring new customers through the door.

Innovation in action

Iceland Foods has never been a company to shy away from bold campaigns or initiatives and it has always hailed itself as being a consumer champion in the food retail market. It has maintained this personality by successfully evolving over the years, updating its brand image and attracting new customers through the door.

At the heart of the successful collaboration was Signagelive’s ability to balance scalability with ease of use and ensure scheduling content remains time efficient, irrespective of the number of connected players.

Collaborating together to understand the Iceland Foods strategy model of how they differentiate stores, we were then able to transpose this into Signagelive to ensure managing and publishing all connected players could be achieved using just a few playlists; enabling the power of advanced scheduling logic with our conditional playback features to ensure the stores and associated displays automatically received the correct media.

Signagelive provided consultancy and implementation support; making scheduling recommendations based on Iceland Foods requirements, allowing us to refine the media management and publishing process, whilst actively working with the Iceland Foods team to understand where we could improve our core platform to meet the project needs throughout.

The Solution

The technologies that were installed included the following::

Back to back screens in the shop window in a customised totem, with the outward facing high-bright screens durable in any sunlight conditions.

Implemented Signagelive Content Management solution which is a comprehensive, cloud-based CMS platform giving Iceland Foods total control of individual or groups of screens, allowing the central team to push new deals instantly across selected stores or to the whole retail network.

Lumino AV didn’t just install a series of new screens, but a totally bespoke solution for Iceland Foods including the customised casings for the screens to ensure robustness whilst being aesthetically pleasing and eye-catching.

The solutions installed have the ability to directly impact the commercial success of Iceland Foods a few examples include:

Each screen in the shop window can feature multiple deals in a rolling carousel of eye-catching images, an improvement on the static, printed posters which may have only allowed for 4-6 static promotions at any one time.

Implementing Signagelive digital signage opens up additional revenue opportunities for Iceland Foods by selling space to brands to promote their latest deals.

The digital signage deployment is not a project running in isolation, it is an integral part of Iceland Foods broader transformation of the way Iceland Foods is perceived on the high-street and is considered by them as a key component in the highly successful refurbishment project.

This video shows how this was achieved:

Key Benefits

The store refurbishments have been hugely successful for Iceland Foods, winning the hearts and minds of existing shoppers and attracting a cohort of new customers for whom shopping in Iceland is a brand new experience.

Key benefits of using the Signagelive solution for Iceland Foods include:

• Helping Iceland Foods store look modern and current – an immediate step-change in their image with bright eye-catching content.
• Help educate new demographics on the great food Iceland Foods sell – start to change perceptions driving footfall.
• More tailored communications – area-specific deals can be promoted in window displays to drive footfall and ultimately sales.
• Reducing colleagues time by eradicating the need for Iceland Foods’ staff to put up and take down paper posters as display screens can be updated more nimbly.
• Reducing production and distribution costs – posters no longer have to be dispatched in the post removing the hassle factor and risk of missing deliveries.
• Better for the environment – less paper wastage and road miles which are usually incurred with the dissemination of paper posters.
• Greater commercial opportunities – Iceland Foods has the ability to sell advertising space on its above freezer digital displays where brands have certain deals they want to push.
• A chance to promote home deliveries – how customers the next available home delivery slot as they approach the till – updated in real time..

Evidence of Success

• Footfall is up across all refurbished stores.
• Turnover is significantly up by 120-150% in all refurbished stores.
• Clapham store, which was the first to be made over, recorded a 700% increase in sales of Coconut Water after featuring the deal on display screens in the shop front.

Neil Hayes, Merchandising and Format Development Director, Iceland Foods Ltd

Taking on digital signage and display screens was a big step forward for Iceland Foods and we’re pleased to say it’s paid off as part of our general refurbishment programme. As this was in many ways an experiment for Iceland Foods, Lumino AV were very supportive in working with us to find the right solutions, creating favourable terms on which to do business and access equipment readily. Our customers have been full of praise for the refurbed stores and love the modernity and convenience that the screens add to their shopping experience.

About Lumino AV

Lumino AV Solutions is a forward-thinking business, who is an innovative player in the Audio Visual sector. They help organisations connect their customers to their brand message by using highly visual content.

Ian Scott, Managing Director, Lumino AV

What has been particularly rewarding for the Lumino AV team, is we have been a key component of a broader transformational strategy, rather than simply delivering a discrete AV project. Seeing the impact the store refits is having on their business and hearing the feedback direct from Iceland Food’s customers, has been fantastic. It has been a real team effort. We have worked closely, Iceland Foods, their other contractors and of course our key partners, Samsung and Signagelive. There is a real pride in the project and a can-do attitude. It’s a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun too.

Jason Cremins, CEO, Signagelive

The Iceland Foods project demonstrates the value of Signagelive being involved with a major project from the outset, working with Ian Scott and the Lumino AV team to establish the; now, near and future needs for Iceland Foods in-store digital signage.

In addition to providing our platform and licences, we delivered a range of technical and creative services that delivers an optimised experience for Iceland Foods and their specific in-store marketing requirements.

The commercial results delivered from the Iceland Foods refurbishment programme incorporating Signagelive has demonstrated that digital signage has a major role to play in the future success of high-street retailers facing the challenge from online and discount retailers.

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Introduction

Activate The Space (ATS) has recently completed the design and integration of the new Champs Sports location at 10 Times Square in New York City. ATS provided several LED walls including a massive two storey wall on the side of the escalators and the media playback engine for the large outdoor LED wall on the front of the building.

Champs Sports, a division of Foot Locker Inc, celebrated the opening of its New York flagship location in Times Square. Following the move from the brand’s former Times Square footprint, the new multi-level property at 10 Times Square is nearly four-times the size of the previous location boasting 8,160 square-feet of premium retail space.

Opportunity for Digital Signage

In addition to the indoor LED systems, Activate The Space also designed and integrated a multi-zone Bose Audio System complete with new ATS Core Control touch panels.

Core Control enables operation of the entire Audio and Video systems, as well as providing Activate The Space Technical Services the ability to operate or interrogate the AV systems, via the Cloud from any device, anywhere and at any time.

HD Media Playback is provided using our Brandcast Solutions powered by Signagelive and IAdea.

Key project requirements and challenges

Brandcast is powered by Signagelive media playback and cloud-based scheduling solutions, which power the large outdoor LED walls on the facade of 10 Times Times Square.

Activate The Space Creative handles the interior LED content and the exterior LED content for Champs Sports. ATS Creative provides everything in-house from Motion Graphics, Video Editing, Text, Static Image and HTML Social Media feed moderations.across all the brands available at Champs Sports.

Designed to be flexible, “The Arena” layout allows Champs Sports and its vendor partners to tell key stories in new and creative ways, enhancing the customer shopping experience.

Within this new layout, leading athletic brands will have elevated brand experiences with cross-category product offerings, allowing customers to easily navigate by brand and identify sought-after products more efficiently.

The flagship store will serve as a hub that demonstrates the brand’s core values – We Know Game – embodying, celebrating and advocating for all of those who participate.

Bryon Milburn, VP and GM, Champs Sports

At Champs Sports, we are always looking to bring the best retail experiences to our customers, and to establish ourselves as the go-to destination to find leading athletic brands. The Times Square store offers the best assortment of the top brands that shoppers know, love and have come to expect from Champs Sports.

The new store has a prominent exterior presence with an LED display spanning 68 feet by 23 feet across prime Times Square real estate. Inside, there are four additional digital screens to allow for robust, interactive storytelling throughout the customer journey.

To complement its digital in-store presence, Champs Sports commissioned artist Andrew Thiele to create lasting brand visuals representing the spirit of New York City – from the five boroughs to notable landmarks, arts and sports teams.

Chris Pelzar, CEO & Managing Partner, Activate the Space

Champs Times Square is the 2nd full store Flag Ship implementation of Signagelive we have used for Champs Sports. In addition to the stores massive indoor LED Displays which were designed and integrated by Activate The Space, we also utilise Signagelive for the large outdoor LED wall as well playing branded content 24/7 in Times Square.

For the past few months Activate The Space has been busy re-designing and replacing our legacy Digital Signage Software of choice for almost (10) years and now in new designs we favour using Signagelive in almost all cases. The reason for this are simple. With Signagelive we have a vast choice of Media Playback Hardware to choose from. This allows us to choose the best hardware platform for any particular project or need. In addition, Signagelive being inherently cloud based, allows to programme the content on any device, from anywhere and at any time. This has led to a huge increase in productivity for our creative team who handles the Content Management for Champs Sports along with many other brands in retail.

Signagelive has proven to be a great choice for our legacy projects and new designs moving forward. We are happy to partner with them as they are more knowledgeable and responsive than any other company we have done business with in our (12) year history.

Jason Cremins, CEO and Founder, Signagelive

The new Champs Sports store in Time Square demonstrates how digital signage has become core to design and customer experience for progressive retailers. Activate The Space understand how to work with major retailers and brands to turn their ideas and stories into high impact digital environments. We are proud to be associated with such an iconic and high profile project.

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Introduction

Notcutts Garden Centres Ltd is a private limited company, it operates 18 individual garden centres across England and has been supplying plants etc. for over a century. Proud to be family-owned and independent, their core values of quality and customer care remain the same as when they first started. Their garden centres are run by dedicated teams of horticultural experts and gardening enthusiasts.

21st Century AV plan and implement AV solutions for many of the world’s most demanding clients. Their detailed knowledge of the industry means they have established working relationships with the very best manufacturers and technicians, to create seamless solutions which both excel today and which will continue to deliver in years to come.

Tell us a little about how you are using Signagelive?

It’s being used to show menu prices and special food promotions within the restaurant areas, also product information throughout the stores, and some stores have outdoors kiosk points showing seasonal offers. We are also using the device in the retail store to present various POS and to direct customers to certain key locations in store.

There are other SaaS-based digital signage options out there, why did you choose Signagelive?

Adaptability and it suited our clients’ needs – also content can be updated centrally and pushed out company-wide. We have also found the online live chat support to be of great help and the team has been very helpful in providing support for any issues but also the development of new features.

What were the reasons for implementing a digital signage network?

To show promotions and seasonal offers. However, this has now expanded into a mixed array of point of sale, café menus as well as promotional displays.

How were these objectives being met previously?

They were small 10” screens updated with USB key at each point, and printed posters / A1 display boards.

How did you build a business case internally for Signagelive?

The business requested displays of this type as they seemed to be very successful and “on-trend” at the time so no business case was needed.

What is the best thing about Signagelive, in your opinion?

Adaptability and it suited our clients needs – also content can be updated centrally and pushed out company-wide. Additionally, the support network has been very impressive.

What is your favourite feature?

Scalability and the ability to completely customise every section / part of every display and menu.

Did you face any challenges during any part of your project implementation? How were these resolved?

Being completely new to Signagelive and digital signage meant we had to pick things up quickly. However, with the Live Chat functionality which comes as part of the solution, it meant they were always on hand to help us regardless of whether we were querying issues.

How has business improved since using Signagelive?

Too early to say at this stage, as to the positive impact in revenue as a result of the digital signage, we will be monitoring this in the future months.

Lee Rogers – IT Systems Coordinator – Notcutts

Very customisable and incredibly versatile, we are pleased with the product overall.

Debbie Seward – Business Development & Relationship Manager – 21st Century AV

21st Century AV Ltd have integrated Signagelive into a number of clients and when Notcutts came to us with a requirement we didn’t hesitate to recommend the Signagelive platform as a solution. With its ease of use, integration and functionality Notcutts rolled out the platform across all new sites and into those being refurbished, with more sites planned for the future and a partnership with 21st Century AV Ltd as its AV preferred partner.

Aferdita Qesku – Director of Sales – Signagelive

Working with customers like Notcutts really shows how digital signage has crossed borders in terms of suitability for use as well as of course return on the customer experience. What started off as an original idea for QSR menu boards grew into new possibilities of adding value to the customer journey, through wayfinding, POS integration etc. It is down to knowledgeable partners whom we work with which this would be possible to achieve.

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