6 Comms Challenges in 6 Sectors in 6 Locations. Solved by 1 Solution: Digital Signage

Take six different communications challenges across six very different sectors in six different locations—from Abu Dhabi in the Middle East to Virginia in the US—and what have they got in common?

A single platform that solves multi-layered challenges with sophisticated and scalable Digital Signage software.

Poppulo Harmony is a complete omnichannel communication platform that enables organizations to connect with customers, employees, guests, and students on another level through an integrated suite of channels, from email and mobile to digital signage, Intranets, and enterprise social networks.

But here, we’re going to concentrate on Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage capabilities and the challenges it solves across hospitality, aviation, finance, retail, transportation, and convention centers.

# 1. Hospitality: MGM Resorts International, USA

MGM Resorts International includes over 42,000 hotel rooms, 350 food and beverage venues, 450 retail outlets, three million square feet of convention space, 1.5 million square feet of casino floor, plus multiple showrooms and arenas.

Las Vegas is synonymous with constant and competing eye-catching spectacle, so with many things vying for each guest’s attention, MGM Resorts International turned to Poppulo’s Digital Signage software to break through the clutter and deliver engaging information to their target audiences.

With over 2,000 screens displaying a variety of interactive, dynamic, and static content, MGM is using digital signage to engage their resort and casino guests and drive revenue throughout their enterprise.

The Challenge:

With various integral data systems supporting MGM Resorts International’s enterprise, the company needed to integrate feeds from property management systems, point of sale systems, catering, social media platforms, and large repositories of media content.

Once integrated, the executive wanted to leverage that information on screens to increase revenue and save money across every property in their portfolio. They also sought a better way to communicate with employees at each site.

While MGM Resorts International had no interest in standardizing the look of their signage, they did want to ensure that the functionality of their screens was uniform across each location.

Finally, they wanted unencumbered flexibility to scale their network as the business grew, and they needed reporting capabilities that could prove a return on investment.

The Solution:

MGM integrated all data feeds through Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage software, ensuring that relevant, real-time information appears on the right screens at the right times — to over 2,000 screens in total.

Additionally, branding elements can be customized by venue, but all of the interactive displays share the same functionality, ensuring a consistent guest experience regardless of property.

The MGM Resorts International team can easily target specific properties—or even specific screens—with dynamic content, promotions, or advertisements. This flexibility allows the team to adjust their messaging to drive results on the micro and macro levels.

The organization also has over 200 screens dedicated to employee engagement, providing easier and more effective communication to a workforce of over 74,000 people.

# 2. Aviation: Logan Airport, Boston, USA

Boston’s Logan Airport (BOS) is one of the busiest in the United States, with a physical footprint of over 2,300 acres that includes four terminals and six runways.

The Challenge:

In an operation of this size, communication is key to smooth-running efficiency. In that regard, a primary challenge for the airport was the vast amount of audio and visual clutter throughout its sprawling facility, including various systems and displays from different vendors.

While the myriad of disparate signage in the airport relayed important information to customers, the mediums of communication varied greatly: static signage and wayfinding, static and digital advertising, live TV, audio, and visual paging.

The Solution:

Logan Airport’s owner-operator, Massport, set out to improve the passenger experience through highly sophisticated, integrated digital signage.

They thoroughly vetted their options in a lab environment to ensure that whatever solution they chose would meet their requirements for integration robustness, enterprise scalability, powerful wayfinding, monitoring, ease of use, and design. They chose Poppulo.

Today, Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage solution helps BOS travelers locate specific gates, concourses, baggage carousels, restaurants, and more—providing an easy and efficient passenger experience while increasing their satisfaction.

# 3. Convention Centers: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) is one of the largest convention facilities in the Middle East and is considered the premier event location in the UAE.

With 133,000 square meters of event space, the venue flawlessly blends first-class amenities, technology, dedicated customer service, and grandeur together, making ADNEC the obvious choice for events of all sizes.

The Challenge:

When the Exhibition Centre opened, all its digital signs were managed by a competing platform, and the lack of functionality prompted the center to search for an alternative digital signage software provider.

The Solution:

The Exhibition Centre switched toPoppulo for improved flexibility, scalability, functionality, and an intuitive user interface—and in doing so, was able to consolidate the management of its wayfinding, informational, and meeting room applications under one easy-to-use software platform.

The transition was completed within 24 hours with no disruption to services, and all content was migrated seamlessly. Additionally, Poppulo installed its software on the Exhibition Centre’s existing hardware, saving the venue money as well as expediting the transition process.

# 4. Retail: Ferguson, Virginia, USA

Ferguson is widely recognized as the top-rated wholesale supplier of commercial and residential plumbing supplies in the United States, with over 27,000 employees in 1,400 locations, including 10 distribution centers.

The Challenge:

With a large diversity of business lines as well as geographic locations and distribution points, Ferguson needed a streamlined, enterprise-wide communications network, which its legacy digital signage platform was not delivering. It had an uptime stagnation of around 75% and made deploying localized content extremely difficult.

With 1,000 digital signage endpoints across the nation delivering tailored content to specific audiences and business lines, the company needed to simplify the content contribution and management process and leverage best practices for enterprise scalability.

Ferguson also needed a platform with advanced scheduling functionality, capable of accommodating employee-focused content or customer-focused content on the same screens, depending on the time of day.

It also sought a platform that would enable the sale of ad space to its vendor partners, delivering the ability to ensure Ferguson’s customers have access to valuable and timely information while simultaneously creating a new revenue stream to offset the costs of the network.
The Solution:

To immediately solve its network uptime challenges, Ferguson selected Poppulo to replace its legacy digital signage platform—and because Poppulo is compatible with multiple player platforms, Ferguson also replaced all its existing content players with more cost-effective solutions.

Ferguson leveraged Poppulo Harmony Signage Cloud to enable location-specific content contribution while still maintaining control of global messaging.

The company ensures each location can update its screens with a list of scheduled appointments, special events, and more, without sacrificing the ability to maintain a consistent customer experience.

# 5. Finance: Western Union, USA

Western Union has innovated the way its customers have connected across borders for over 168 years and is expert at bridging the gap between faraway places, enabling money transfers between people via their website, app, or in person at hundreds of thousands of Agent locations.

The Challenge:

Western Union identified digital signage as a critical business communication channel. Its original investment in digital signage proved that point-of-purchase signage impacted transactions, but its legacy system was incapable of scaling.

The company needed a way to scale its retail digital signage program quickly, while simultaneously streamlining the management of its screens.

Additionally, it required the means to dynamically deliver important, localized information to each sign to provide its customers access to information about foreign exchange rates, fees, and more.

Instead of displaying generic content, Western Union needed a way to provide local content at a large scale, plus find a software platform capable of integrating with its existing screens.

The Solution:

After searching for the right digital signage software platform to scale their vision, Western Union selected Poppulo. In conjunction with WU’s hardware provider, Kiosk Information Systems, Poppulo created a solution that delivers big results with minimal management.

Western Union was able to rapidly scale its digital signage network while simultaneously delivering a mix of global and localized content to thousands of stores across the United States and Canada.

The company saw a significant business impact, saved $1m in hardware, and scaled its new solution to 2,000 Agent locations in one year

# 6. Transportation: Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), Portland, Oregon

DTNA is one of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, and its 268,000-square-foot headquarters in Portland, Oregon, is a testament to the company’s spirit of innovation.

When its stunning new HQ opened in 2016, Daimler wanted to ensure it represented the company’s commitment to the community as well as its 100,000+ employees, but the building also needed to serve as a means of attracting top talent.

The Challenge:

In short, every aspect of the finished project had to be impressive in every way. DTNA required a single digital signage or visual communications platform capable of delivering two unique experiences: one for visitors and the other for employees.

Daimler wanted to make a statement as soon as people entered the building, a big job considering the lobby was designed also to showcase large commercial vehicles.

Additionally, the building was designed to compete with desirable tech firms in the area, so giving employees access to information that improved how they worked in and navigated through the large building was paramount to the company’s goal of attracting and retaining the most qualified employees.

The Solution:

Daimler chose Poppulo Harmony’s digital signage software for employee and visitor-facing visual communications applications that optimize both experiences.

In the lobby, visitors are greeted with a 59-screen video wall that spans 110 feet and wraps around the corner, ending at a large conference room. This unique video wall showcases a timeline of product innovations, company history, branding information, and more.

Daimler can also easily customize the messaging based on which visitors and business groups are onsite. Adjacent to the elevators, visitors are met with a large, seamless video wall that acts as a window into the world, displaying an aggregated mix of social media, video, and branding content from all of the company’s brands.

On each of the upper floors, employees have access to interactive kiosks that provide wayfinding to offices, conference rooms, and more. They also rotate through daily employee communications, display the cafeteria menu, and provide access to local weather and traffic conditions.

The cafeteria also features a large screen that displays easily updatable menu options. When the cafeteria is closed, the screen dynamically shifts to show corporate branding and traffic information.

The digital signage experience at Daimler's HQ, powered by Poppulo, was so successful that subsidiaries of the Daimler Group used it as an example to follow for new and retrofitted buildings.