Virgin Media has opened an innovative store with interactive digital signage at its forefront. The unique store located in London’s Westfield Shopping Centre has been transformed into a cosy home away from home designed to encourage customers to sit down, relax and enjoy Virgin Media’s products and services.
The store utilises eight different digital signage applications created and developed by Acquire Digital, each offering an opportunity for customers to play, browse, watch and interact with the services.
Home-like experience in the new shop
Acquire Digital, specialists in digital interaction, are responsible for creating each and every digital aspect for the home-like store ranging from giant touch screens to gesture controlled information points. Even the gloriously sunny sky in the artificial garden is presented on a canvas of synchronised screens that entice customers to gaze at passing Virgin planes, hot air balloons and spaceships.
Custom-build content management
The store boasts an impressive giant touch screen video wall displaying the latest phone models on offer. Controlled through touch, customers can swipe through mobile ranges selecting individual phones for a closer look at features and pricing. Rob Smith, Head of Programming and Development at Acquire Digital explained, “In order to play videos while simultaneously displaying live information we had to build a solution that allowed these components to run smoothly. This links to a custom built web-based content management system to allow staff to make instant changes to product information and view important statistics such as how many times a particular product had been viewed.”
Tariff selctor works intuitively
Another impressive way that the store utilises digital signage is demonstrated by Virgin Media’s tariff selector. An interactive touch screen device hosted on a 55 inch screen, the tariff selector intuitively selects the best tariffs based on information supplied by the customer simply by moving sliding buttons, and uses an algorithm to determine the best tariff for them.
Multiple ways of adressing the customer
“One of the main requirements for Virgin Media was to inject fun into everything and encourage exploration,” explained Mat Bartram, Head of Design at Acquire. “Virgin Media is an exciting brand to work with and has provided us with the opportunity to be really creative and push the boundaries of traditional digital signage. With such a broad range of digital signage being used we’ve been able to create content from films to 3D animation, gesture controls and content for touchscreens applications.”
All media applications can be controlled
The Acquire Digital team has created a motion sensor driven ‘front door’ for the store that detects approaching customers triggering a door bell sound. The door then opens to reveal a host of Virgin related creatures such as a dinosaur, a festive penguin and Virgin Media’s celebrity ambassador, Mo Farrah. Once inside, customers can explore the home-based media entertainment packages through gesture controlled information displays, operated through a Kinect system, watch TiVo or browse through its mobile phone range.
Digital shop future
Paul Williams, Retail Director at Virgin Media commented, “It was important for us to utilise digital solutions within our new store. The team at Acquire Digital were able to develop pioneering solutions that work well together in creating a dynamic, innovative and engaging environment. I think it will prove successful in creating an experience that is both unique and memorable for our customers.”
