Communicating with a mobile audience - Case study: Metroline Buses

The Client

A dynamic and ambitious transport company, Metroline is proudly serving London, one of the world’s busiest cities. Their principal business is the provision of bus services under contract to London Buses, operating through an area that extends from North to West London, including Central London and the City.

Every day Metroline strive to meet their passengers’ expectations, be it through good customer service, a clean and presentable vehicle or simply getting their customers to their destinations on time.

The Challenge

Metroline employees are constantly on the move, driving from depot to depot. This makes communication a real challenge. Irregular shift patterns and 24 hour a day staffing can make it difficult to communicate important legislation and safety announcements.

Metroline require a way of communicating with drivers when they arrive for their shift or whilst they stop for a break.

The Solution

Sabercom worked closely with Metroline to specify and provide an 11 site corporate digital signage system for communicating across all bus depots.

Placing screens in the reception and break out area of each depot allows for important messages to be read by each of the drivers.

Communication managers can broadcast important safety messages and update drivers on new legislation. A mix of travel and weather news means that drivers are constantly informed of any hazards that may occur during their shift.

Sabercom users at the individual depots can also control the content of their locations screen, this ensures that information is local and relevant.

The Sabercom system has proven to be one of the most important communication channels for Metroline. Sabercom's on-going relationship ensures that the solution is constantly evolving to meet their requirements.

Imagine using touch screen digital signage for employee communication?

"Scandinavian carmaker Volvo drove down the digital out-of-home route for a campaign to help launch its new Volvo V40 earlier this year.

The campaign included interactive digital signage screens that allowed consumers to personalize their own V40 model and then see their creations showcased on screens at rail stations across the U.K." Full article.

Volvo touch screen digital signage at a bus stop

There have been consumer facing screens in one form another for as long as I can remember. It's now getting a lot more interesting.  

What's compelling here is not only the interactivity but the fact that your own creation will be shown elsewhere as part of a multi-channel campaign. 

We've had quite a few clients ask us about touch screen digital signage and yes, it is easy to do in terms of the technology but what is not so straightforward is the content. 

The Volvo campaign is clever because it's in front of a captive audience who has time on their hands (until the next bus anyway), the consumer is creating something that others will see and it's new and different compared to what their competitors are doing. What a great idea.

So, my question is, why aren't we as creative internally with digital signage and large screen communications? People have shorter attention spans, crave interactivity and consume content quicker than ever before. 

We should make use of this desire for new technology while it's still novel. Digital signage is a great channel away from the desk - it reaches employees when they are in a different frame of mind. Used correctly, digital signage can really stand out and get attention.

If you want to know more about adding touch screen functionality contact me for more details.

I don't know what happened, I just fell into comms

Sound familiar? On the "People you may know" LinkedIn page, I noticed my cousin has landed an internal communication job. I asked how he decided to go into IC and here's what he said: 

"During Uni everyone was telling me how difficult it was for Graduates to get a job. Determined to prove everyone wrong I decided to look for a job in my second year.

Unfortunately, everyone was right, it was hard to find a job especially when I hadn't finished my degree yet. 

Eventually, I got an offer for an internal communications role as an assistant to the team. My skills in lots of different medias like web, video, editing, photography got me the job part time which was perfect because I was still at Uni.

After Uni they offered me a full time role and the chance to start their first in-house video production team. Being in internal communications I've found myself doing all sorts now including internal marketing email campaigns, intranet and Internet design and development and of course video production...."

"...It is true how so many people fall into IC. In our team I don't think anyone thought they'd be doing this. My old boss used to go to Graduation shows too and had very little interest apparently."

So my question is this, why does the internal communication function have such a hard time attracting people to the role? 

Using images on the Intranet - is it important?

A recent poster on the IoIC (institute of Internal Communication) LinkedIn group asked "Have you a view on how much emphasis an organisation's intranet should place on pictures and images?"

As the old cliché says "a picture is worth a thousand words". So how much should you put up on your Intranet? 

Quite a few people weighed in with comments including:

"...images are really important, we've started using slightly abstract images along with a vague/catchy headline..."

"...Pictures work harder and quicker than words. They always have. They always will."

"As a former journalist, I think that some people in internal comms don't really 'get' the importance of photos. In an ideal world, every IC department would have its own photography budget - and encourage its people to submit their own photos as well."

The bottom line is that people love to see images, video and artwork, it makes content more engaging. Another good way to pull people to the intranet is to use large LCD, plasma or TV screens to display attention grabbing video or imagery. 

Some of our clients even pull content form the Intranet to large screens. The thing is most companies have a network of screens dotted around their buildings - why not make better use of them?

If you'd like to know more about communicating across large screens (and even desktop screensavers), head over to the Sabercom website.