Bank Branch Community Board
Customer: Merchants Financial Group, Inc.
Winona, Minnesota
Goal: Create a community experience for bank branch visitors
Situation
Merchants Financial Group, Inc. (MFGI), located in Winona, Minnesota, is comprised
of community banks that collectively provide financial services leadership to communities,
individuals, and businesses throughout southeastern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin.
Established in 1875, MFGI is a longstanding business that has been part of the fabric
of the local communities it serves. Its marketing team was searching for a way to
build a greater sense of community in its branch locations by sharing information
about events and activities happening in the local area. The frequency of updates
made traditional communication methods, like static signage, a poor choice, and
bulletin boards would not complement the elegant setting.
Solution
The MFGI team studied the various communication platforms available to them and
determined a digital signage solution would allow messages to be frequently updated
while providing the ability to leverage existing media assets of their brand identity
to create multimedia content adapted perfectly to their branch environment. Then
the search started for a solution to fulfill their needs, which is when the MFGI
team turned to Digicom, Inc., a full service professional audio/video integrator
located in Winona, MN. The president of Digicom, Russ Neitzke, studied the Merchants
Bank location in La Crescent, MN, where the first deployment was planned, and recommended
a 47” LG LCD display and a mounting location above the tellers that would provide
easy viewing by customers in the queue.
The real challenge for MFGI was to find an economical software application that
allowed them to change the message frequently and to provide support for the media
formats they wanted to display. They researched various software vendors, but the
applications were too expensive to justify one display at a single location and
the user interfaces were complex and hard to understand. That’s when Russ recommended
a SceneStudio Pro software solution, which was a perfect fit for their messaging
needs and budget.
With the goal of the multimedia messaging solution being an increased sense of community,
the staff at Merchants Bank in La Crescent reached out to local businesses and civic
leaders. This outreach led to proactive community involvement to provide messages
on the display that are of interest to customers. MFGI also added product and service
advertisements and entertaining content, such as weather and news which has the
power to keep an audience engaged.
Results
The multimedia nature of the messaging platform engages customers and draws their
attention. Because the messages are primarily about community happenings, customers’
attention stays focused. MFGI has created a stronger sense of community in La Crescent
while also entertaining customers in the teller queue, which reduces perceived wait
times.
MFGI is able to implement message updates on-the-fly due to the intuitive application
interface of SceneStudio Pro. The staff can add community news, event notices and
insert new product advertisements quickly and efficiently. They are also able to
leverage existing brand messages and marketing materials by optimizing them for
use in a digital signage medium.