What Gets Measured, Gets Done: The following article is one of six that, as part of Credit Union Journal's ongoing series on growth, takes a look at measurement metrics. The other articles can be found in the related links box on the right.
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — Installing a digital signage system at the credit union may not be a good investment unless the CU measures the effectiveness and relevance of its messaging, suggests one vendor that has developed metrics to do just that.
Digital signage networks produce the highest ROI when CUs run them like a small television network, where programming is aimed at different audiences and certain results are expected, explained Mike Foster, SVP of marketing for MediaTile.
MediaTile's Return On Message, or ROM, metrics provide digital signage users with feedback that fine tunes all aspects of the electronic network to improve messaging and results, Foster said. "The methodology gets at: What effect do we want to get out of our viewers from this activity? How can we navigate through this process of creating good content, managing good content, and scheduling it?"
ROM also helps CUs make sure their digital signage messaging is relevant to their audiences. "What we think we need to say may not be what your audience wants to hear," Foster said.
According to Foster, many CUs measure their digital signage systems the way Nielson ratings measure TV shows - how many people saw the message. But deeper analysis is possible. "We're measuring what is the action taken based on what people have seen. And the only way they take action is if what they are watching is relevant to them."
ROM looks at seven areas: content, sign placement, content scheduling, message relevance, how often content is refreshed, message attraction, and audience interaction. Within each area there are numerous "independent variables" that are examined, as well. For example, within the content category, message, media type, and duration of message are just a few of the elements scrutinized. MediaTile Program Strategist Roger Sanford said that by weighting these elements differently for each business industry, based on the industry's unique characteristics, analysis and recommendations are "more on target."
"ROM considers the objectives, messages, and overall mission of the credit union's digital signage deployment, then ranks effectiveness and defines improvement opportunities," Sanford said. "For example, let's say the credit union's signage scored well on content, but we found people were very uncomfortable looking at the screen where it was located. We would recommend moving the screen placement."
An issue ROM often uncovers among financials that use digital signage is that the scheduling of information can be optimized. "Banks and credit unions are not accustomed to a dynamic medium," observed Sanford. "They are more familiar with static signage. So their thought patterns don't bring up the affects of dwell time - how long people wait in line and can see your messages. The reason dwell time is so important is that we know from our experience with financials that the average customer wait time is seven minutes. Therefore, you don't want to put out a half-hour infomercial. You are trying to optimize the seven minutes you have and create a carefully constructed playlist of content that probably cycles two times during that seven minutes."
ROM findings are derived from information directly received from MediaTile cellular digital signage and from "intercept surveys" conducted at the branch by market researchers.
Each ROM report costs "a few thousand dollars," and MediaTile recommends conducting an analysis once a quarter for the first year, and then annually after that. A baseline survey is initially conducted.
