Pingo Doce adopts Amplitude Net audio solution in all supermarkets

Pingo Doce used Amplitude Net's World VDS platform to restructure the radio emissions broadcast throughout its network of around 450 supermarkets.
 
The project included a pilot phase in 5 shops to familiarise themselves with the platform and understand all the potential that they could impose on the dynamics of their audio emissions.
 
After this initial phase, the project was quickly implemented in just about 1 month to the rest of the network, and so World VDS is the platform that today gives voice to the sound that is heard in all Pingo Doce supermarkets, by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit them daily.

About the audio solution implementation at Pingo Doce

The modernisation of the Pingo Doce supermarkets has been a constant since its birth and is now reaching the great digital reformulation.
 
Pingo Doce used the Amplitude Net Audio solution, called World VDS Radio, to materialise all its Audio Marketing strategy in its hundreds of existing supermarkets. Due to the dynamics that Pingo Doce wanted to impose on the audio of its supermarkets, it needed to change the solution it had due to its technological limitations. As such, after studying the existing solutions on the market, they opted for Amplitude Net, as they considered it to be very versatile and powerful.
 
In-store audio marketing uses music, sounds, voice-overs and messages to customers, in order to shape their experiences and feelings while they are in the shop. Through audio it is also set the pace that guides the consumer's visit, also displaying the style that matches the company's brand.
 
In its technical objectives initially passed on by the Pingo Doce IT were:
  • To increase operational operational
  • Reduce IT interventions during the implementation and updating of playlists and sound Spots for the shops
  • To improve sound control in shops and the in-store experience
  • Enabling the invocation of Spots via global WebServices or individualized in each location (e.g. Spot informing that there is hot bread or calling the supervisor at the checkout)
 
One of the characteristics seen as a great advantage by Pingo Doce was the fact that the World VDS Radio software is exactly the same that can be used to also manage a Digital Signage emission on any type of screen (Simple , VideoWall, Touch, Led, Outdoor, Tablet, ...). World VDS is also differentiated by the fact that it is a Digital Signage solution that besides running natively on the main brands of screens (LG, Samsung, Phillips, ...), it also runs on a series of operating systems, including the Raspberry PI (a computer of very low cost and dimensions).
 
Thus, the initial choice of hardware and operating system to run the World VDS solution was precisely the Raspberry PI, in order to minimize hardware costs for the overall solution.
 
Unfortunately due to the sudden entry of the pandemic phase, the installation of the project was initially frozen as access to the equipment locations became temporarily unavailable.
 
After further reflection on the path to follow with the Pingo Doce IT, it was realized that the situation could be easily overcome, through the installation of the WorldVDS software running in the background on the computer of the manager of each Pingo Doce site.
 
This great versatility of the Amplitude Net software at operating system level made it possible to overcome the delicate problem of the installations, since it made it possible for the Pingo Doce IT to remotely install the project in the almost 450 locations without the need for a single physical installation in the space.
 
So, after a test period in 5 and then 20 locations, the massive rollout of the project in all Pingo Doce supermarkets and Lido Sol (the brand name in the Madeira archipelago) took place in just 1 month, approximately.
 
One of Pingo Doce's requirements for the project was that the chosen software had a tag system that could be assigned to the sites, so that they could quickly segment them to make massive assignments of Playlists and Spots to be played there. Practical examples of the use of these Tags are catalogues of supermarkets with:
  • Services (Take Away, Café, Restaurant, ...)
  • Location dimensions
  • Region
  • Location
  • Schedule types
 
From these Tags, easily the locations are quickly segmented to be better managed.
 
Regarding the dynamics you wish to give to the audio, besides easily directing the playlists to play background music to the locations according to their Tags and time of day, you can also include several types of logic to the Spots to overlap with the music, like for example
  • Playing a certain Spot no. of times during the day, on certain days of the week
  • To indicate the repetition period of a certain Spot (ex. 30 in 30 minutes)
  • To show a Spot at a certain exact time
 
The ability to invoke Spots via WebServices, elevates the solution to another level, allowing you to interrupt the playlist according to events that happen, such as informing customers, in real time, whenever a new batch of bread is ready.
 
Complementary to the management of the audio on site, some other features of the software are also relevant:
 
  • Centralised system monitoring on a single screen: so that the IT understands what is happening in all the sites, if there is any site offline or updating information, and also the "health" of the devices (namely CPU, disk and memory usage).
  • Content Alarming: in order to understand the content of the site.
  • Statistics system: capable of providing relevant indicators for the analysis of different variables at the desired time intervals.
  • Multi-user Management System: Allows the creation of an update workflow, in which each user can have different permission levels defined by the system administrator.
 
Audio Marketing has been widely studied, since the sounds in shops have a great influence on the way customers act and feel in the places, so there are many benefits in adding it to the strategic action planning of brands. In this sense, companies that adopt Audio Marketing have an important competitive advantage.
 
Music is not just something we like or dislike. It is something that has a direct impact on our mood, feelings and thoughts, so having a technological solution like VDS World Radio that allows companies to not have to worry about technical limitations to materialize their strategies is increasingly a key aspect for success.

Short notes on Pingo Doce

With more than 40 years of history, Pingo Doce today has around 450 supermarkets in Portugal, employing more than 32 thousand employees.
 
The excellent quality/price ratio of Pingo Doce products and its large network of proximity to customers have been one of its management pillars, thus constituting one of the key factors for its great success.
 
In Portugal, Pingo Doce is a benchmark employer, with a team of more than 32 thousand employees, which confers an added responsibility, both in terms of the number of jobs and the conditions provided to its employees, both professionally and in terms of personal well-being.

About Jerónimo Martins Group, where Pingo Doce is included

Pingo Doce belongs to the international Jerónimo Martins Group of food distribution and specialised fresh food retail, which has long since won the trust of thousands of customers who visit the more than 4,200 nearby food shops every day.
 
The international Group based in Portugal, presents the following chains worldwide:
  • Biedronka in Poland, the Group's largest supermarket chain, over 3,000 locations
  • Pingo Doce in Portugal, which is the leader in the supermarket segment, with around 450 shops
  • Recheio in Portugal, which leads the cash & carry market, and has around 50 locations
  • Ara in Colombia, a discount supermarket chain with around 650 locations
  • Hehe in Poland, a beauty and drugstore chain with 650 shops
In Portugal, Jerónimo Martins also develops an agro-food production business to guarantee direct access to sources of supply of strategic products.
 
This presence in Portugal, Poland and Colombia of the Group has led Jerónimo Martins to be ranked among the 50 largest retailers in the world.