Tabaqueira reformulates its Digital Signage system in almost 3000 screens

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Article published on the 4th of March, 2022

Tabaqueira, the Portuguese Philip Morris International (PMI) subsidiary, is the leading tobacco company in Portugal and one of the largest in the country, being even among the top ten exporting companies at Portugal. The company produces for more than 25 countries from its factory in Albarraque in the municipality of Sintra, which is one of PMI's largest production centres in the European Union.

Tabaqueira choosed World VDS Digital Signage system be to improve the information management through almost 800 screens in Retail outlets in Portugal, as well, achieving a decrease cost of the operation, against its old Digital Signage system.

Although most screens have small Android and Windows machines attached, their overall Digital Signage screens also has a very significant percentage of Android Tablets.

Since a large part of these devices are consumer and not professional equipment, prepared to be connected at least 16h/day and 7 days a week, there were significant hardware constraints that required some adaptations of the World VDS software, because a considerable part of the Android machines was still running operating system versions completely outdated.

In addition to the need for these technical optimizations of the Amplitude Net Digital Signage system, he project also included several other challenges, of which the following two stand out:

Due the variety of screens available emissions (almost 800 screens for Digital Signage), in addition to having 2 types of emissions with differentiated formats (4:3 and 16:9), where each format presents 3 types of differentiated resolutions, namely Full HD, HD and SD, there are also vertical and horizontal screens, giving a huge range of possible combinations for each of the broadcasts they want to transmit.

The number of separate broadcasts is also high, since the screens are placed in very different locations with different communication needs. Within the universe of these locations are tobacco stores, stationery stores, airports, gas stations with and without food area, where in addition to the difference in the products marketed, there are also legal restrictions on communication that must be met (due to the positioning and visibility of their screens, such as whether they are placed in storefronts in stationery stores with visibility to the public outside the locations).

All the system was assembled considering this wide range of possible situations, in order to minimize as much as possible, the management times of the playlists associated with the several dozen possible situations. Thus, with just one content update performed by Tabaqueira in the World VDS software playlist, several situations are immediately met, so that the effort required to manage the operation is greatly reduced.

Since the approximately 800 screens at Tabaqueira did not have remote access, local visits were necessary for changes, to be made to the operating systems and respective software, and Tabaqueira's displays have global coverage of the country.

Unlike many other Digital Signage projects already developed by Amplitude Net, where the locations that have digital screens are part of the institution (originating a very active local collaboration of employees for their own benefit), in this project, Tabaqueira’s screens are seen by establishments as a secondary benefit to their core, which required a much more delicate articulation between the 4 teams assembled by Amplitude Net during the installations. A good example of this, are the 2 weekly days when the EuroMillions games occur, which make the local tobacconists and stationery Shops practically impassable and available for installations.

Given the rigid scheduling restrictions for the interventions in various locations, not only for the cases pointed out for the Tobacco and Stationery Stores but also for the visits to Airports and part of the Petrol Pumps, an intelligent route generation system was set up, with a real-time update of the status of each of the terminals in the locations, which greatly simplified the routes that the 4 installation teams had to make, thus achieving the objectives of the installations about only 2 months.

In late 2015 Tabaqueira pioneered the marketing of IQOS, an innovative way of smoking smokeless tobacco, with a very significant reduction in health risk, and currently the main product featured on its Digital Signage screens.

Portugal was the fourth country in the world to start marketing IQOS, which already has approximately 200 thousand consumers nationally and about 7.3 million worldwide.

At the beginning of 2019, Tabaqueira was the first company in Portugal and the first of Philip Morris International´s European affiliates to receive AWS (Alliance for Water Stewardship) certification, which recognises the company’s good practices in the sustainable use of water, making evident the commitment to sustainability in all its activities.

Through this new Digital Signage project that Amplitude Net materialized, Tabaqueira acquires a new potential to develop its marketing strategies in about 800 screens, allowing the company to make the desired communication changes in real time and in a differentiated way for their locations and intended audiences.