Standing Out in the Ultra-Competitive Context of a Food Court

QSR Digital Menu Boards: A Bull Market

Aktiv Brands has 25 Bucking Bull and 10 Skewerz Kebabz stores located in food courts across the country — with more on the way. In the ultra-competitive context of a food court (with a necessarily small shopfront) it’s crucial the menu boards are eye-catching, clear and easy to navigate. Often you only have seconds to snare a customer before they’re off looking at a competitor. Digital menu boards have been widely adopted to provide that eye-candy spark. Not only do digital menu boards pop, they can be animated, offer different day-part content, and be centrally managed.

Aktiv Search

We spoke with Aktiv Brands National Product and Supply Manager, Nigel Reid, about the decision to upgrade to digital menu boards based on Philips commercial displays. Nigel spoke about the ‘bill shock’ of procuring quantities of commercial displays but was pleasantly surprised by price and performance of the Philips commercial offering. “We began trialling the Philips screens and Fusion software in new stores from late 2017,” reports Nigel Reid. “With a typical store configuration including five screens. We now plan to roll out digital menu boards with all new store openings and store refits across both Bucking Bull and Skewerz Kebabz. “The screens are currently managed and updated by the Aktiv Brands marketing team at our Franchise Support Office using the Fusion Signage CMS, with updates rolled out regularly with national promotions, new product launches, menu changes, and price changes."

Animated Response

One of the first initiatives the marketing team adopted was animating its national promotions. There’s no chance of patrons experiencing motion sickness, the animations are understated yet attract eyeballs — “stores with digital menu boards continue to have stronger than average results for these campaigns,” noted Nigel Reid. The dayparting is strategically engaged with targeting of key trade periods — breakfast, lunch, snacking and dinner. The marketing team has leveraged the hyper-local potential of the digital menu boards: “The screens are like having an extra weapon in our local area marketing toolkit,” reflects Marketing Coordinator Fiona Kirk. “The Fusion scheduling software couldn’t be easier to use. We’ve been able to incorporate the digital menu boards in stores’ school holiday promotions, store specific offers or even for our Free Chip Day giveaway at the opening of Skewerz Kebabz Ocean Keys earlier in 2018.”

Fast Moving Fast Food

Few industries move as fast as the QSR market and digital menuboards allows Aktiv Brands to be far more nimble. “We can now instantly update our menuboards, which is a huge benefit for us,” observes Fiona Kirk. “We can roll out a new menu, promotion or pricing increase with the click of a button. Similarly, we can instantly fine-tune a promotion if something’s not working adequately, without the worry of the cost and turnaround time of printed boards.”