Pizza Pizza, one of Canada’s most popular pizza chains, is continuing to find innovative ways to improve the experience of its customers and drive more sales.
In the spring of 2007, the company partnered with Rogers Digital Network Solutions to launch a pilot project in 25 Ontario Pizza Pizza restaurants. The pilot was based on two highly reliable, commercial-grade Sony displays in each location to give customers more information on specials and offer news programming and entertaining content to in-store guests.
The pilot was successful enough that in the summer of 2007 Pizza Pizza expanded the project’s scope to 200 restaurants with 400 displays.
There are many elements to Pizza Pizza’s new project, but the most visible piece is Sony’s 40-inch FWD40LX2 display.
“We needed to make sure we had the right monitor for what can be a difficult environment,” says Pat Finelli, Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Pizza. “We have a lot of flour in the air and our stores can have up to six ovens which generate a lot of heat. The Sony monitors were the most durable ones we saw.”
Also important, Finelli notes, was the brightness of the Sony displays.
“We’ve made our stores very bright so they’re inviting to our walk-in crowd,” he explains. “We needed a display with a high brightness that wouldn’t be lost in the stores’ lighting.”
Sony’s FWD40LX2 is specifically designed to operate for long hours in public areas. The monitor features an ultra-wide viewing angle of 178 degrees, a contrast ratio of 1300:1 and a high brightness rating of 500 cd/m2.
Pizza Pizza and Rogers relied on Toronto-based Sony of Canada partner Videoscope, a company that designs and installs audio, visual and production solutions, to create a robust, reliable service for the pizza chain’s customers. Videoscope’s solution involves two main elements – one display located near the point of sale that shows a series of specials and products and a second display centrally located in the dining area that offers entertaining programming from Rogers Media called Pizza Pizza-TV.
Pizza Pizza-TV features a mix of sports highlights, entertainment news, music videos, weather and comedy clips. Rogers and Pizza Pizza also sell advertising around the programming. Most of Pizza Pizza’s restaurants recently added larger dining areas and Pizza Pizza-TV will give in-store customers a more enjoyable experience.
There are many pieces in Videoscope’s solution besides the Sony displays. Macintosh computers serve up content for the specials on the menu screen, as well as the lobby screen content. Rogers Media provides the programming and network for Pizza Pizza-TV. A Toronto-based new media firm called I-CONNECT manages and monitors the system. I-CONNECT can link directly to the Sony displays and restart them or remotely alert Videoscope if there is a problem.
“We recommended the Sony displays because they’re commercial-grade displays that can operate in 24x7, digital-signage-type applications,” says Mike Spear, General Manager with Videoscope. “We didn’t want anything with a tuner in it, or consumer-class, because it wouldn’t stand up to what we expected to be a long lifespan with constant use.”
What really set Sony of Canada apart from other commercial display providers was the company’s service. “They offered us more in terms of backup and support than the other companies we dealt with,” Spears explains. “Sony is always there when we need them.”
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