Top Display Technology

Costa Coffee is one of the most recognisable brands on the UK high street, often referred to as the Nation’s favourite coffee shop. For over 50 years, they have been committed to providing the finest quality coffee, from their first store in London in 1971 to over 3,800 stores in 32 countries in 2023. Costa was looking to undergo a digital transformation in their UK stores, moving away from traditional printed menus and posters to digital signage screens.

Challenges

Costa was using traditional static signage, such as promotional posters, in their stores to advertise products and seasonal offers to customers. They were facing several challenges with this approach:

• Slow to update promotional materials when a new offer was available due to the timescales for printing, followed by the logistics involved with changing the signage across a large chain of stores
• Changing signage was a high-cost exercise, combining the cost of printing and the cost of resources to physically remove and install the signs
• Printing new signage regularly generates waste and impacts Costa’s carbon footprint and path to Net Zero

Solution

• 400 x 43″ Muro Double-Sided Window Displays

Costa required high-brightness displays for their storefront windows which were double-sided to attract passersby into their coffee shops and serve adverts to customers once inside. The content on the outward-facing display is easily readable in sunlight with a high brightness rating of 700 cd/m².

The screens are mounted to hang from the ceiling to maximise floor space. With a dual-screen thickness of only 2.5 cm, the displays have a slim profile comparable to that of a single-sided screen.

The display frame colour needed to match the brand design palette present across Costa stores. We manufactured the screens using a custom RAL colour to meet their aesthetics.

Costa’s existing digital signage software runs flawlessly on the screens using the Android SOC that was pre-configured to the specification required, reducing the deployment set-up time.

Due to the nature of the large roll-out, we had to successfully manage and hold stock to plan with store installation plans.