Three drives footfall with new Kinly content management portal

The background

Since 2003, Kinly has been working in partnership with Three to design, install and support its digital signage estate comprising over 10,000 displays across 340 retail stores.

The majority of the stores feature both window and in-store displays showing digital advertising. It is the responsibility of Three’s retail marketing team to ensure this content is kept fresh, dynamic and locally relevant to entice shoppers and drive footfall in the stores.

However, with up to 100 unique media files playing at any given point, the team quickly lost oversight. The result was that the existing portal became too cluttered and difficult to navigate, especially for new users.

As a result, tailoring content to specific stores became an extremely time-consuming and long-winded process, typically taking up to three hours to schedule an update.

Three decided that the process wasn’t up to scratch and that the content needed to work for them. The goal was to drive niche content throughout all segments moving forwards.

Working with Kinly’s expert Digital Media specialists, Three looked to find a solution to the problem.

The solution

We carefully considered the ambitions of the retail marketing team and explored a range of available content management systems (CMS) and digital signage solutions. The result was choosing to design and develop a bespoke portal that would be capable of staging large volumes of content across a huge network of displays and locations.

The digital displays play a key role in driving footfall in the stores and are supported by Instagram-style photo montages to inspire an inviting, energetic lifestyle feel. At the same time, the layout encourages interaction with staff.

The stores are grouped into categories – based on their footfall, location and customer profile – with content being tailored to appeal to the preferences of every store and customer type, at both a local and national level.

One of the most important features of the new portal is its simplicity. We managed the backend aspects that are needed to send the content to the actual displays, allowing Three’s staff added reassurance and more time gained back in their day. We test the media to ensure it will display accurately and optimally, upload the content to the CMS and programme it for correct scheduling. We also push the content live and report back.

Once scheduled, the content is broadcast remotely to over 1,000 large format displays which are driven by digital media players as well as 9,000 MicroSigns.

Content can either be scheduled in advance or on an ad-hoc basis, allowing the marketing team to be flexible and reactive to changing market conditions and breaking news or events.

Content can also be scheduled to only play at an individual store or around particular time. For example, a store situated closely by a school or university may prioritise pay-as-you-go promotions during lunch breaks and after-school-hours, which are more likely to appeal to students.

All files are date and time-stamped which enable countdown messaging to promote offers that are ending at a specific time. The countdown promotions have proven to be extremely effective at shifting unwanted stock and promoting specific price plans. Alongside Three, we are currently exploring the possibility of adding a live countdown timer to create an extra sense of urgency and generate further interest for particular offers.

To alert the marketing team to any soon-to-expire content, the files and playlists are colour-coded using a simple traffic light system. When the countdown runs out, the content automatically disables and stops playing in store.

The portal also includes a several features that were previously not available, such as the ability to filter content based on specific file tags. Before, the marketing team relied on bulky spreadsheets and strict naming conventions to keep oversight. A new preview function also makes it possible to quickly view content that is already scheduled.

The result

The new portal is the result of a highly iterative and collaborative process and the marketing team has been handed a highly functional and practical solution, helping to save time and free up resources.

The new portal has been received by Three as a great success. Now a full campaign update takes just 20-minutes, down from 3 hours. This allows the team to focus on producing more high-quality, targeted content that will help to drive greater footfall. With Kinly’s help, the marketing team is also able to react more quickly to changing market conditions, being able to put a fully integrated campaign together in less than 24-hours, from briefing and storyboarding to production, all the way through to testing and distribution to every store.

Kinly’s dedicated support team is always on-hand to provide ongoing assistance and maintenance of the digital estate. Should an issue ever arise with one of the screens in-store, Kinly will either remotely resolve it or send an engineer to site to ensure minimal downtime and disruption.