February 28, 2006 - Monopoly Media Deploys Scala InfoChannel® in Its First Bank Project for BRD-Société Générale Group
Bucharest, February 2006-- BRD-Société Générale Group is the leading privately held bank in Romania. BRD boasts more than 1.4 million clients, approximately 900,000 cardholders, holding 33% of the credit card market and approximately 20% of the loan market in Romania.
The BRD-Groupe Société Générale enjoys two unique advantages in the Romanian banking landscape: it's an establishment with a solid foundation, deeply anchored in the economy and the global community through its 203 branches throughout Romania; and being part of the Société Générale Group, BRD has access to the latest innovative services, products and the most efficient management tools.
To better serve their client's and prospect's expectations, the BRD-Société Générale Group declared attention to detail is the single most important consideration when servicing their customers. To facilitate their highly focused customer service program, BRD-Groupe Société Générale modernized their information network with the objective to reinforce the effectiveness and quality of their commercial offering.
To improve the bank's business and community stature, Monopoly Media, a certified Scala Partner in Bucharest, Romania created "BRD TV", a sophisticated digital TV network using Scala InfoChannel®.
"Imagine queuing up to deposit cash at your local bank and meanwhile watching consumer ads, news bulletins, entertainment programs or even video-clips of your favorite band", says Gabriel Faflei, Managing Director for Monopoly Media. "In Romania this is a reality thanks to Monopoly Media, an innovative advertising company specialized in custom digital signage solutions."
BRD TV broadcasts banking ads and updates. The content can be changed for individual sites either centrally or locally, in real-time, and consists of:
Daily news updates, produced by a local TV channel in a special retail format
A weekly program created by Monopoly TV, featuring financial news
Club BRD, providing information on the bank's services and products
Entertainment
The system was first prototyped in five BRD branches in Bucharest. This new marketing tool immediately had a positive impact. 75% of the bank's customers watched BRD TV and 88.2% indicated having a pleasant banking experience. They also mentioned receiving useful information about the bank's products and services.
"The bank's management was so impressed after seeing their client's enthusiasm and improvement in their banking experience", says Gabriel Faflei, "that BRD decided to expand the BRD TV system to another 95 branches across the country."
Most BRD branches have one 42" plasma screen and two 17" LCD screens. The screens are placed in areas with longer waiting times - such as the cashiers' desks, where the average waiting time is 15 minutes. The screens provide the bank's clients with an 80:20 mix of advertising and local programming.
Scala's InfoChannel® suite enables a stable and reliable platform that is extensible for the bank's business purposes. InfoChannel's extensibility allows for integration of in-house data management systems to interact with the BRD TV system. Screens run 24/7 with content distribution and scheduling managed through Scala's InfoChannel® Network Manager. Currently, each bank location manages their local content but efforts are underway to distribute content through satellite communications or the Internet to each bank location. This new strategy will provide for central management and scheduling of branded content over the network and facilitate real-time changes.
About Monopoly Media
Monopoly Media is one of the largest advertising agencies in Romania, with clients throughout the country. Monopoly Media develops In-Store Advertising systems for large commercial centers. Their advertising strategy is build around the concept of broadcasting audio/visual commercials, using digital displays, to areas of high retail traffic. To date, Monopoly Media manages systems in the following locations:
Advertising at shelf areas in Billa, Cora, Carrefour and Metro networks
Advertising at the cashiers in Carrefour, Billa, Cora, Sensi blu networks
Advertising in large commercial galleries/food courts in Carrefour, Cora networks, Plaza Mall and City Mall.
Monopoly Media continues to be the innovative force in Romania behind digital broadcasting networks for retail applications.
Presently Monopoly Media is deploying BAR TV: a network installed in 100 bars and pubs in Bucharest. Also, Monopoly runs a pilot network for McDonald's Romania.
About Scala, Inc.
Scala, Inc. (www.scala.com) pioneered the industry of digital signage in 1987, and is today headquartered near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with operations in California, the UK, Norway, The Netherlands, China and Japan. As flat panel and networking technologies catch up with Scala's vision, Scala finds itself with over a 15-year head start, helping it to win some of the largest digital signage engagements and most respectable partners in the industry. Companies that are implementing their digital signage equipment on the Scala InfoChannel® 3 platform include Tesco, Best Buy, T-Mobile, ShopRite, Virgin MegaStore, Bloomberg, Kiwi, Azizia-Panda Supermarket, McKee Foods, Burger King, Muvico, Warner Brothers Movie World, RaboBank, Nedbank, Santiago Airport, Dubai Airport. A network of over 250 Value Added Resellers across the globe offer Scala InfoChannel® solutions, and constitute our sales and support force that extends to every continent but Antarctica.
