Türk Telekom rolls out the largest digital signage network in the region to drive sales across 1,300 stores
Background
Türk Telekom is the leading telecom operator in Turkey, representing 17.3 million fixed-line customers, 6 million ADSL line customers and 12.6 million GSM subscribers. It reaches new customers and manages customer relations through a variety of marketing channels, one of the most important of which is their retail store presence, with 1,300 stores distributed throughout Turkey in 81 cities.
Competition is high for telecommunications businesses with customers shopping around for best price, best service and best experience. Türk Telekom recognized that its retail stores provided a primary point for the brand to talk to customers and differentiate itself from the competition by demonstrating its value, customer proposition and innovative qualities in a tangible manner.
Türk Telekom also recognized that delivering this value instore meant
upgrading store design, enhancing customer service levels and using the store to demonstrate the brand’s innovative qualities.
The Challenge
The challenge was to create an enhanced retail environment where customers would be able to quickly find the products and services they were looking for as well as access the best deals available to them, with or without one-to-one customer service support.
The Marketing Solution
Türk Telekom turned to Kiosk Innova to develop a digital signage system capable of delivering high-quality product, price, service and brand messaging to stores to support the sales process, improve the high-tech image of the stores, and educate customers about product features and benefits.
In order for the retail network to reach customers across the store, LCD screens were installed within a Türk Telekom branded bezel, which sits behind the customer service counter of each store. This location provides customers the opportunity to view “big and bold” branded messaging from across the store and while queuing.
This “big and bold” concept conveys key messages to customers quickly and impactfully. The content includes way-finding guides, product information, latest handset, tariff and bundle details, as well as branded content from Türk Telekom, currently repurposed television and Web content created internally by Türk Telekom’s marketing department and various advertising agencies. Türk Telekom also uses the network to deliver key training, news and sales information to dealers before and after the stores are open to customers.
All content is managed remotely by Türk Telekom with support from Kiosk Innova, which in turn specified and uses Scala to power the content management system that drives the Türk Telekom network. This “remote control” allows a user with the appropriate authorization to control the broadcast, add or delete content, and update prices quickly and efficiently through a password-protected Web portal anytime, from anywhere.
The Technical Solution
As the full-service provider, Kiosk Innova provides channel design and content management services, procurement, installation, integration, ongoing network support and staff training to Türk Telekom.
While in the short-term, one channel of content is being broadcasted to all stores, in time the number of channels will increase to accommodate dealer- or region-specific requirements. Consequently the network has been designed with individual store addressability in mind, thanks to Kiosk Innova’s decision to integrate Scala as the management software. Scala’s flexibility ensures that as the network develops, the core functionality of the system is equally able to scale up to accommodate increasingly complex demands.
Scala’s functionality is part of an embedded solution designed by Kiosk Innova. HP servers located at Türk Telekom’s network operations center in Ankara use the Scala software platform to provide content play-out scheduling, store grouping, asset auditing and network health monitoring services to all stores across Turkey, which use local HP machines to store and forward content to the screens when required by the system’s playlist.
The Benefits
While the system is primarily designed to drive sales of advertised products and services, it also provides operational efficiencies that help offset traditional (paper and postage) costs such as the ability to inform and educate staff, provide a new corporate news channel and ensure compliance levels are met. Additionally, Türk Telekom dealers and franchisees do not pay for the network, as it is considered a core part of the retail store marketing proposition and, as such, is controlled and funded by Türk Telekom’s marketing department.
Scala has also enabled Kiosk Innova to provide remote control networking, leading to lower operational costs, and an efficient upgrade and update process. Scala is able to turn screens and audio output on and off according to store opening times, reducing power consumption and extending screen life. Other systems including network health monitoring are used, which saves costs by eliminating unnecessary, costly maintenance visits.
The Future
The installation of such a large network will take time. By the end of 2009, 100 systems were installed across Turkey, with the balance of 1,100 being installed by the end of 2010.
As rollout continues, and as stores report performance, it is likely that the network will become more sophisticated in terms of the type of content and number of channels created to best reflect customer needs for specific groups of stores.
About Kiosk Innova
Kiosk Innova is a registered brand of Innova IT Solutions Inc. and is the leading kiosk and digital signage systems producer in Turkey. Carrying out all stages of kiosk applications from industrial design to production at its own production facilities, Kiosk Innova is the only kiosk producer of Turkey that can produce custom-designed products that can meet any requirement of its customers.
Kiosk Innova exports specially equipped kiosks and digital signage solutions to many countries in Europe. It is also the founding member and only Turkish company in the European Association for Self-Service which was created to determine the standards of self-service devices in Europe. More information is available at www.kioskinnova.com.