News

Captive audiences

One Florida-based company hopes to break new ground and attract major brands with its strategies for distributing ATM screen advertising. by Katherine L. Sears, associate editor

August 31, 1999

ATM advertising is not new. But Inter Active Touch Marketing is taking the medium one step further, by utilizing remote on-screen sequence changes. The Miami-based company plans to use this to convince major advertisers that the ATM is effective at reaching a more defined, captive audience. And, with the number of ATMs in this country -- close to 200,000 -- advertisers can gain a wide reach while targeting specific market segments. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based BankAtlantic is the first financial institution to work with Inter Active Touch. So far, BankAtlantic has tested a series of ads at 100 ATMs, with St. Thomas University in Miami as its first advertiser. Chris Klein, BankAtlantic's senior vice president of ATM systems, said the nicest aspect of this venture is that Inter Active Touch handles almost everything. Inter Active sells, designs and loads the ads onto BankAtlantic's NCR machines. Some text-only ads are being loaded onto the bank's Triton machines. BankAtlantic maintains final approval, which helps prevent conflicts of interest. For example, Klein mentioned that he turned down an ad from a business that sold financial services. "Right away it was conflicting with a lot of the products and services we sell here at the bank," he said. Aside from St. Thomas University, "we have a laundry list of other people that are about to be signed up," Klein said. Potential advertisers include major brands, which Klein declined to mention because formal agreements are pending. Adding elements For Klein, the advertising program brings an exciting new element to an ATM's functions. "I try to find every way we can to add some value to our ATMs and to make them a little bit more interesting to the consumer, which will hopefully bring in some significant revenue," he said. Ninety percent of BankAtlantic's 800 ATMs are low-volume, off-premise machines. Adding on-screen advertisements may help offset the lack of revenue and low response in between transactions. Although other banks have tried ATM advertising, a key component to BankAtlantic's attempt is Inter Active's ability to control ad changes through remote control. When an ad's running time has lapsed, Inter Active can reload another one from a different site -- a task previously handled by the individual bank. Plus, multiple ads can be programmed into the sequences. "Before they tried to sell advertising, but there was no easy way to get it to the ATM or manage it," Klein said. "By managing it, yes, I may have carried out the disc and loaded the ATM, but the program ends on July 15. How do I get it off of there?" Inter Active takes the completed ad, programs it for the ATM, then commands where and when it will run, said Carlos Luchsinger, Inter Active Touch's chief operations officer. Next the ad is downloaded onto a server, which receives instructions on where to send it -- normally to the ATM network -- via phone modem. The ATM then responds to that call, Luchsinger said. "We can call the entire network or individually any ATM that we'd like." Although preparing the server to download the files is quick, actually sending them requires up to five days, Luchsinger said. Depending on the number of files, two weeks may be needed to ensure the ads are loaded on time. Still, Inter Active's process eases the burden on banks, which previously had to load a file manually into every ATM, Luchsinger said. Only recently have major ATM manufacturers developed software capable of sending screens by remote. Some companies, like EDS, had been using remote satellite links, which can be costly, Klein said. Give me proof Inter Active Touch utilized its background in the kiosk advertising business through its sister company, Touch Miami, to sell businesses on the effectiveness of ATM advertising. The company began in 1994 as a result of concerns expressed by the Miami tourism industry about the safety of travelers. Touch Miami established kiosks in hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions to allow consumers to find services they needed. According to information on Inter Active's Web site, in 1997 the Touch Miami visitor information system recorded over 1,200,000 touches and printed coupons and directions over 151,000 times. Since there are fewer kiosks than ATMs nationwide, the market reach would potentially be much wider with ATM advertisements, said Ray Knight, chief marketing officer for Inter Active Touch. Another key component, Knight emphasizes, is the ability to use the ATM as an electronic billboard during idle screen times, which boosts ad exposure. The ads on BankAtlantic's machines include screen savers that run during transaction lapses. "A lot of people kept trying to judge the value of it based on the number of transactions done on the terminal," Klein said. "But, we made the point that... this thing is in Wal Mart. This thing is in Cumberland Farms, and here's traffic counts of people walking by this thing everyday. That's what caught people's attention." Most companies trying to sell ATM ads come from an ATM background, unlike Inter Active with its proven success in the kiosk market in the South Florida area. "We have all the advantages of what we've learned in the smaller regional model of kiosks, but you have obviously the 30 year establishment of the ATM channel and you have those 13 billion transactions going on a year with a built-in marketplace hitting a very appealing demographic," Knight said. The fragmentation of the kiosk industry and the limited number of terminals created a drawback when trying to sell space to major advertisers. Knight said a common response from advertisers was "'Well, this is great, and I love it, but don't you have 50 in New York, or 50 in L.A. or a few hundred in Chicago?' " To attract more advertisers, Inter Active is running a spot during screen savers and transaction loops on the BankAtlantic ATMs that gives information on who to contact for ad placement. "We anticipate that generating some interest level," Knight said. Inter Active has already taken steps to market this new medium overseas. In a partnership, Inter Active and Diebold have formed a Diebold OLTP franchise in Venezuela.

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