The ad is watching you

DISTRIBUTOR of seafood products TheSeafoodCompany used to depend on its marketing staff to manually upload its advertising collateral to attract potential customers.

Its main avenue of sharing information was through marketing and its promoters, said managing director Kenneth Chia, 38.

But since the company engaged the help of Intelli-Signage, it "no longer needed the manpower to observe and upload".

The digital signage does more than just display advertisements and information. Developed by Anewtech Systems, it combines a touchscreen system with an age and gender recognition system, content design software, remote management and data analytics to gather information on consumers and target the right commercial.

Intelli-Signage was the brainchild of Anewtech after it set up its R&D software development team to look at retail application 11 years ago.

"The main focus is data analytics. We wanted to capture the profiles of customers looking at the content of the signage," Anewtech managing director Terence Teo, 51, said.

Its gender and age recognition system, developed by A*Star's Institute for Infocomm Research, has a webcam that has an 80 per cent accuracy rate in determining the viewers' gender and age by scanning facial features and structure, and then targeting the right advertisements in just seconds.

TheSeafoodCompany was able to adopt the digital signage under the Manpower Ministry's Lean Enterprise Development (LED) scheme, which aims to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) transform and grow.

The scheme is open to SMEs that are interested to become more manpower-lean, develop a strong Singaporean core, and build a quality workforce. Priority will be given to projects which have the potential to create transformational change for their respective industries. Proposals which involve groups of companies and/or are endorsed by the relevant industry association or union will also be given priority.

The SMEs could tap on existing assistance schemes, such as the Capability Development Grant by SPRING Singapore, SMEs Go Digital by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Inclusive Growth Programme by NTUC-e2i, to support its upgrading efforts.

Under the LED scheme, companies can apply for transitional foreign manpower support to implement projects.

A LED symposium, themed Transform and Grow - Towards Lean Industries, will be held on Nov 17 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel to offer a platform for SMEs to learn from successful stories to drive business growth through the adoption of technology and manpower-lean initiatives.

Mr Teo said there is a lot of digital signage (TV screen) in the malls now but about nine in 10 of these screens do not have any data analytic capability, which means they do not know who is looking at the content and how effective their campaign is. In the end, it is very hard to measure the efficiency of their campaign.

"With our system, retailers, F&B owners and service providers have a guideline on who is looking at what and how efficient their programmers are," he said.

Mr Teo added that most retail businesses run marketing campaigns where collaterals cost up to S$450 each, but his clients only have to pay a one-time fee of about S$3,000 under SPRING Singapore's collaborative industry projects initiative that supports up to 70 per cent the costs of pre-qualified readily adoptable solutions.

The fee includes a 42-inch touchscreen system, cloud-based remote management platform setup, consultation, training, a laptop and content design software.

"For TheSeafoodCompany, we deployed two units, one in their customer outlet at the Shokuhin Japanese Supermarket in Marina Square for a six-month period between February and August, and the other unit in their own retail outlet in Defu Lane for their own Chinese New Year bazaar sales," he said.

Mr Chia added that with Intelli-Signage TheSeafoodCompany is able to push its products and decide where to launch its sales "at a much lower marketing cost".

LED SYMPOSIUM 2017

Find out how you can benefit from the LED Scheme at the LED Symposium 2017, on Nov 17. Themed "Transform and Grow - Towards Lean Industries", it is a platform for small and medium-sized enterprises to learn from success stories and to drive growth by adopting technology and manpower-lean initiatives. Register now at www.mom.gov.sg/leds. Admission is free.

Brought to you by LED Taskforce