Interview with Simon Sugar

Druckversion

We spoke to Simon Sugar, CEO of Amscreen, about their Free-to-Install Digital Signage Offerings.
 
DS EUROPE: How did Amscreen as a company come about?
 
SIMON SUGAR: We acquired a company called Comtech five years ago when Amstrad, our original company, was acquired by BSkyB. Comtech were a company which specialised in wireless communications and M2M. While they weren’t focused on digital signage, we recognised the potential for this technology in digital signage. Essentially, what we’ve done is taken this M2M technology and put it into the back of displays. Separate to our digital signage work, we still have a division which deals with M2M communication solutions.
 
DSE: How is your technology different to other solutions available in the digital signage market?
 
SS: In most digital signage installations within retail environments, displays run on the customer’s own broadband solution and require additional cabling or a separate satellite feed. We offer a one-stop solution which takes the hassle out of digital signage installations, as there is no need for additional infrastructure. Using our technology, all we require is a plug socket and a mobile cellular signal! Mobile networks are much more reliable: any area that has a mobile phone signal can deploy a screen.
 
Our technology (simplified) is basically like having a Blackberry behind the screen. Every screen has a SIM card in the back of it, as well as an Intel board and media player. We can access data in real-time about every screen in the network, using our M2M monitoring technology.
 
We also invested behind the screens in cloud servers, so that if an advertiser wants to book a campaign last minute, once we have the copy everything can be aired nationwide within 15 minutes.
 
DSE: Where was your first deployment of this technology?
 
SS: Our first big deployment was in petrol forecourts through a partnership with BP. Although we were the new kid on the block, and BP were in talks with other suppliers and even doing trials with established companies, they chose us, for a combination of reasons, but probably most importantly because they saw they could make revenue from us, and our solution was simple and caused no disruption for their retail environment. Our business model with all our partners is that we put the screens in place free of charge to them (whether they’re a retailer, forecourt owner or hospital). The site owner gets a percentage of the loop time to promote their company’s messaging and we sell the media space, paying them a profit share.
 

 
DSE: So essentially you’re giving away a free signage solution! A lot of digital signage hardware and software suppliers rely, unsurprisingly, on selling their solutions to make money. But if you’re installing and running the screens for free, how do you make money?
 
SS: For a start, our screens are very low cost. We manufacture all the screens ourselves and all the technology is done in-house, which brings costs down. The cost also comes down because, using our wireless M2M technology, no new infrastructure is required to run the network.
 
This also means that we can roll out screens to new sites much more quickly and easily – crucially for us our technology is incredibly scalable. Other deployments may have been unsuccessful because they were not easily and quickly scalable. Just by installing our BP network, we became the largest national digital signage out-of-home network in the UK. Since then we have added Esso, Shell, all of the leading independent petrol stations, WHSmith Travel, and have expanded our healthcare network significantly.
 
Most of the time on the screen is ours to fill with commercial advertising, which is sold by our media partner Digicom, an experienced digital out-of-home sales house. We make our money by selling the advertising on this network; the site owner receives a percentage of the profit share, as well as a free of charge in store signage solution; and the advertiser sees an increase in sales and brand awareness. So it’s a win-win-win situation!
 
DSE: I suppose one of the very attractive things about this business model is that you take all the risk of the installation upon yourself: you, rather than the customer, are the one who has to generate the ROI. Other businesses, though, have struggled to make the advertising model work. How do you do it?
 
SS: Because we put the screens in free of charge, we also decide where they go – usually in high footfall areas such as the checkout – which means that they are in the right place to be seen by customers. Some early deployments of digital signage, such as Tesco’s in the UK, have failed because too large screens were installed, which meant that the screens had to be suspended from the ceiling. The digital signage simply wasn’t in the shoppers’ line of sight and wasn’t seen. So, of course, it failed.
 
Our screens are always placed in front of the till or in checkout queue areas, and are 19”, which is a much better size for content to be seen by people in close proximity. Our focus has always been on close proximity signage. There has been a trend in the market to think that the bigger the screen the better: this just isn’t true.
 
DSE: What about the content which is run on your networks? Is it a mixture of advertising and news content or is it primarily advertising?
 
SS: Our extensive research shows that there has to be a mix of content. On our forecourt network, for instance, Tom-Tom are a sponsor, and as part of this they provide local travel information for drivers. This is a good example of content that is specifically targeted to its audience. We have also just added Sky as an advertising partner, where part of the arrangement is that they promote live Sky News feeds together with advertising messages for Sky Sports and targeted regional messages for Sky Ride events, as well as promoting new programming.
 
DSE: How can you demonstrate an ROI and provide other information such as proof-of-play to your customers?
 
SS: Audience measurement is imperative to the success of our networks. We receive all of the transaction data from all of our site partners. One thing that has held advertisers back from taking to digital signage is that they were nervous about advertising on screens when they did not know if the advertisement had been seen or even played.
 
With our M2M technology, all the screens are monitored. Advertisers can log into a client portal to check on the status of their advertisements, check that they have been played and broadcast their own media. We are pleased to say that we pride ourselves on being market leaders on advertising compliance. Equally for the retailers, our screens are all controlled remotely, so staff don’t even have to remember to switch the screen on or off, which gives us total confidence in, and control over, the network.
 
We also get transaction and EPOS data from the retailer, and conduct exit surveys to track memorability of content. We have also placed cameras behind the screen to record anonymous audience figures, so that we know how many people were in front of the screen and how many people have seen the advertising, which is all essential information for our advertisers.
 
DSE: Because you have the EPOS data, you can presumably measure sales increases. What kind of a sales increase might one see from advertising on one of your networks?
 
SS: If a product is placed near the checkout and advertised on the digital signage, we often see an increase of 40%. If a product advertised on our platform at the checkout is located elsewhere in-store, the increase is usually closer to 15%.
 
It’s important to note, as well, that most of our major revenue comes from brands who want to advertise to a big audience. We are not just primarily focused on products that are in-store. As of today, our weekly audience is 16 million and, of course, is growing as we install new screens.
 

 
DSE: How does the increase in sales benefit you though?
 
SS: It makes the advertiser happy so they rebook with us! We know that our business model works, because we have big advertisers and repeat advertisers.
 
DSE: Does the content vary between the different vertical markets in which you operate?
 
SS: To some extent. We have advertisers who advertise across our networks and also ones, such as pharmaceutical companies, that are specific to our healthcare network. We also have certain agreed stipulations in the contracts with our partners. In healthcare it wouldn’t be appropriate to advertise something like fast food. Advertising on this network has to be related to healthcare and wellbeing.
 
We also have advertisers, credit card advertisers for example, that we have put together regional campaigns for across networks targeting particular post codes. Obviously with digital it is easy for us to deliver this and there is no wastage for the advertiser. Our live network map interactively shows advertisers where all our screens are located.
 
DSE: Is healthcare a new network for you?
 
SS: This was one of our first networks, actually. We acquired this network and grew it from just 50 screens to 800. These screens are placed in GP surgeries, hospitals and waiting rooms, which are areas which tend to have a long dwell time and thus deliver a very receptive audience.
 
DSE: Your business at the moment is in the UK. Are you looking to expand into Europe at some stage?
 
SS: Yes, we are. The deals we have with our forecourt partners include the capacity to roll out this network overseas. We can roll out networks very quickly – we did the Shell and Esso networks with over 1000 screens in just six weeks.
 
The challenge for us is not putting the technology out there, but delivering the advertisers. A lot of our advertisers are international brands, so we would continue to work with them outside of the UK. We want, though, to get the UK right before we look to go European. Our company, perhaps surprisingly, is only 18 months old. There’s still loads to be done in the UK market before we fulfill our ambition to be up there with likes of JCDecaux and CBS.
 
DSE: What is your future strategy for growth in the UK digital signage market going to be, then?
 
SS: Put simply: to get more screens out there in the right places, so that we can deliver advertisers and our retail partners a win-win opportunity. Our next big push is in convenience stores; we have just announced a partnership with Spar in Scotland. Retail is where the traffic and footfall is – so it’s an obvious location for digital signage networks. We can carry over many of our advertisers from the forecourt network onto the retail network, which gives us a head start.
 
Biography
 
Simon Sugar is the CEO of Amscreen and is responsible for all their sales and marketing activities. Amscreen is the UK’s largest Digital Out of Home media company, offering a robust, end-to-end digital signage solution via its unique wireless plug and play technology.