Branding And Retail News | Carmanah Signs

The 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede!

Friday, April 27th, 2012

With the recent record setting sell-out for the Garth Brooks concert slated for Thursday July 12, 2012 during this years Calgary Stampede, I am again reminded how much emphasis is being placed on this years events (by the way, the concert sold out in a record setting 58 seconds!). 2012 marks the 100th anniversary for the Calgary Stampede and as such has garnered huge publicity. It’s got to be pretty big to be able to have an entertainer such as Garth Brooks to perform when he is essentially retired, to come to our little corner of the world to perform.

The Calgary Stampede is a world renowned event which takes place every year and draws people from around the world to experience what we like to claim as “The Greatest Show on Earth”. From the thrill of the chuckwagon races to the excitement on the midway, there is nothing else in the world that compares.

Canadians and especially we Calgarians, are known for our hospitality and as such we welcome all those planning to visit our fine city and know you’ll have an experience like no other.

Carmanah Signs in conjunction with a local design firm have recently revamped a display set up for arrival passengers at the Calgary International Airport. The display consists of numerous EvenLit™ LED illuminated light panels each with a high quality digitally printed image. The images depict not only the history of the Calgary Stampede, but also include images of what our fine city looked like during that time. The images are quite exceptional in quality and subject matter, it’s definitely worth a trip to view them.

Carmanah Signs was chosen as a supplier based on our superior LED illuminated light panel quality and how well they perform. When dealing with larger LED illuminated light panels, even illumination across the entire surface can be a concern. Through Carmanah’s commitment to quality and product development, we are able to supply consumers a product which meets and usually exceeds their expectations.

We hope to see you if you plan on visiting our fair city for the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede and if not this year any year will do. It’s always a hoot!

Happy Stampeding and a great big YAHOO from all of us here at Carmanah Signs.

Categories : Branding and Retail News, General, LED EvenLit Light Panels

Many Solutions to Retail Lottery Sign Needs

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Carmanah Signs is fortunate to have relationships with European, and North and South American Lottery organizations as well as the many of the major vendors who work on behalf of the state lottery organizations. We have found that the deeper the relationships, the better we can provide the industry with industry leading LED illuminated signage. Our product mix now includes traditional point-of-sale edge lit signs, EvenLit™ Light Panels, wirelessly updateable LCD Sign, and the tremendously successful wirelessly-updateable LED illuminated jackpot sign.

Our traditional LED-illuminated edge lit signage has been used by Lotteries for over a decade as an effective means to bring attention to store fronts and kiosks – letting players know that lottery products are available at a vendor. These point of sale LED signs have also been used to promote the latest game available. Feedback from our lottery customers is clear: locations that were selected to receive a sign showed an increase in traffic to the store and a commensurate increase on lottery jackpot game and scratch ticket sales.

Our line of LED illuminated EvenLit™ Light Panels – which initially had been bought by Retailer, Brand and Casino gaming customers – did eventually start to find an interest with Lotteries about 4 years ago. Offered several standard as well as practically any customs size as well as double sided for windows, Lotteries took advantage of the benefit to being able to update the graphic with new graphic images (for renewed branding or specific game initiatives) with relative ease across the entire install base. Carmanah’s EvenLit product line is differentiated by the use of technology provides very even light distribution across the entire visual surface and we have received a number of repeat orders of this product line due to its brightness and presence in the retail setting.

The recent record Mega Millions jackpot in the United States haa again fueled requests for the LED illuminated wirelessly updateable jackpot signage. Carmanah is the dominant global supplier of this type of wirelessly-controlled LED signage. Lottery customers appreciate the esthetically pleasing design, changeable graphics and bright window call to action.

In addition, Carmanah has integrated a modularity function to these signs not only for mounting applications, but also for future additions to the current signs in the field. This has proven to a winning factor on not only allowing flexibility in mounting locations, but also the ability to add signage when budgetary means are available.

The robust wireless technology is also a major point of satisfaction. Carmanah’s engineers designed the entire wireless system themselves and these very designs are the ones that provide the customer training and field support. The signs help ensure that the correct jackpot is always displayed prominently, reminding both regular and occasional players of the jackpot opportunity. We understand that these lottery signs have proven to increase sales by a significant margin.

For those of you in the Lottery industry, thank you for the opportunity to serve and please let us know about your ongoing signage and communication needs.

Categories : Branding and Retail News, Lottery News

Spring Is In The Air and Summer Is Just Around The Corner

Friday, April 13th, 2012

Spring is in the air and summer is just around the corner: it’s time to fill one of Carmanah’s custom LED illuminated ice tubs with ice and stock it with your favorite beverage.

The beverage and event marketing campaigns must be ramping up as we have experienced a seasonal resurgence of interest in our acrylic LED illuminated edge lit beverage tubs. Past sales experience has shown that this unique product is effective and functional means for displaying brand logos at events, lending a classy vibe to an experience, while reinforcing the visual appeal of the beverage logo. The Carmanah Ice Tub, as it is sometimes referred to, is often adopted by beverage producing clients throughout North America and parts of South America not just for event marketing but also for their brand’s distributor and direct-to-consumer catalogues.

Besides the beer industry, our LED-lit beverage tub has also been successfully used by manufacturers of energy drinks, champagne and other alcohol and non-alcoholic beverage brands for tradeshows, event sponsorships, trade rewards and sales rewards. The tubs have also become a fixture in top level bars, restaurants and night clubs. We occasionally run into one in our social lives and work lives in both the USA and Canada.

The Carmanah ice tub can be used indoors and outdoors. To ensure the tubs meet or exceed any and all local food safety standards, Carmanah uses only food service grade plastic inserts as a container to store the beverages and the ice. This extra investment has been a huge factor in this products success with the larger brands, since they want to ensure the product meets industry standard for a hygienic environment for their clients and customers – this feature, along with top grade LED illumination, surpasses others on the market.

Enjoy your spring and summer, and keep those drinks cool and chilled with a custom designed Carmanah ice tub!

Categories : Branding and Retail News, General

EvenLit™ Light Panels Meet Retailer’s Custom Sign Needs

Monday, March 12th, 2012

In its efforts to enhance its retail communications and the attractiveness of its retail environment, a major global retailer has again enlisted the services of Carmanah Signs to manufacture EvenLit™ LED illuminated Light Panels complete with digital prints.

Each of these LED-lit signs is a custom size to meet a unique retail architectural need and includes a high quality digital print. The retailer was able to specify the size of light panels to match existing fixturing, a real benefit versus having to utilize standard issue sizes which may not be compatible with the retail designer’s vision.

The functionality of LED Light Panels has been a major factor in their growing presence in the retail sector. LED illuminated Light Panels are an attractive way to illuminate retail messages and images and have the additional benefits of energy efficiency and low maintenance costs.

Carmanah Signs offers a line of LED illuminated light panels under the trademark name EvenLit™ that are sleek and slim in profile, have high efficient LED illumination, and include elegant finishes and the option of custom sizes. They are available in either single sided or double sided formats.

Account manager Richard Brown, who supports this specific global retailer, stresses that Carmanah Signs’ corporate culture is to find ways to meet the demanding needs of large retailers like this one. “We are in a very competitive market and it is the attention to the details that can set us apart. This customer is demanding but the work is fun and it has taught us how to better serve the big box retailer customer segment. I work to provide them with the best and most innovative LED illuminated indoor signage on the market”.

Categories : Branding and Retail News

Lottery Jackpot Signs Improve Ticket Sales and Allow for Branding Flexibility

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Carmanah Signs Inc. continues to develop and improve its sign offerings to the Lottery industry worldwide. Since the late 1990s, Carmanah Signs has offered a wide range of LED edge lit lottery signs to help convey their message to their customers. Products that we have supplied to the Lotteries include traditional edgelit signs, wirelessly updateable jackpot signs, illuminated light panels, programmable scrolling message centers, and our most recent sign, a programmable LCD display. All Carmanah sign products are illuminated with high efficiency, long life LEDs.

Our current LED edge lit wirelessly-updateable jackpot signs for the lotteries have been developed to provide maximum visual marketing impact, increased update flexibility, and ease of set up in the field. Carmanah’s design team has worked to provide a complete packaged solution to our customers, including IT and install training, so that lottery operations and marketing groups can be confident that lotto jackpots are instantaneously updated.

Deployment of Carmanah’s lottery jackpot sign by several lottery agencies in the United States has resulted in a significant increase in lottery ticket retail sales since the installation. The flexibility of Carmanah’s lottery jackpot sign designs allow our customers to add jackpots in the future, facilitating the seamless addition of new jackpot games to existing single, double, and or triple game jackpot signs.

In addition to being able to advertise multiple games, Carmanah’s wireless updateable jackpot signs have been developed with changeable front graphics. The intent is that, as a lottery’s marketing concepts, graphics, and advertising campaigns change, the lottery jackpot signs can be updated at minimal cost and with little effort. The LED backlit illuminated plates on the front of our jackpot signs are designed to be easily updated and replaced in the field.

For example, recently Carmanah Signs was asked to supply digitally-printed replacement graphic front plates to a US-based lottery customer who had previously been supplied LED illuminated double jackpot signs. The customer had updated their brand’s graphical elements and chose to have Carmanah supply the new version of the graphic front plates. It was exciting to see this flexible design feature make a difference to one of our customers. Carmanah Signs looks forward to providing continuously improved sign products to our Lottery customer base, in order to help them provide money for their Good Causes.