Imo’s Pizza were looking for a digital menu board solution to allow them to quickly change and manage digital menu board content in response to the FDA’s pending legislation that requires all restaurants with more than 20 locations to display calorie information on their menus.
The Tech Decision
Since all the menu boards at all 100 Imo’s Pizza locations in and around the St Louis, Mo. area would need to be updated, the timing was perfect to look for a digital menu board solution to allow making menu changes quickly and easily. The digital menu boards would also be used to better manage promotional content.
Given the competitive nature of the QSR world, Imo’s Pizza needed a solution that was cost effective, robust and required minimal support and maintenance at a store level. Having reviewed various digital signage integrators, Ping HD was selected to provide the solution.
The Solution
The solution comprises of EngagePHD, a web based digital signage software platform and Samsung Smart Signage Platform (SSP) Displays. EngagePHD has been designed to run directly on the SSP displays making use of the System on a Chip (SoC) technology pioneered by Samsung. This clean solution simplifies everything from installation to set up.
Each store has between three and four 40-inch or 48-inch displays. The larger 48-inch screens are being used exclusively for promotional content.
Each display is connected to the Internet either wirelessly or by Ethernet cable. Once connected to the network, each screen is configured with a unique URL that tells the EngagePHD CMS platform who it is and where it is located. Once the URL has been entered into the display it is ready to receive and download content which can be managed centrally or anywhere in the world using a laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet.
As part of the solution, Imo’s Pizza utilized Ping HD’s in house content design team who not only designed the content, but built out the dynamic menu boards within the EngagePHD platform. This meant minimal impact on the time needed for staff at Imo’s Pizza to get the stores up and running.
The project is still ongoing as Imo’s Pizza looks to convert 6-10 stores per week. At this stage the company is about 85 percent of the way through the deployment.
With the minimal equipment as well as pre-designed and pre-scheduled content, the rollout process has been exceptionally smooth. The biggest challenge is the couriers ability to deliver screens without damaging them in transit.
The Impact
The impact has been tremendous.
There is much ROI associated with digital menu boards compared to traditional printed menu boards. An increase in sales is one of them, however sales data before and after has not been shared. One of the biggest savings is labor and compliance. From head office, users can see exactly what content is showing on all the digital menu boards throughout the company real-time.
The stores that have been converted so far have been able to make changes to their digital menu boards on the fly and at no cost compared to getting new menus printed, shipped and installed in the conventional approach. Furthermore Imo’s Pizza locations are able to experiment with promotions and offers and see quickly what works and what doesn’t.
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