Case Study: Port Credit & Clarkson Pump

The Clarkson Pump and the Port Credit Pump are local Food and Beverage venues located in the Greater Toronto Area. Both are high-traffic destinations for locals, with robust community connections. In mid-2009 the proprietor of the two locations, Scott Smith, installed multiple ScreenScape displays in each venue. Scott describes his ScreenScape experience.

The key aspect of these establishment is community. There is a long standing connection between the Pump and its patrons, which often spans several generations; "A Dad might come in for dinner, and his twenty-something kids will come in for drinks after 10pm." To achieve real success, and signage solution which is implemented in these location needs to compliment the unique local community flavor.

"The Pump is a destination for locals, local customers, local geography, and many,many regulars. We have very loyal customers, and we're loyal to them."

The Challenge

The installation of ScreenScape followed on the heels of an unsuccessful experience with a conventional digital signage solution. The Pump used a competitors digital signage product for 5 years prior to ScreenScape. This product incorporated sidebar ads and text news mixed in with a live TV feed.

The challenges with the previous product centered around the difficulty and cost of getting Pump-specific content onto the screens. This friction resulted in a higher time investment than expected, content which failed to speak to the Pump’s unique audience, and ultimately frustration for the venue operator.

Ad revenue from the screens had to be shared with the provider, and The Pump’s share of this revenue decreased over time.

“The old system served a purpose, for a time. We started out administering it ourselves, with a 50/50 split on ads. But eventually it became an administrative nightmare. My business is running a restaurant - I don’t have time to baby-sit a signage system. By the end of it I didn’t want anything to do with the old system - the provider had another group running it, and I only got 15% of the ad revenue.”

The ScreenScape Solution

ScreenScape addresses these challenges through its ease of use and unique content management approach.

The setup and maintenance can be performed by non-specialists, and the content can be directly updated by the venue operator. “ScreenScape setup was very simple. We purchased 3 screens, 3 media players from a local third party. We handled the actual installation ourselves. We were up and running in a matter of hours. It came together very quickly, very simply. Now, we make content updates in a matter of minutes.”

"I'm encouraging my suppliers and other merchants in our community to join ScreenScape so we can cross promote our businesses." - Scott Smith, The Pump, Owner/Operator

The ScreenScape Approach to Content

At the Pump, content updates to the screens are now performed daily on an as-needed basis, at no extra cost, in a matter of minutes. The Pump is able to highlight daily specials, local events, and target specific brands with low effort and high return.

With the straightforward approach to content updates, the Pump can also offer direct advertising services to its patrons, brand distributors and suppliers. Local business people who frequent the pub, (e.g. real estate agents, retail shops, etc), often ask how they can get their message onto ‘PumpTV’. Scott is happy to oblige.

"Around 10am each day we put up the Lunch Special. At 4pm we put up the Dinner Specials. It’s simple, but we couldn’t do that before. When people tell us what they like, and what they don’t like, we can immediately adjust to those comments. My business partner is a retired pro hockey player, so we searched YouTube and found all his old hockey fights. We tried to only put up the ones he won, but… we couldn’t find too many of those. [laugh] But local people see that stuff and relate to it. They love it. Our customers like it for sure: They watch it.”

"Would I recommend ScreenScape? Absolutely!" - Scott Smith, The Pump, Owner/Operator

The Benefits of ScreenScape

The Pump is seeing success with their ScreenScape displays on several fronts. Ad revenue, in-venue specials, and sales of targeted brands have all increased dramatically through the new system.

• Ad revenue from local businesses averages over $2000/month
• In-venue specials highlighted on the screens are seeing as high as a 4x increase in sales.
• Sales of specific brands of beer have doubled since being promoted.

The Pump has also seen considerable interest in the local community for cross promotion between venues.

*Note: Advertising using the ScreenScape service is 100% optional. The Pump retains 100% of any advertising revenue it generates from its ScreenScape displays.

On Advertising Revenue:

“During our first month we made $2800 in ad revenue.”

On Internal Promotions:

“We did some experimenting with it. We put up a ‘$2 off’ ad on the screen for a new Sunday drink special. Otherwise we didn’t say a word to anybody, just put it up on the screen. On the
first Sunday we sold 39 drinks. The second Sunday, 59. Now we’re selling up to 80 every Sunday. Those are good numbers. Clearly ScreenScape is influencing customer behavior.”

On Working with Distributors:

“As the pub owner, which brand is sold makes less difference to me then it does to the distributor. They’re competing against other brands in the bar. Now they’ve got a potential captive audience at our two locations by taking advantage of the screens.”

On Networking with other Venues:

“I have a local supplier - he has a high end, high quality retail store with lots of traffic. I want to be in that store. I’m telling him, get one of these screens let’s cross promote...There’s a local fitness center where I’ve been talking with the owner about their getting on to ScreenScape. That’s a captive audience for 45 minutes - we’d love to be in there.”

What’s Next?

Following the dramatic early success with ScreenScape, the owners of the Pump are looking to expand. Screens for two additional venues in British Columbia, a 100 seat pub and a 2400 sq.ft beer wine store, are now in the works.

The Pump is also in negotiation with its main food distributor and liquor distributors to use ScreenScape to highlight specific products on sale in its venues, in return for product rebates and/or direct ad revenue.

“Our business is all rebate. We’re negotiating with our food distributor right now for next year. They want to get their retail products out there (French fries, poppers, onion rings and so on). Now they’ve got a potential captive audience at our two locations by taking advantage of the screens. It’s something we’re negotiating with them on. They’re very interested.”

“Once we get the BC locations going, we fully expect to get our liquor suppliers out west involved, it’s a no brainer to do that. We have all the same suppliers there.”

Following an unsuccessful experience with a competing product, The Pump has seen strong success with the ScreenScape solution.

The system has paid for itself in a matter of weeks, and represents a new source of revenue for the business.

The positive results in sales increases, ad revenue, and cross promotional opportunities have led to a planned expansion to other locations owned by the Pump operators.