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Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Interactive Digital Sound Station Gives Customers Ultimate Personalization

BABW-Digital-Hear-Me-0612Build-A-Bear Workshop, a retail store where children can customize and build teddy bears and other stuffed animals, is about friendship, fun and adventure. Creating a personalized furry friend includes a step where the person making the Build-A-Bear can give his or her friend a sound or voice. Traditionally, this involved choosing a pre-loaded sound from 16 drawer bins. Build-A-Bear Workshop set out to create a cool new interactive platform for delivering personalized sound allowing unlimited personalization. The company was looking for an experience that would resonate with its core demographic of digital natives.

INSTALLATION/VENUE: Build-A-Bear Workshop
PROVIDERS: Nanonation, Lincoln, Neb.; Voice Express, Westport, Conn.; Pierce Engineering

Build-A-Bear reports seeing an increase in sound sales especially in the song clip catagory that it has greatly enhanced on the digital platform.

CHALLENGES

Challenges included:

  • Limited retail floor space: The kiosk needed to operate in a small retail footprint.
  • Operational flow: The kiosk should not become a bottle-neck.
  • Inventory managment: Planning and allocation of sound is challenging, especially when sounds would run out or Build-A-Bear would have too many left over.
  • Time to market for audio: There were only two to three months to select a sound, load and ship it to the stores.
  • Wireless data transfer method: No low-cost method existed to wirelessly transfer sound data.

SOLUTIONS

To overcome the challenges, Build-A-Bear:

  • Designed a two-sided, free-standing fixture measuring two feet by three feet without sacrificing on experience (kiosk included a 32-inch HD Touchscreen, full stereo audio, interactive lighting, etc.)
  • Constructed the two-sided fixture to be on wheels so it is re-locatable and guest flow is addressed
  • Stocked one blank module so that it would never run out of sounds as a blank can be made into any desired sound/song clip/saying
  • Made the kiosk network connected so sound may be added or removed very quickly virtualy eliminating any time delay to market
  • Invented a new low-cost wireless transfer method eliminating the need for wires

RESULTS

As of Oct. 19, 2011, Build-A-Bear has 10 pilot store locations using the new digital sound station kiosk. Guests have responded very well to both the “cool” new technology as well as the improved sound selections available. The 32-inch HD touch screens are highly visible from outside of the stores and create interest, encouraging customers to enter the store. Build-A-Bear reports seeing an increase in sound sales especially in the song clip category that it has greatly enhanced on the digital platform.

This column was preprinted with permission from Digital Signage Connection and originally appeared here.

Build-A-Bear Workshop, a retail store where children can customize and build teddy bears and other stuffed animals, is about friendship, fun and adventure. Creating a personalized furry friend includes a step where the person making the Build-A-Bear can give his or her friend a sound or voice. Traditionally, this involved choosing a pre-loaded sound from 16 drawer bins. Build-A-Bear Workshop set out to create a cool new interactive platform for delivering personalized sound allowing unlimited personalization. The company was looking for an experience that would resonate with its core demographic of digital natives.

INSTALLATION/VENUE: Build-A-Bear Workshop
PROVIDERS: Nanonation, Lincoln, Neb.; Voice Express, Westport, Conn.; Pierce Engineering

Build-A-Bear reports seeing an increase in sound sales especially in the song clip catagory that it has greatly enhanced on the digital platform.

CHALLENGES

Challenges included:

  • Limited retail floor space: The kiosk needed to operate in a small retail footprint.
  • Operational flow: The kiosk should not become a bottle-neck.
  • Inventory managment: Planning and allocation of sound is challenging, especially when sounds would run out or Build-A-Bear would have too many left over.
  • Time to market for audio: There were only two to three months to select a sound, load and ship it to the stores.
  • Wireless data transfer method: No low-cost method existed to wirelessly transfer sound data.

SOLUTIONS

To overcome the challenges, Build-A-Bear:

  • Designed a two-sided, free-standing fixture measuring two feet by three feet without sacrificing on experience (kiosk included a 32-inch HD Touchscreen, full stereo audio, interactive lighting, etc.)
  • Constructed the two-sided fixture to be on wheels so it is re-locatable and guest flow is addressed
  • Stocked one blank module so that it would never run out of sounds as a blank can be made into any desired sound/song clip/saying
  • Made the kiosk network connected so sound may be added or removed very quickly virtualy eliminating any time delay to market
  • Invented a new low-cost wireless transfer method eliminating the need for wires

RESULTS

As of Oct. 19, 2011, Build-A-Bear has 10 pilot store locations using the new digital sound station kiosk. Guests have responded very well to both the “cool” new technology as well as the improved sound selections available. The 32-inch HD touch screens are highly visible from outside of the stores and create interest, encouraging customers to enter the store. Build-A-Bear reports seeing an increase in sound sales especially in the song clip category that it has greatly enhanced on the digital platform.

This column was preprinted with permission from Digital Signage Connection and originally appeared here.

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