VideoFax and Muzak pact transforms fast food menu displays into audio-visual sales tools

Business Wire, Feb 5, 1997

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 1997--AAAA Media Conference, Booth 209--

`MenuVision Direct' Offered as a Profitable Solution to

Fast Food Point-of-Purchase Display

Fast food menu displays and site-based promotion are evolving into the digital world, thanks to a joint venture between VideoFax Systems and Muzak of Seattle announced today.

Fast food restaurants will soon be offered Muzak MenuVision Direct (MVD), part of the Vision Direct family of products. MVD is a premium service that distributes Dynamic Video Signage, combining standard point-of-purchase displays and other signage with the movement of video and audio capability. Instead of static menu display boards with flat photography, restaurant menu displays will come to life on eye-catching, flat screen LCD monitors with video clips and music to support in-house promotions and menu choices.

Muzak, the nation's largest privately held satellite communications company, is a leading provider of music, video, data, advertising and other services to thousands of subscribing businesses worldwide. The partnership with VideoFax will enable Muzak subscribers to receive timely, convenient and cost effective video services that meet a variety of today's business needs, including updated menu displays, product information and compelling promotional displays, all of which are designed to drive an increase in same store revenue. MVD will generate additional revenue for subscribers through new advertising sales possibilities. Additionally, Muzak customers will receive these incredible changes more effectively than standard duratran signs currently used industry-wide.

Muzak will use VideoFax signstation(TM), a complete line of multimedia-enriched communication software products, to broadcast audio and video signals to their subscribers, enabling the new advertising and menuing paradigm. The first MVD customer is expected to be announced beginning in Q2-97.

About MenuVision Direct

The addition of MVD to the current Muzak service makes this perhaps the most profit-driven method of wide-range advertising and communication available. Current signage is extremely static, generally uninteresting and costly to change. VideoFax and Muzak have teamed up with Clarity Visual Systems, a provider of large screen LCD projection monitors that are lighter, smaller and easier to set up than any other monitor solution, to provide an eye-catching video display that is an ideal match for the deployment of signstation into the fast food restaurant market. This Dynamic Video Signage will capture the customer's attention at the point of purchase, influence their buying decision, and ultimately drive an increase in same store revenue. The benefits of MenuVision for Muzak subscribers include:

-- Replacement of stale, old technology with Dynamic Video

Signage, utilizing image, text and 16 bit-high color video;

-- Faster updates and greater flexibility with content changes

in menu displays and advertising messages;

-- Massive market penetration for advertising messages with

Muzak's 90,000 downlinks in fast food restaurants and retail

outlets.

"Our alliance with Muzak is setting a new trend for point of purchase marketing in fast food restaurants," commented Jack McDonald, president and CEO of VideoFax. "VideoFax and Muzak are using broadcast and satellite technology, along with signstation software to change the way advertising is delivered to the customer at the point of purchase. With this solution, a fast food restaurant can target its audience, by geography, demographics, and time of day. For example, using regional groupings along with day-parting, restaurants in the south can receive videos about their special on grits while at the same time, the New England states can receive video programming that features their regionally-famous clam chowder. Similarly, breakfast items will be displayed in the morning, lunch items in the afternoon and dinner specials in the evening."

"This joint venture represents the most logical and exciting combination of modern technology on the market today," stated Mark Frank, MVD Product Marketing Manager for Muzak. "It changes the way consumers will receive advertising messages in the retail marketplace, it creates new revenue streams where there were none and it makes for a more exciting advertising medium at a cost savings. VideoFax's desktop broadcasting solution was a perfect fit for Muzak's subscribers."

MenuVision Direct Applications

Muzak fast food subscribers who choose to implement MenuVision Direct will be the first to experience signstation's multimedia capabilities. Signstation opens up a window of opportunity for cross-promotional activity and joint licensing deals that have never been offered before. There is a large storage capacity for video on MenuVision Direct, allowing restaurants to import 15 seconds or 15 minutes of video clips. Some of the fast food applications for MVD include: