Darren Easton, Cyphers VP & Creative Director, was featured in the December issue of PMQ Pizza Magazine.
Darren discussed the effectiveness of both indoor and outdoor signage and offered his four top tips on how businesses can make the most of them in How Digital Restaurant Signage Can Help You Sell More Pizza.
The article also featured an example of The Cyphers Agency’s creative work for Mid-Atlantic pizza chain Seasons Pizza.
Darren’s commentary was included in the following sections:
Then, of course, there’s the bottom-line boost, outlined by Darren Easton, vice president and creative director at Crofton, Maryland-based The Cyphers Agency. Indoor and outdoor digital signs can help encourage impulse buys; create habitual consumers by displaying daily or real-time specials; or capture new customers (or increase the purchasing frequency of current customers) by introducing or promoting new menu items. “This form of media simply saves customers a great deal of interaction time,” Easton explains. “Digital signage not only efficiently conveys information to customers, but also eliminates the need for a customer to hear, and an employee to deliver, what is often a time-consuming explanation of and instructions for ordering an item or special.” Hence, employees have more time to truly engage and provide higher customer satisfaction, thereby encouraging loyalty.
Takeaway Tips
Darren Easton, vice president and creative director at The Cyphers Agency in Crofton, Maryland, has created digital campaigns for Mid-Atlantic chain Seasons Pizza and shares his four top tips for making the most of digital restaurant signage:
Change the information on your sign frequently, ideally every day. This protects against the sign fading into the landscape for frequent consumers and also delivers the message that your brand is active and energetic.
Make the messages or ads as “real-time” as possible. Keep content current—focusing on the daily special, lunchtime promo, holiday or season, new menu items, etc., and supporting it through real-time social media posts featuring high-quality images of the food items on your signage.
Integrate your signs’ content with your campaigns. If you’re running an ongoing game-day special during football season, for example, customers who are already engaged with the campaign on your social media channels will expect to see campaign elements on your outdoor or in-store signage, while those who are not yet engaged can be driven to become members of your online community.
Tap social media. Use signage to encourage customers to use Facebook’s check-in or Instagram’s location-tagging features. For example, offer a discount or free item when they check in to your location. When they do so, it helps create a sense of “missing out” among their own followers. Your sign can also support ongoing or event-focused engagement on Twitter, whether through a branded hashtag (i.e., #EatSeasons), promotion- or item-specific hashtag (#BOGOSaladWednesdays), or a hashtag tied to a current event (#NationalPizzaDay).
