In-Store Digital Signage Pilot
Role
Animation, Art Direction, Project Management
Duration
1 year/ongoing
Tools
After Effects, Excel
Team
Vendor Teams, Creative Teams, Marketing Managers
Overview
This pilot program set out to revolutionize Kroger's in-store shopping experience. The point of the initative was to replace printabel signage with engaing and interacitve in-store screens—presenting messaging in a new way for more effecient and strategic in-store messaging and CPG monetization.
Develope strategic creative to fit screen sizes provided by all vendors for every customer touchpoint. Develope visual guidelines for communicating deals, pricing and promotions for in-store advertisements/messaging. Determine which vendor we would move foreward with for future store activations.
Objectives
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Determine which vendor provided Kroger with the best technology, tools, and overall relationship to move foreward with.
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Customer insights into the introduction of the screens in-store.
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How to best develope and serve content in a strategic way for each screen location.
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Creating a universal design guide for the new in-store messaging language.
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Gather insights from Leadership on updates and changes that need to be made.
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Explore creative opportunites and explore ways to include API's into screen locations.
Key Insights to Find
Introduction
Project Scope
For the pilot we worked with four vendors who were competing to win the contract to be the partner going foreward on the projects expansion.
Each vendor was given two store locations within Cincinnati, Ohio to set up and test their screens in. My managers and I main roles were to lay format for what the new Kroger in-store messaging and creative would be and work with each vendor to place content on their specific screens.
Screen Installation & In-store Kickoff
After we had pinned down out key screen locations our partners had installation periods where they were able to install their screens into their two designated stores. This allowed us to finally see how the screens looked in person, and helped us to better shape our content strategy while movign foreward in the pilot. Below is a video one vendor shot of the screens installed in store.
Content Strategy
The main driver for this project would have to be the content presented on the screens. We want to make sure we are giving the consumer a mix of paid CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) advertisements as well as Kroger brand content. CPG brands main content focused around pricing and promotions while Kroger did also cater to those business needs we also strove to produce content for the screens that was also inspirational and heightened our brand awareness.
P&I
Through this project we knew that Kroger needed a way to present its products on screen in a consistent manner. This gives shoppers a north store and source of truth while shopping and seeing content on screens. When viewing content the P&I (Price and Item) appear in the blue box with product photo and other information. Having this consistent module across brands helps users in wayfinding products in store with the item location in the top right. Item image is also displayed on a white square which is pulled in from our site. Along with the photo and location—price, title and product size are all dynamically pulled into the creative live. This allows for price variances across different stores, cities, and states. Below you will see a few examples of how this P&I module is expressed across the different screen sizes in-store.
Next Steps
Phase 2
After Phase 1 of the pilot we choose which of the four vendors best suited our business needs to move forward with. In Phase 2 Kroger expanded the pilot to 25 stores to display the screens across the Columbus, Ohio regional market. During this second phase we intend to refine out content strategy by running content specific to products and checking sales data on the products featured in the content.
Also in Phase 2 we updated the physical design of the screens from a white and wood design seen in the previous video, to a sleeker black framed design seen in the video below. This new black color allowed the units to more seamlessly blend into the existing environment.
Screen Installation & In-store Kickoff
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Workflow
Vendor Partnerships
To start we sought to place screen in areas of the store that would have the most imapct on custmer interaction. Placing screens around the store in key areas allowing shoppers to feel connected to messaging while not also overwhelming them with too many screens. Below is mock-ups of where the screens were to be placed.
Together we worked with 4 different vendors to help establish screens in store and worked with each vendor to help develop content on the screens. Across our time working with each vendor we had to establish connections and relationships with four different teams at once, all who different tech and ways of working. Our goal was to best stress test each vendor to choose which teams experience and technology best suited our future needs.
