One of the largest travel retailers in North America, Hudson Group (Hudson) operates Tech on the Go for airport passengers to find everything to fulfill their tech-related needs. The stores feature leading brand names such as Belkin, Wicked, Bose, Monster, Bang Olafson, and Mophie.
Hudson’s flagship brand, Hudson News, offers travelers more than 700 magazine titles, and an extensive selection of newspapers and books, snacks, bottled beverages, candy, regional souvenirs, and a multitude of convenience store items are also on hand for a last-minute purchase.
Recently, the company opened a Tech on the Go and a Hudson News in the newly renovated Terminal B at Boston Logan International Airport (Logan).
Hudson knew they needed engaging visual technology to attract busy travelers and drive retail sales. Having experience with LED displays in other retail installations, Hudson recognized that this technology provides airport retail stores with a way to create a compelling passenger experience by upping the visual appeal.
Logan’s new $200 million Terminal B Optimization project now has a massive atrium with sunlight shining in the area and into the Tech on the Go store, requiring bright digital display technology that could compete with the ever-changing environmental lighting.
The Hudson News store has a lot of merchandise and very little wall space to mount an LED display. The team had to find a display solution that would work effectively within this compact area.
Hudson partnered with New York-based ComQi, a global leader that provides cloud-based shopper engagement technology, to design a system that would meet the stores’ physical requirements and the atrium’s changing weather and time of day. Having previously worked with Hudson on other airport locations, ComQi knew that LED displays would be the perfect solution to show engaging, seamless, high-resolution video.
ComQi turned to California-based Optec Displays, Inc., (Optec) to leverage their experience working in retail environments, including digital display merchandising integration. Optec’s knowledge of retail operations and experiential design made them an ideal display partner. As a digital display solutions provider, Optec designs, engineers, and manufactures LED displays to fulfill end-users’ many different installations.
For Tech on the Go, Optec proposed 2.6mm Opt-Slim to provide customers with an experience that is bright enough to overcome the atrium’s changing exterior illumination and the store’s windows. Mounted on the wall for travelers to immediately see when they walk in is a 4′ – 11″ x 8′ – 2 1/4″ LED display showing product information and promotions, live departures and arrivals data, weather reports and highly visual curated news and sports summaries.
Because of the physical constraints at Hudson News, Optec proposed installing two ultra-thin 2.5mm Opt-Posters. These are mounted on columns at the front of the store and run digital advertising promoting books and magazines, snacks and beverages, travel and convenience necessities, and local souvenirs.
Running on ComQi’s powerful digital signage content management system, Engage, content is delivered with “right time, right place” targeting to individual displays. Utilizing EnGage’s “Store Message Domination,” the content on the display and digital posters is synchronized on scheduled intervals to create visually dominant in-store messaging to help drive sales and promotions, as well as adding to the customer experience.
Hudson has expressed that they are pleased with the installation and Optec’s technology. Hudson’s use of LED displays is paving the way to advancing shopper engagement in the ever-changing world of airports and other travel hubs.
Optec’s array of LED products span high-growth markets from indoor spectaculars to outdoor displays. Our solutions work to give clients increased visibility and lasting value through our innovative products, services, and support.