Hyderabad-based Window Square boasts of its ideas on experiential marketing that transforms businesses to brand. In this cluttered market every brand is struggling to earn its place in customer’s mind. Decoding this challenge as opportunity, Window Square has started an internal maker space that work on technology, material science, arts and programming. The objective of this is developing creative marketing activities, techno arts and environment experiences. And one such by product is the Talking Standee.
Imagine you are walking straight and suddenly from a distance of 3 to 10 feet there is a flash of light and sound, would you turn your head? That’s what Talking Standee is – the Head turner. Be it a retail store, event, exhibition, restaurant or bank, you can engage the customers so delightfully with a surprise element. To know more about this unique POP branding tool, we at, Sign & POP World caught up with P. Jyothsna, Maker Space Head and Y Saikrishna, Product Designer. Here is what they shared with us:
On responding to the popping up of innovative ideas, they stress that Window Square is a creation of passion, by the people who believed that every business has its own DNA and it is the business’ responsibility to communicate that uniqueness effectively and do the positioning. When it comes to Talking Standee it can deliver the message to the people who are passing by the store (who didn’t actually come into the organisation/store) and can deliver a better experience. The product has also been awarded by HYSEA as the best product for the year 2017. “We have passion for creativity and commitment for structured innovation that gives us the best ability in conveying the value proposition of brands and their products.” asserts Saikrishna.
On responding to how different is the Standee that Window Square offers, he explains, “Do you know that 5 out of 10 people are uncomfortable with the salesman interruption in the store? And also very major percentage of times the regular standee’s message goes unnoticed. Here comes the Talking Standee that talks to customers through sound and visual. Right now Talking Standee detects anyone coming near to it, going further Talking Standee will be enabled with interactions such as touch, hand wave or other customised actions. The current Talking Standee not only eliminates the interruption of salesman but also gives a memorable experience to customers. While regular standee is single dimension (communicates visually), this standee communicates through auditory sense (audio) & vision (visual) as well.”
“We need to give a reason to customers to remember our brands and these creative experiences will be the best reason to get aware, remember and recollect the brand,” adds Jyothsna. Moving ahead, she puts forth a few vital points which actually are the need of the time. “Be it a store, or stall in an event or an environment – we always want to draw the attention of the customers passing by. Isn’t it? How do you call a customer without an interruption but with an attraction? That’s what Talking Standee does.
All this is quintessential, keeping in view, a market which has turned global. Each passing day is only adding up to the competition where war among the brands is touching a new high. Amidst this surging pressure, the only thing that would set the brand apart is the differentiation in presentation, which can be achieved using innovative means. Elaborating about the product, she says, “The current version is a non-digital, back lit poster that can be changed as many times as needed. Besides, one can change the audio (up to a duration limit of 2hrs) message as many times as they want, in such a way that it starts speaking and glowing the visual signage as soon as it detects someone coming towards it,” she says.
The standee comes with adjustable sensors. “Based on the crowd passing by the standee, the detection pattern can be adjusted to operate at a desired distance and on/off sensors individually. This helps the brand in interacting with the right audience in any context. The range of detection can be set to any distance between 10cm to 3.5 meter. This helps reduce over talking of the standee, because with shorter distance detection, the standee talks only when someone comes closer to it intentionally. The unique point of this setup is that it doesn’t leave any message incomplete. The product has been tested in the reality grounds thoroughly and that’s how the product is addressing every concern of the brand and customer,” says Saikrishna, adding that when a message is being played out, the standee doesn’t detect anyone before it finishes its on-going round of talks.
He pointed out that the dual mode facilitates effective branding & advertising through audio-visual appeal, which increases the recollection of the ad or brand. Being a manageable POP tool, the standee can be used for multiple campaigns allowing the brand owners to use the same tool for as many campaigns as they want, depending upon the requirements. For this, they need to keep the posters and audio messages ready for the other brands. “Simply, by changing the audio message as well as the poster, it can be used for a new campaign. The audio message is stored in an SD card, which can be changed as per the need. This attribute enables the brand owners to make the best use of the Talking Standee,” he states.
The standee comes with backlit display unit to keep it illuminated to be pretty visible at night or at dark spaces. “It comes with manageable lights that work on dual – continuous or power saving mode. Either the lights can be set ‘on’ for all the time or only when it detects a passerby,” informs Jyothsna adding that the power saving mode can be a major contributor for more surprising head turns as sudden flashing of lights results in grabbing more attention than ever. This illumination multiplies the visibility of the advertisement to a far extent.
Speaking about its usage, she suggests that it is quite simple to use. “All needed to do is to just plug in and adjust the sensor distance along with the volume. The system comes with a rotating knob, to adjust the volume – increase or decrease – of the taking standee. Be it a silent zone or an outdoor place, one can change the volume of the standee with respect to the context of its application,” she highlights.
The most important is its easy transportation because of it being detachable. This standee comes in different colours, designs, standee sizes, poster display sizes and different interactions mediums to interact with customers. The standard size of the standee is 6×2 feet, wherein the message display is 5×2 feet. The brand owner can take the standee to different places.
“Imagine 10 standees on one side and one talking standee on the other, which one you think that people would remember and tell to others. This is not just physical product, this is a tool that can be used for intelligent marketing of your brands,” boasting many such benefits of their innovation, they sign off.
BOX
Advantages of Talking Standee as a POP tool:
- Packed with surprise element (a clear differentiator for brands )
- Can be used for multiple campaigns by just changing the audio message and the backlit visual.
- Intelligent enough that it can act according to the passing by crowd (adjustable detection range, adjustable volume, adjustable mode of illumination.)
- Can design experience that can turn to a strong content for digital marketing and PR
- Gives passersby or potential customers a reason to remember the brand
- Dual mode facilitates effective branding & advertising through audio-visual appeal, which increases the recollection of the ad or brand
- It’s easy to install and can be installed in minutes.
- Even better than touch screen, as people are less likely to know that they are touch oriented and also very difficult to generate an action of touch from customers. Whereas Talking Standee will just take their default presence as a channel to interact with them.
- The display illumination that works in two modes, increases the flexibility to brand’s communication pattern.