Now screening near you: no longer strictly for big banks, digital merchandising is likely to become the norm at most financial institutions in three to five years. Here's how digital technology is evolving today--and how enhanced digital will benefit banks tomorrow.

• Author: Stewart, Deb
• Position: Digital Merchandising

European banks began experimenting with digital merchandising over a decade ago, so they have a lot of things they can teach U.S. banks how best to apply the technology. In addition to reviewing some of the lessons European banks have learned, we will examine in this article how the media is currently being adopted by U.S. banks and review the technical innovations that will make digital merchandising even more beneficial to financial institutions in the years ahead.

First, the European experience: Recently, John Ryan Performance conducted a survey on the state of digital with over 60 leading European and South African banks representing 44,000 branches across 23 countries. Marketing and retail executives from each bank were questioned in detail on the role of the branch, point-of-sale (P.O.S.) strategies and their experiences and attitudes about digital signage.

Here are some key findings:

* Adoption of digital signage is skyrocketing. Eight out of 10 respondents expect its use to be widespread in the coming years.

* The majority of respondents have already piloted some form of digital signage.

* Of those, 2 out of 3 are likely to/intend to roll out further in the network.

* The majority of those who have not yet piloted intend to do so in the next year.

* In the majority of cases, marketing departments were both the originators of the project and the area responsible for selecting the content management platform to be used within their bank.

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The survey also took an honest look at frustrations encountered by early adopters of digital merchandising. They focused on three areas:

* The ability to keep content fresh and interesting.

* Garnering IT resource support.

* Ease of message localization.

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Pilot tests were an important source of learning, with numerous banks discovering new requirements in the course of carrying out pilots, especially:

* The value of Web accessible control tools.

* The need for message localization features in their content management platforms.

So, we can conclude that European banks have embraced the media far in advance of the United States; they will continue rapid adoption of the media and they have learned some important marketing and technology requirements in the process. Key lessons centered on fresh and relevant content, programming control, and well defined plan and measurement in the context of a pilot (and beyond).

We will walk through these areas with industry experts and profile a Spanish bank that has put all of these factors together in a successful digital rollout.

The basics: zoning and digital

"The branch of the future is not the coffee shop that was predicted and piloted by some over the past decade," says Tom Brogan, research director of delivery channels for TowerGroup, the financial services consulting company. "Instead, we are seeing branch design return to a more traditional, bank-focused approach. But, digital signage and digital messaging will be an important part of the new three-zone branch. We are starting to see digital push into regional banks and in three to five years the media will be prevalent in banks of all sizes." The sophistication of that media will be enhanced as core application providers such as Fiserv and Harland continue to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) data further into their offerings--the data will ultimately inform digital content, adds Brogan.

Within the simple zoning model that Brogan describes, primary placement of digital displays remains in the teller line with some implementations in the wait zone. Use of digital signage in drive-up areas has been limited by the slow growth of remote teller technology in general, and represents an opportunity area in parts of the country where drive-ups make up 40 percent plus of transaction traffic.

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