Interested customers with lots of time to listen- that’s any sales rep’s dream. It’s also the basic concept of tyre chain Euromaster’s Nordic Digital Signage initiative. While customers wait for their tyres to be changed in the workshop, they can see useful information and special offers on displays in the customer reception area. Not only is this cost-effective advertising, but also makes the workshop visit enjoyable.

“In contrast to many other industries, we have the advantage of having lots of time with our customers,” says David Isaksson, Sales & Marketing Director for Euromaster in the Nordic Region. “Typically customers spend 15–60 minutes in our waiting areas. It’s a perfect situation for discussing tyres and wheels, so they’re very receptive to our information.”

Euromaster tailored its message to the extended time it has to communicate with customers. The commercial loop is 15–20 minutes long and alternates general information on tyres and wheels with current special offers and sales messages.

“We present a mix of advertising and useful information. Appealing to ‘soft values’ is important to us because our type of products are available at many different kinds of facilities, including competitors. That’s why we need to position ourselves as a service-minded supplier providing various types of service,  including tyre storage and wheel alignment.”

Suppliers purchase time
Euromaster’s suppliers, all major tyre manufacturers, purchase about 70% of the content time, alternating image-building spots with segments on the importance of the right tyre pressure, ideal tyres for specific types of vehicles and so on. “This is a new medium for suppliers. They’re used to working with traditional advertising media, and they saw their role as informing us. Now the opposite is true, we’re approaching them to conduct sales campaigns in our facilities. They also appreciate that we offer them a channel that gives them plenty of time to provide information on their products.”

In addition to reaching out to customers convincingly, Euromaster’s Digital Signage venture has slashed their marketing costs. “This solution saves time and money!” Isaksson explains. “Previously, producing store materials was a heavy task: contacting advertising agencies, reading proofs, printing and distributing. In addition, the lead time until the final copy was out in the workshops was a month or more.

“Now our campaigns cost less and have a greater impact on the customer. We can move from idea to offer in no time, sending out co-ordinated campaign material to all the workshops in just days. The displays also take some of the pressure off the staff, as they are spared some of the explanations of everything from credit terms to what to think about when getting a wheel alignment.”

Euromaster’s solution is a display by the seating area in the customer reception. It is usually placed in a corner so that it is visible from everywhere in the room. Euromaster have tested the set-up in their larger workshops in Sweden, Denmark and Finland and will be successively rolling out the solution throughout the Nordic region. Some of the larger workshops will have two displays, but otherwise no major variations are planned.

Pan-Nordic contract
Euromaster has a pan-Nordic contract with ZetaDisplay, in which ZetaDisplay’s subsidiary in each country serves as the local supplier. ZetaDisplay delivers virtually all material based on Euromaster’s wishes and information. The main loop is nearly identical in all countries, but ZetaDisplay provides the different language versions and there are some local variations and freedom for national initiatives. For example, the use of dubbed tyres is permitted in Sweden and Finland, but not Denmark.

“We control the information centrally, but we benefit from ZetaDisplay’s expertise as to what works and what doesn’t in moving media. We have never considered handling the production ourselves; for us ZetaDisplay’s support is a vital aspect of the arrangement,” Isaksson confirms.

One thing Euromaster have learnt is that it is important to get their own IT department involved. “After the project had been under way a while we discovered that the corporate group’s firewall for the European operations was hampering transfer. There were different IT platforms between the Nordic countries. ZetaDisplay were able to answer all of our IT-related questions and we were able to solve the problems, but we’d advise others to get their IT department involved early in the process, at least in large groups like ours.”