Product News | October 11, 2021

How digital restaurant signage can serve up better content and experiences for diners

In 1955, restaurants represented approximately 25% of US spending on food. By 2019, that number had risen to 51%.

Why? Explanations vary, but it seems to be partly convenience, partly the fun of dining out. There’s also the greater access afforded by food delivery services from foodora, Uber, DoorDash, and many others. It also helps that the range of options today hits a huge variety of price points and dietary options.

Appealing to such a diversity of preferences means the “restaurant industry” represents enormous variety, many unique approaches taken to meet customer demand. What unites all players in the space is a need to communicate effectively with diners and establish the atmosphere they are looking for.

Here’s how digital signage makes that easier.

Sell more (and smarter) with dynamic digital menus

The old way of using static menus has quickly been overtaken, at least by most major players in the QSR and fast casual spaces, by digital menu boards. Brighter, with more vivid color, and capable of displaying moving imagery, digital menus are more attractive on a visceral level. The research bears that out, with a study by Ocean Outdoor finding that moving content on signage is 2.5 times as effective at driving an emotional reaction as static content.

A man standing at a counter. Digital menu boards hang overhead — The enhanced visuals of digital menu boards are more effective at selling to diners

This improvement is just the baseline, though. With intelligent software powering menu displays, it’s possible to add dynamism and automation for better sales and a more fluid customer experience.

Sell upgrades and combos with flashier advertising

It’s easier to sell more to an existing customer than to sell to a new customer, so doing a good job of upselling is a key task restaurants should take on. With digital menu boards, it’s easy to create animated videos that showcase different combos or upsell options and demonstrate the value that they offer.

Highlight the day’s deals for a little extra enticement

Special time-limited products are a big draw (#szechuansauce, anyone?) and there’s no better way to draw attention to special menu items than to give them prominent placement on a bright, beautiful display.

Automatically stop promoting items that have sold out

It’s bad enough when regular menu items sell out, but when time-limited specials with cult followings and fever-pitch excitement sell out, you can have something of a PR crisis on your hands (#szechuansauce, anyone?)

Modern digital menu solutions can integrate the digital menu system with point-of-sale software to track the status of items being sold and remove sold-out foods from being displayed on menus. It’s a way to help manage guest expectations and prevent disappointment from spiralling into a newsworthy story.

Put your guests in control with touchscreens

Digital screens aren’t just a passive medium through which to deliver menus and other content, or at least they don’t have to be. Interactive displays have made major inroads in the restaurant industry in the past several years, and in multiple different forms.

The McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks are a prominent example, and have boosted sales from 3-9 % in many of the regions in which they have been deployed, but they aren’t the only example. Many sushi restaurants, for instance, handle ordering with screens installed or otherwise attached to tables. Information screens in all manner of restaurants, meanwhile, can be used to provide a more self-directed and informative avenue toward discovering more detailed ingredient lists or allergen warnings.

A man at a McDonald's self-serve touchscreen — Interactive displays have helped McDonald’s boost sales in many regions

Best of all, when touch screens are not in use, they can also be used to deliver informational or promotional content to people who are in the vicinity, just like regular screens do.

Deliver informative or attractive content to your customers

Digital displays can be used for purposes other than just menus and advertising. Audiences in many restaurants appreciate having ambient content to accompany their coffee, lunch, or after work meal.

For QSRs, coffee shops, and other casual locales, things like news headlines, weather, and general diversions are likely to grab guests’ attention and entertain them for the duration of their stay. For sports pubs, screens could be used to run interesting stats or trivia about teams playing in that day’s game. But even more upscale environments can make use of digital signage. Digital signage can be used to display modern artwork that creates a unique ambiance and provokes conversation among patrons.

Example: While this media wall is not from a restaurant, it provides a striking demonstration of the artistic potential offered by digital signage.

It’s worth noting that this content and the screens it appears on can all be run through the same digital signage platform as any other menu boards, advertising displays, or interactive screens on your network.

Use screens to flaunt your cred and get social

Restaurant-goers are highly self-directed nowadays, with many spending a fair amount of time researching their options before ever setting foot in the door. According to Trip Advisor’s “Influences on Diner Decision-making” report, about 94% of US diners claim to be influenced by reviews when going to a restaurant, with ratings websites like Trip Advisor, Yelp, Google Maps. and others taking the top spot for most influential.

Achieving a great rating takes hard work, a good product, dedication to customer service, and a bit of luck. If you’re proud of your score on one or more of these services, why not put them up for all to see inside of your restaurant? It’s a little extra proof that your establishment has become a destination to return to for continued enjoyment.

As a bonus, the reviews can be accompanied by appeals to diners inside of the restaurant to take the time to leave their own reviews – a good way to keep growing your online influence.

It bears mentioning, too, that social media posts about your brand can do a lot of good inside of your establishment, not just inside of an app. It’s like unleashing an endless team of great amateur photographers to bring your menu to life. Showcase selected posts tagged at your restaurant, or that display a particular hashtag, and you can create a sense of community while simultaneously marketing your offerings more creatively and compellingly than you likely could otherwise.

A woman photographing her food with a smartphone. She's going to make a social media post about her experience in the restaurant she's eating in — Digital signage can be a great prompt to get people to write reviews or create social media posts about your restaurant

Show off your loyalty program to bring more customers in

Loyalty programs are good for business. According to research by Bond Brand, 70% of loyalty program members say that the program makes them more likely to recommend the brand to others. About 77% say that the program makes it more likely for them to do business with the brand, and 63% say that they plan their spending around loyalty program benefits.

With digital displays inside of a restaurant, the brand can easily promote the steps necessary to achieve membership, or advertise special promotions uniquely available to members. Taking this a step further, with displays that can be interacted with through touch, NFC, or QR codes, is another good way to boost engagement with your guests and create more tailored, memorable experiences.

Do you want to drove more profits and create better restaurant experiences?

Get your free Broadsign demo to see how digital signage can help!

Product News | October 11, 2021

How the Broadsign Platform enables ad delivery rates of up to 99% for Orb

At a time when consumer attention is in short supply, out-of-home (OOH) remains an effective medium to attract and retain consumer attention. This is demonstrated in Kantar’s 2023 Media Reactions study, which found that in-person media channels were preferred by consumers, with OOH and digital OOH (DOOH) ranking among the top five favoured channels.

Looking at Group M’s This Year Next Year: 2023 Ireland End-of-Year Forecast, the preference for OOH is particularly noticeable in Irelan, with the medium seeing an average growth rate of 16.65% over the last four years. This growth can be primarily attributed to the introduction of new technology in DOOH, which has provided advertisers with new creative possibilities and added flexibility on how OOH is bought by advertisers and delivered to audiences.

In fact, when looking at the share of static and digital OOH spending in the region, static consistently outpaced digital up until 2023, when shares for both mediums were split evenly. As of 2024, DOOH spend in Ireland exceeded traditional and will continue to do so in the next four years. As DOOH’s presence continues to grow in the region, Irish media owners have an opportunity to enhance their DOOH presence and capabilities.

One Irish media owner who’s already benefiting from the added value of DOOH is Orb. Running a fully digital network of 100 screens, Orb has become a preferred network for both global and local brands due to its flexible buying options and accurate ad delivery rates – made possible by the Broadsign Platform.

Why Orb’s network speaks to advertisers

There is no shortage of demand for Orb’s screens. Its premium locations, creative campaign capabilities and comprehensive campaign reports are why advertisers choose Orb’s network. Orb’s carefully curated selection of screens can be found in bars, restaurants, premium shops and shopping malls found in busy city centres and suburban spots.

Orb’s network attracts both large and local brands from a wide range of verticals. In the entertainment vertical, you’ll often see ads from Disney, Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers. Well-known car brands, like Toyota and Kia, as well as alcohol brands under the parent companies of Diageo and IDL Irish Distillers, are also frequent advertisers.

Moreover, in a market where static OOH still has a large presence, Orb is providing advertisers with new dynamic creative optimization (DCO) opportunities made possible by DOOH. For instance, displaying a countdown clock on sports ads for upcoming football or rugby matches or dynamically triggering content based on the location and audience demographics to deliver ads at the right time to the right audience.

Last but not least, advertisers appreciate Orb’s comprehensive reporting. By pulling data from a third-party technology provider for footfall and audience data and Broadsign’s Proof-of-Performance (PoP) report, advertisers are given a comprehensive overview of campaign performance and effectiveness.

How the Broadsign Platform powers Orb’s flexibility

Prior to Broadsign, Orb had tested other platforms to run their network on, but none of them provided Orb with the flexibility they wanted when it came to how inventory was sold and how campaigns were delivered. After careful evaluation, Orb adopted the Broadsign Platform as it not only provided them with new ways of selling, but also dynamic creative capabilities, and comprehensive network monitoring and management.

Flexible buying options that meet diverse needs and maximize ad delivery

While DOOH continues to gain popularity in the region, perspectives in the Irish market vary on the preferred level of flexibility from the medium. Some media owners want to maintain controlled delivery through fixed, frequency campaigns, while others are open to experimenting with flexible, goal-based campaigns. It was essential for Orb to have a solution that allowed them to address the needs of both.

“Our market is divided into two schools of thought; clients who want to keep frequency-based campaigns and another group who have fully embraced flexible campaigns”, says Agnieszka Mendrychowska, Chief Operating Officer at Orb. “The way that the Broadsign Platform is designed allows us to cater to the entire market, as we can select the amount of flexibility we want for each campaign.”

With the Broadsign Platform, Orb has access to frequency-based, goal-based, and data-triggered campaigns. One way Orb is introducing flexible selling to more traditional clients is through play goal campaigns. This allows the client to define how many times they want the ad to play within a given time frame, and Broadsign ensures that the goal is not only met but optimally distributed across all selected screens throughout the campaign’s duration.

Moreover, flexible campaigns benefit from dynamic rebalancing, which leverages Broadsign’s optimization engine to modify the pace at which a campaign is delivered to ensure that campaign objectives are always met. Through Broadsign’s PoP reports, Orb has shown ad delivery rates of up to 99% on flexible campaigns and 95% on frequency campaigns. Having access to this data has not only allowed Orb to reassure its traditional buyers of the effectiveness of flexible campaigns but also helped them attract new customers.

“We’ve been told by clients that what makes our network stand out from others is its reliability when it comes to ad delivery, and that’s thanks to Broadsign.”
Agnieszka Mendrychowska, Chief Operating Officer at Orb

Network and campaign management; the way they want it

Additional benefits Orb has seen with the Broadsign Platform include full visibility into network health and inventory availability. With live digital screen management, Orb can check the status of their network every day, allowing them to resolve issues as quickly as they arise. Moreover, when a more complex issue comes up, they appreciate the support provided by Broadsign’s service team as well as the extensive training guides made available to them online.

Full transparency into their inventory availability has simplified their campaign proposal and booking process. When building proposals, Orb leverages the filter and criteria search function to easily find screens that best meet advertisers’ campaign objectives. When booking flexible campaigns, like play goal ones, Orb can see the estimated number of plays they can reach depending on the screens they’ve selected, allowing them to adjust as needed and provide an accurate proposal.

Finally, the ability to manage and separate content as they need is another advantage

of the Broadsign Platform. For instance, being able to define a percentage split of how content should be rotated within a single campaign. More importantly, leveraging Broadsign’s competitive separation feature allows them to run ads from competing brands on their network, as well as ensure that certain ads don’t play in specific locations. For example, not allowing alcohol ads to be shown on screens that are closer than 200m from a school playground.

Orb’s adoption of the Broadsign Platform has empowered them to meet the diverse needs of their market with flexibility and precision. By offering advertisers dynamic creative options, flexible buying options, and reliable ad delivery, Orb has solidified its reputation as a dependable media owner for the Irish market. Orb’s ability to quickly adapt and deliver tailored solutions through Broadsign ensures they remain well-positioned as DOOH continues to grow in popularity.

What’s next for Orb

Looking into the future, Orb plans to expand its network within Ireland – in cities like Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway – and Northern Ireland. The media owner is also looking to strengthen its programmatic DOOH offering, as the targeting and measurement capabilities made through that medium will unlock a new level of flexibility in how Orb sells its inventory.