Connect with us

Uncategorized

Get your brilliant proof of concept (POC) unstuck. Time for scale!

Published

on

By Mason Page, EVP Strategic Business Planning, Reflect

Brands know that retailers award the best floor and shelf positions to top sellers. And they know that digital signage can deliver a dramatic lift when used to its full advantage. Leveraging the power of proof of concept (POC) starts with aligning test metrics with business objectives. But first you’ll need to anticipate the ways you can get stuck and apply remedies, so that you can scale to an impactful digital deployment.

A POC done right means you won’t overinvest in a campaign. The tests let you execute cost-effective ideas and see if they achieve desired results. If so, great. If not, fail fast and move on! The challenge is how to measure your test’s effectiveness and, once you get a winner, how to roll it out.

A recent report on the value of digital signage had this to say, “There are a number of ways to measure the ROI for displays if you have defined objectives such as increased sales or boosting coupon redemptions. Once you have the objectives in place, you can plan entire campaigns around them with your digital signage.”

Your test could answer questions like these:

  • Does the proposed digital experience increase store traffic?
  • Does it increase sales of the branded items being promoted?
  • Does digital interactivity increase basket size?

Why brands get stuck

Advertisement

From my experience, brands get stuck when POC testing isn’t always as effective as it could be. Getting stuck can mean failure to rollout a scaled digital signage program that might have disruptive potential. Why does this happen? I think there are four basic reasons why retailers get stuck after a test and before a rollout. Here are the reasons and their remedies:

  1. Unclear Results

Reason: Sometimes brand managers and retailers can’t really say if a digital experience worked or not. This is because the test ran without precisely defined metrics around performance goals.

Remedies: Make sure your senior level team and your agency or vendor can provide metrics as part of the strategy. Without ways to measure success, C-level or senior managers may decide not to fund a rollout.

  1. Unimpressive results

Reason: Your POC test didn’t generate the lift you projected. The numbers just aren’t where they need to be.

Remedies: Let’s say you add quantitative research to the test — how many shoppers touch the screen and convert? And what if you added qualitative research? You put digital screens in stores to ask shoppers, “Did you see this display? Did you purchase the product? If not, why?” You might discover that there are messaging and design changes you can make that will fix a problem, like readability, or position of the promotional offer on the display. Often, shopper intercepts can identify the heart of the problem. And you can fix it!

  1. Lack of funding

Reason: The brand doesn’t have the money needed to scale the concept.

Advertisement

Remedies: Tie your POC test results to ROI and model it out. Suppose you got a 5% sales lift and you calculate that across 1000 stores? You’ll prove it will drive revenue and cover its costs. Now it’s worth rolling out.

4.Great results but unsure how to grow the program

Reason: When good results trigger a rollout, there are a lot of details to take into account, such as hardware procurement, content creation to feed the beast, network software, and support services. This isn’t your design agency’s specialty. What do you do?

Remedies: Because your original objectives and requirements may change based on POC learnings, revise success measures and define the measurement plan. Second, tweak the content strategy based on new success measures. Third, and this is a big one, find a partner who knows how to make friends with IT — one who can comply with business requirements around data, security and infrastructure. Finally, buddy up with a partner who specializes in scale and can deliver against scope. This includes software, network support and procurement.

It’s a lot and can be quite daunting. Issuing an RFP is a solid way to get aligned (internally and externally) on the details.

Need help getting started? Download Reflect’s recent whitepaper, “5 RFP Pitfalls to Avoid When Searching for the Best Digital Signage Partner.”

Advertisement

Most Popular