PNC Uses Windows to Deliver Ads And Coupons to C-Store ATMs

The advent of ATMs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system is making it easier for banks, retailers, and other machine deployers to add revenue-generating features to the machines, including advertising. PNC Corp., a Pittsburgh-based bank, has found success in introducing advertising and couponing capability as it swaps out older ATMs for new, Windows-based machines at two convenience-store chains, a bank executive says. “Customer-focused, in-store advertising can take off with this new technology,” said Shelly M. Chandler, vice president of self-service banking at PNC, during a presentation this week at ATMIA East, an annual trade show of the ATM Industry Association. PNC has about 700 ATMs at Wawa Inc. stores and another 65 in Thorntons Inc. outlets. The former is a Wawa, Pa.-based chain of 550 stores covering five Eastern states, while Thornton is a Louisville, Ky.-based, 150-store chain in five Midwestern and Eastern states. About two-thirds of these machines are now running the Windows operating system, Chandler says, allowing the bank and the retailers to serve advertising to the ATM screens, relying on content-management software from First Data Corp. In addition, the machines can print bar-coded coupons on receipt paper that can be redeemed in the stores. Wawa clerks use scanners at the counters to read the coupons' bar codes, allowing the retailer to track usage. Thorntons is not yet equipped to read the bar codes, Chandler tells Digital Transactions News. The merchants have benefited from a lift in in-store sales from the ATM-generated coupons and advertised discounts, she told conference attendees. Though PNC has had ATMs at stores in both chains for the past 10 years, the conversion to Windows at the two stores began only about 18 months ago. The advertising, which features pitches for both the retailers and the bank, is apparently getting high exposure. In the case of the Wawa machines, she says, “the transaction volume at these ATMs is extremely high.” Now the bank and the chain are working on so-called day-part ads, in which the machines would feature different ads depending on the time of day. Since the machines are surcharge-free, incremental sales generated by the advertising helps augment the retailers' share of the machines' interchange income, she adds.