The point of sale experience for Pepsi drinkers at the Odeon cinema in Liverpool has been enhanced by three ‘digital at the moment of choice’ (DAMOC) drinks coolers. The eye-catching units were intended to be in place just for the month of August, but thanks to their popularity at the cinema they have become a permanent installation.
Designed to capture attention and create a talking point among cinemagoers, the units feature transparent display technology – so they look like traditional glass doors, until animations run across the three screens. They are located among a group of traditional freestanding coolers in a PepsiMax-branded area in the cinema foyer.
The full HD coolers have been designed by digital signage solution specialist Focal Media and feature transparent LED-backlit LCD displays from LG Electronics. Creative content was created by ad agency Arnold KLP in collaboration with Focal Media. When no content is being shown, the display is semi-transparent, with the bottles inside clearly visible. When the media plays, the products are obscured, or at times completely hidden, by animated graphics: waves of Pepsi appear from opposite sides (the three doors act as a single display) and crash into each other, a sheet of ice appears and then shatters dramatically, animated Pepsi logos fly and marketing messages are shown.
The content is responsive to customer engagement, triggered when the doors are opened and also seamlessly flowing between the three coolers in the interim.
The content resides on the DAMOC media player, a custom server designed by Focal Media. The content is rolled out via Wifi on Focal’s bespoke CMS system, which enables the coolers to display real-time content if desired.
Kevin Hayes, commercial director of Focal Media, explains: “We truly believe in the future of DAMOC displays as an effective customer decision-making tool. Working with LG, we were able to create the bespoke Cooler Units and the reaction has been phenomenal. It’s so encouraging to see that these displays have remained in place beyond the initial August launch, too.
“This particular installation did come with some unique challenges. Due to the dark colour of the Pepsi bottles inside, we added an additional FMLDS-Transplate to the top of the LG transparent displays. This makes the displays semi-transparent while maintaining the true colours of the creative so that the bottles can’t be seen when the content is playing, adding to the surprise of the reveal once the Pepsi splash has cleared from the display.”
Paul Bromley, reseller account manager for LG Electronics UK, adds: “Since the introduction of our transparent screen technology to the market, we have seen the interest in and use of DAMOC displays become an increasingly hot topic in the digital signage industry. The technology itself works by having two clear sheets of glass which are surrounded by edge lit LEDs. When the media plays, the signal pulses out through the LEDs to take over the display on the screen. One moment, you’re watching a Pepsi-Cola splash on our displays, and the next you’re looking at the real thing, which you can purchase to complete the experience.”
