Under the policy of modernising its network, the French postal service La Poste decided in November 2006 to launch a European tender for the creation of an Out of Home Digital Media network as a communication tool for point of sales and customer relations. Post offices were to be equipped with 40-inch LCD screens for the task. By late October 2008, the project was finally completed, with 1,500 post offices equipped with a total of 2,200 screens. La Poste thus becomes the most "seen" out of home network in Europe with a total audience of 4.4 million customers a week! Laurence Roux, Program Director at La Poste, says early reports on the success of the project are very encouraging…

IPSOS Media conducted a study for us in March 2008, through 370 customer interviews on their thoughts on the new network. 76% of customers felt that the post office was closer to their concerns since the implementation of the network and thanks to programmes broadcast on the screens 82% of customers found the waiting times less long. This shows that we have achieved our primary objectives.

You also wanted better information on products and services sold in the post offices...
The results are, again, rather encouraging. According to the same study, 74% of customers said they were better informed about the offers of the post office and 58% of customers say that the programmes gave them a better idea of the products and services offered. The digital signage network is a complementary tool to our print campaigns (flyers and posters), which is an invaluable tool in business relationships for our customer service agents. It also allows more flexibility and reactivity: Ten days are enough to prepare the audiovisual media and distribute it on our entire network.

You hoped that this communication network could trigger “spontaneous” purchases - particularly with regard to new products sold in post offices (check cards, gift boxes, telephone, etc..) – to boost sales. Have you been able to measure the changes at this level?
We are putting tools in place to measure the impact on sales and first results are quite promising. To do this, we took two groups of offices - one with screens installed and the other without - and we took measurements at each office. Furthermore, we started an audience measurement survey with Médiamétrie. We have equipped nine outlets with cameras, which over 2 months, will count all the eyes that look at the screens. At the end of this test, we may decide to equip a more offices with this measurement system.



How has the digital signage system been received by the staff?
In March 2008, an Ipsos Media study was also conducted with 166 employees of the Post Office. Acceptance of the system is, again, very good. 86% of employees found the device interesting, 57% believe that there were fewer incivility incidents in their post office since the inception of the system and 61% are convinced that it helps them in their duties. We initially had some concerns about their acceptance of the deployment. Sound is an integral part of the project because its impact is not negligible. The Ipsos Media study revealed significant differences between offices with sound and without. For example, 54% of customers in the sound-equipped offices agreed that this new medium made the post office more user-friendly, while only 36% thought so for offices with no sound. In general, the results of the study determined that customers’ perception is better "with the sound" and the gap is around 20%. Our programmes are designed to meet the specific technical and editorial media specifications of OOH and are therefore understandable without sound thanks to an enhanced system that embellishes the images with titles, subtitles and embedded texts.

Your network is the result of very early reflection on an ambitious original and varied content policy. What does this mean today in terms of editorial strategy and programme scheduling?
We wanted to make a real branded TV channel with 30 to 40% of programmes at La Poste devoted to the promotion of products and services or images of the company. The rest of the scheduling consists of programmes selected to be consistent with the values of La Poste - divided into 4 main areas: entertainment, discovery, proximity and service, and sustainable development.

Part of your programming is devoted to advertising. How have the results been perceived by the advertisers?
Today, 1,500 post offices are equipped with screens that have about 800,000 customers exposed to them daily. We are editorially and technically ready to accommodate advertisers, but we are voluntarily limiting the advertising load (about an average of 4 per week) to enhance their presence on our media. Our system is reliable. Thus, many of our traditional partners such as UNICEF or Western Union are already using it.

Regarding the technical aspect of the devices, which were the main criteria for selection of the current solution?
First, we wanted to have a "plug and play" for each post office… a screen with an integrated player simply connecting to the existing network by a single Ethernet cable and an RJ 45 connector. This allowed us to limit and control the costs of installation and maintenance. On the other hand we wanted to distribute content through the network of La Poste, both for security and economic reasons. We selected Sony, both for their 40’ LCDs as well as their players, software programming, and transfer programs (Ziris). The supervision software allows us to monitor the screen, but also trigger, if necessary, remote or on site maintenance and to know the result of transfers and narrowcasting statistics.