Dermalogica was founded in 1986 by skin therapist Jane Wurwand, revolutionising skincare by shifting the beauty industry’s focus from cosmetics to skin health. Today, the Dermalogica collection comprises a selection of unique skincare systems which are individually prescribed to each customer for their specific skin concerns using the brand’s ground-breaking Face Mapping® skin analysis technique.
Dermalogica has historically supplied its skincare products and services via authorised salons, spas and beauty stores but in 2013 the company began selling its products directly and opened a number of retail outlets to increase overall sales.
Dermalogica has primary operations in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland and its products are sold in more than 80 countries worldwide.
The opportunity
Dermalogica UK was already utilising digital signage in key retail stores for promotional activities, but the AV displays were not interconnected and had to be individually updated manually (via PPT and Dropbox), which resulted in inconsistencies to the brand’s overall messaging.
Further to its acquisition by Unilever in 2015, Dermalogica UK was tasked with streamlining its operational processes and enhancing customer engagement to deliver a better retail experience and increase overall sales.
As well as repurposing displays already installed in numerous stores across the UK, Dermalogica wanted to incorporate the latest smart signage displays and associated interactive applications in its newer stores to strengthen promotional activities and grow its “Hero” product range.
The company began investigating end-to-end digital signage solution providers and further to online research, Identified Signagelive as the preferred technology provider because of its market reputation (ranking as one of the top four digital signage platform providers globally), its global, secure cloud based platform as well as its hardware-agnostic capabilities. Signagelive is 100% channel based so recommended Solutions AV (a leading AV reseller and systems integrator in the UK) and its strategic channel partner, Westbase Technology, to supply and install the digital signage network.
Key project requirements
- A centralised digital signage network to simplify digital marketing activities
- Streamline internal operational processes further to corporate acquisition
- Enhance customer engagement to deliver a better retail experience and increase sales
- Make use of interactive applications to promote flagship products and bestsellers
- Hardware-agnostic solution that supported all display types, regardless of vendor for ROI purposes
- To provide a self-help training facility for Dermalogica staff
The digital signage network
To date, the digital signage network comprises a combination of conventional and smart displays, plus the IAdea XDS-2170 (XDS-2288) and XDS-1078 signboards. All deployed displays are powered by Signagelive and have so far been installed in four locations as follows:
- Harvey Nichols – Edinburgh,
- Fabel -Tottenham Court Road, London
- Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge, London
- MK Centre – Milton Keynes
Apart from displaying prescheduled content about Dermalogica skincare products in an eye-catching and engaging manner, the digital signage network is also being used to raise awareness of its “Hero” product range via “Lift and Learn” applications to increase brand loyalty. Carefully chosen items are placed on small sensors (concealed inside retail counters) positioned in front of small, instore displays. If an item is subsequently “lifted”, a trigger is activated to display detailed product information about that item on a corresponding display.
Displays have also been installed at Dermalogica HQ in Leatherhead to display education information to students attending workshops, and to provide local information like traffic and weather.
Benefits of IAdea and Westbase Technology
Working alongside Solutions AV, the chosen systems integrator for the project, Westbase Technology provided the IAdea hardware bundled with Signagelive licences.
The IAdea XDS-2170 (XDS-2288) and XDS-1078 both feature an all-in-one design with built-in media players, reducing the hardware required for the solution. A 21″ screen, the XDS-2170 features the latest wide viewing technology as well as a robust design. The 10.1″ multi-touch XDS-1078 screen also features wide-angle view, as well as Power over Ethernet for reduced cabling – plus WiFi, built-in camera and speakers for even more application flexibility.
Westbase also supplied the IAdea GPIO module to enable the “Lift and Learn” feature. This module allows input from the sensors to the screens, so that specific content can be triggered when a product is lifted – engaging and informing the customers about the selected product.
To-date, Westbase and Solutions AV have worked together to roll out 30 media screens across the four high profile locations.
Benefits of Signagelive
Signagelive has provided Dermalogica with an easy, reliable means to centrally manage its countrywide digital signage network, comprising multiple displays types, sizes and orientations, including Smart Signage displays. The scalability and reliability of the platform has ensured that offices globally are now also utilising the Signagelive platform for internal communications.
Content is uploaded and stored on the Signagelive cloud platform, providing Dermalogica with a centralised repository for storage purposes, and eliminating the need for onsite servers at different locations, thus reducing overall installation costs.
Signagelive‘s SoC and HTML5 software, with integrated support for interactive applications, has allowed Dermalogica to cost effectively deploy among other retail focused digital signage a “Lift and Learn” concept in its newer stores and carry out targeted campaigns about its flagship product range in an engaging way.
Using Signagelive’s optional Proof of Play reporting module, management staff can report on campaign results in a meaningful way, demonstrate to stakeholders which products are the most popular and adjust/amend promotional activities to reflect consumer trends in real time.
The future
So far the digital signage network has been rolled out to four UK locations. Dermalogica expects the network to be rolled out to across the remaining 23 stores by the end of 2017.
“From the outset Signagelive understood what we wanted to achieve and worked very closely with us to ensure our objectives were achieved. The software is easy to use and their reporting and Proof of Play module allows us to actively respond to the success of different campaigns in real time. Signagelive also gives us a rudimentary indication of instore footfall, which is important for future planning.”
