ATM advertising rides big wave in England, ripple in U.S.

One thing leading the third-party ATM-advertising charge in the United Kingdom is the number of FIs in the region that own ATMs. The U.K's approximately 50,000 ATMs are owned by a small number of deployers, mainly FIs.

That is quite the contrast when compared to the estimated 20,000 U.S. credit unions and community banks that own an estimated 40 percent of the country's nearly 450,000 ATMs.

The number of FIs that own ATMs in the U.K. make it easy for advertisers to reach a national audience because one FI could have ATMs across the region. But in the United States, FI-owned ATMs are more regionalized so advertisers would have a harder time spreading the word, said Alicia Blanda, Long Beach, Miss.-based Triton Systems' marketing projects manager.

U.S. banks do advertise through their ATM networks, but advertisements are limited to direct-marketing campaigns.

Sharon Dickie, director of product marketing for Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., said the United States has always been less receptive to third-party advertising at the ATM.

"In many situations what they look for is the complementary brand that fits their own brand and style," she said. "There's a lot of benefit and opportunity in promoting your own products other than third-party: The ATM is really the only channel where you can reach non-customers."

Dickie said, in many cases, banks and credit unions are using ATM-advertising services in a bid to reduce or eliminate direct-marketing campaigns.

"The ATM, we believe, is about 60 to 65 percent cheaper (than direct mail) and 200 percent more effective, based on the kind of experiences we've seen," she said. "Interestingly, in Asia, what we're seeing is they're very tired of direct mail and they're very proactive in promoting at the ATM."

Keith Lewis, director of marketing and solutions management for global software and service for North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc., said companies launching direct-mail campaigns generally see a 2 percent response rate; other forms of mass media tend to be much lower. With self-service terminals, he said, response rates have been around 20 percent.

U.S. companies that tried to offer third-party capabilities five to seven years ago didn't get much traction, Lewis said.

As ATMs shift from OS/2 to Windows, opportunities for third-party and in-house ATM advertising are increasing, and the platform shift has moved faster in England, said Doug Sholes, Triton's marketing director.

"Fifty-eight percent of ATMs in the U.S. are still running OS/2," he said. "In the U.K., they've been faster to upgrade to Windows-based ATMs, which can handle advanced advertising functions."

Scotland-based software developer I-design sells its software suite, ATM:ad, throughout Europe. ATM:ad allows dynamic advertising by linking to third-party systems and acting almost like an on/off switch - launching itself only when an ATM transaction is initiated. The program, which requires a Windows platform, is running on 2,000 sites in the U.K.; that number is expected to double within the next year, said Ana Stewart, managing director of I-design.

"In the U.K. they are very receptive to third-party products because they feel it adds value," Stewart said. "When customers use the machine, there's something useful and informative for them to see. For banks, it's a win-win because they get more revenue and customers are happy."

Although no United States-based processors offer third-party advertising capabilities, there is interest.

"Everybody sees that the revenue from ATMs is going down, so certainly (ATM advertising) would be a way to help that," said John Willmon, vice president of business development for Dallas-based processor Columbus Data Services. "I have considered a few options to put something together."

Willmon said the trick, at least for CDS, would be to establish a relationship with advertisers.

"That's where we would have to start," he said.

In 2001, NCR launched its Aptra Promote ATM software tool, which enables third-party and direct-marketing campaigns. The software can target specific ATMs, locations and customer segments.

Dickie said banks can use Aptra Promote to advertise a specific bank-division product. In some cases, those divisions even get charged by the bank for the advertising campaign.

Diebold has a similar product. Its Campaign Office is a server-based solution that provides enhanced ATM screen content through browser-based screens on Windows ATMs. The solution gives FIs the ability to personalize the ATM experience using customer-targeted messages.

"We see the end of this year and 2007 really being the year for CRM (customer relationship management)," Lewis said. "Clearly, it's one of the best direct-marketing tools that FIs have to leverage. The breadth and depth of CRM capabilities are so strong that it's very compelling to FIs."

Effective ATM advertising depends on the message.

"When it comes to an ATM, because it's a financial transaction and because the ATM has become a trusted technology agent from several years ago, I think it's important for the ads that run on the ATM to be fairly unobtrusive," Triton's Sholes said. "Not that you can't deliver a message, but it needs to be delivered appropriately."

The campaign also must be relevant. Key brands, such as British Airways and Vodafone, are using ATMs in the U.K. to promote their messages.

Dickie said it also is important that the ads not cut into transaction time.

"We don't recommend that the transaction takes longer," she said. "It's really just using the time. It is an added service."

It is unknown if third-party advertising will ever catch on in the United States, and Stewart said the U.S. market might not be viable.

"We always try to look at parallels and there's not really an end-to-end service in the U.S.," she said. "There are so many reasons why it really hasn't worked, not that it doesn't have some potential."