NICOSIA, Cyprus — Scala Certified Partner Eyecatching Media has created a retail banking and community network that offers Cyprus’ Cooperative Bank customers in rural branches the same benefits as urban customers, including information on the latest financial products and services, interest rates, exchange rates and local business messaging received via a Scala-powered digital signage network.
Founded in 1937, the Co-operative Central Bank (“the Co-op”) provides banking services to rural communities across Cyprus. Through 160 societies and 470 branches, it operates as a centralized non-profit facility providing private and commercial banking, personal and corporate insurance and lending and liquidity services.
The Co-operative Banks turned to digital signage to address three main business challenges:
- With branches geographically dispersed, reaching customers quickly and effectively was difficult, as was communicating accurate, up-to-the-minute, time-critical information.
- Each bank marketed itself differently, so customers were presented with a variety of different brands and visual treatments.
- The banks wanted to generate additional revenue for stakeholders through the creation of an advertising mechanism for non-competitive advertisers in the local community.
The banks’ adoption of digital signage to overcome these challenges began in 2002 when Limassol Co-operative Savings Bank and Nicosia Co-operative Savings Bank partnered with Eyecatching Media to design, develop and operate their digital signage deployments.
Each bank marketed itself differently, so customers were presented with a variety of different brands and visual treatments.
“These banks are innovative businesses, and it was no surprise when they originally approached us to help them design, develop and build their network. What we found particularly rewarding was their intention to use the network to provide a genuinely enhanced service for rural customers and to support key brand values by helping the local community however it could,” said Theo Leonidou, CEO of Eyecatching Media.
Each bank marketed itself differently, so customers were presented with a variety of different brands and visual treatments.
Each bank branch uses one or two 40-inch LCD screens positioned strategically, mainly above or adjacent to the customer service counters, to enable waiting customers to clearly view the screens’ content which runs around 20 minutes to reflect an average waiting time of 10 to 20 minutes.
In a typical Co-op branch, a program consists of a branded channel identity; key Co-op or affiliate products and services; news of the Co-op’s corporate social responsibility efforts; relevant corporate news, announcements and customer invitations; real-time information with editorial and promotional information; and community and commercial messages from local advertisers.
Because customers and staff require up-to-date information on financial issues, this content is updated regularly using Eyecatching Media’s Infobase service. In total, the network uses 25 connected Scala players to manage distribution, playout and auditing for compliance purposes.
Each bank marketed itself differently, so customers were presented with a variety of different brands and visual treatments.