Rabobank Attracting New Clientele with Modern Datacasting
Kerkrade, NL (PRWEB) — Scala Inc. (www.scala.com), the world’s leading software platform for digital signage, today announced Rabobank’s successful implementation of its modern datacasting network is attracting new clientele to its banks in The Netherlands.
Rabobank’s roots lie in the agricultural past of The Netherlands. What began at the end of the nineteenth century as a collection of small rural banks has grown into an extensive financial group. Today, Rabobank is composed of approximately 1363 independently operated local banks throughout The Netherlands providing financial services and products to the Dutch retail and business markets.
In its Dutch home market, Rabobank Group has 1.3 million members, 9 million business and private customers and is the market leader in virtually every area of financial services. An organization known for innovation and exceptional service, Rabobank decided it needed a modern solution for attracting new customers to its local banks.
In 2001 Rabobank began to seriously investigate the local and worldwide markets for an innovative solution that would allow Rabobank to new business. The goal was to find a partner that could provide the best solution but still maintain the credibility and profitability of the bank’s business.
The Hulskamp Group BV, a Scala certified reseller, proposed a digital signage network with plasma screens located in the bank and next to the bank’s ATM machines. Each plasma screen would display short focused ads about the bank’s varied products and services while customers waited to use the ATM machines. The network would be managed from a central control location over an ASDL infrastructure.
To ensure success, the proposed solution required the best software to design, schedule and manage ad content over an infrastructure that connected all of Rabobank’s local banks. “We didn’t want to be a testing site for yet another new and unproven software solution, and thankfully we were introduced to the creative and innovative people at Hulskamp”, said Wim van den Dungen – Directoraat Communicatie.
“Once we were introduced to the power and reliability of Scala, the decision to go with the Scala InfoChannel® 3 platform was easy. We were happy to report that we have not been disappointed – everything that was sold to us in this solution was exactly what was delivered – and Scala’s content authoring tool offered the added advantage of radically reducing our content product costs”.
In 2002, the project started with 25 local banks each outfitted with plasma screens in the bank and at each ATM machine. In 2005, Rabobank boasts over 200 local banks using the Rabobank Digital Signage System. Each screen displays high-impact short messages and ads focused at the local customer market.
Because each local bank is independently managed, standards had to be developed to ensure the corporate message, position and image was maintained. However, local banks also needed to develop unique content to deliver to their area of the country. To accomplish these requirements new capabilities were added to accommodate the local needs of the banks.
Templates were developed by Rabobank corporate, in collaboration with Hulskamp that reflected the image and mission of the bank. Text fonts, logos and images were standardized and methods were developed to allow local bank managers to contribute to their in-house digital signage network.
Over the period of the project the installation rate grew from 20 screens in 2002 to 390 in 2005. Rabobank estimates that in 2006 the network will grow to over 600 screens installed in local banks located throughout the country.
To measure their growth, plausible metrics were needed for a ROI justification; Rabobank began measuring the number of users, how many ad-contacts per year, and the maximum effective message length. Users grew from 28,000 to 43,000 over just a few months. Rabobank measured 200,000 ad-contacts per year. The maximum effective ad length was 10 seconds reaching a minimum of 70% of the viewers. The results showed that Rabobank was measuring 17,500,000 adcontacts per year.
To quantify their metrics, Rabobank calculated the cost of the network equaled 2.4 cents/ad-contact, based on an initial investment of € 5000 per screen. Rabobank sites the advantages of the network as informative, modern, and innovative. With screens running 24/7 in all local banks the ad-contacts attained far out-measured their traditional television ad campaigns.
“As the system grows, Rabobank can use their network to communicate with both customers and employees using the same network infrastructure,” says Gerard Bucas, President and CEO of Scala Inc. “Sharing the same infrastructure for training and customer facing brand re-enforcement will provide a better ROI as different startup costs can be spread across budgets of multiple cost centers.”
Wim van den Dungen concludes, “The benefit of a digital signage network is that it adds a unique dimension to our in-house merchandising systems. Our posters and brochures are literally brought to life. We are now able to measure the impact of our network on our clients far more efficiently than any traditional media.”
Now that the concept is proven to be stable and reliable, Rabobank has broad plans to expand the network and further explore its opportunities and potentials.