Powering Global Internal Communications with Digital Signage at ZS 

ZS is a global professional services firm with over 13,000 employees across 40 offices on four continents.

Known for its data-driven approach to solving complex business challenges, ZS places a strong emphasis on internal culture, collaboration, and communication. As the company expanded its global footprint and adopted a hybrid work model, the need for a scalable, cohesive, and engaging multi-channel internal communications strategy became increasingly important.

Having used Poppulo’s email platform for five years, ZS saw an opportunity to consolidate platforms, bringing digital signage management under the same platform as its existing email platform, creating a complementary channel that could be used to reinforce key messages for employees on their days in the office. What began as Nicholas Burrage's—Senior Corporate Communications Associate and internal channel strategist at ZS—strategic approach to better inform and inspire a global workforce evolved into a technical partnership that helped transform how ZS communicates. Using the Poppulo platform and collaborating with their Customer Success team, ZS implemented a robust digital signage strategy that, alongside email, supports both global and local communications—highlighting key business priorities and company culture.

Poppulo has become a key channel in helping us inform and inspire our employees at scale. The partnership with their team has been instrumental in making that happen.” –Nicholas Burrage, Senior Corporate Communications Associate at ZS 

The Challenge

As ZS expanded its global footprint and managed the shift to hybrid work, the firm’s internal communications team found itself navigating a multifaceted challenge: how to create a unified communication approach that could seamlessly reach and engage employees regardless of their location or work environment, while also working to better integrate existing communication channels. ZS faced the delicate balancing act of delivering centralized, firm-wide communications while simultaneously allowing for more personalized local content across a variety of channels.

While ZS had successfully leveraged Poppulo's email platform for targeted, measurable internal communication—with the ability to personalize content and gain deep insights through analytics, it also had an incumbent digital signage platform the Internal Communications team managed. To simplify overall content management, ZS consolidated all email and digital signage management under the Poppulo platform. The firm’s aim was to create a more integrated, flexible, and effective internal communications technology ecosystem that could support its global operations while allowing for local customization and engagement.

Once onboard with Poppulo digital signage, Nicholas identified opportunities to leverage its functionality to bring added value to ZS. He proposed that by deploying a set of branded templates, expanding audience-targeting capabilities and implementing a champion program to better engage and re-educate local partners in each office, ZS could make its digital signage a more effective comms channel.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Nicholas developed a comprehensive digital signage strategy and partnered with Poppulo’s Customer Success team to implement it effectively. After multiple sessions where Nicholas outlined his strategic vision and goals for the program, he partnered with the team at Poppulo to focus on centralizing content management, empowering regional teams, improving branding consistency, and leveraging Poppulo’s advanced features to enhance targeting, improve relevance, and drive engagement. The partnership with Poppulo’s Customer Success team played a pivotal role in both the technical and strategic evolution of the channel. Today, ZS has 70 digital signs across its 40 offices, all managed centrally, but with the ability for location-specific content contribution.

Centralized Strategy with Local Flexibility

ZS adopted a top-down model for content management. A global playlist, managed by Nicholas, is updated weekly and pushed to all 70 screens. This playlist aligns with strategic messaging and firm priorities shared in the ZS internal newsletter—also powered by the Poppulo platform—ensuring consistency across communication channels. This approach ensures the most pressing internal communications content is highlighted on the firm’s digital signage, amplifying key content, and driving awareness for in-office employees. By aligning digital signage with Poppulo-powered email campaigns, ZS ensures key messages reach employees in multiple ways, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

“Each week, I look at the editorial calendar and decide which stories should go on digital signage,” Burrage said. “In this way, it’s a supplemental channel which reinforces messages our people are seeing across our ecosystem.”

This multi-channel communications approach enables the ZS team to maximize the reach and frequency of its key messages, driving engagement and awareness of the things the company needs its workforce to know. At the same time, local offices now have the option to manage their own playlists. 70% of offices now use local playlists to share updates on events, milestones, achievements, and other regional or site-specific information.

"We framed digital signage as an exciting opportunity for each office, not a mandate, so that they felt ownership without feeling burdened," says Burrage.

Training for Branding and Content Standards

To ensure consistency across the globe, Nicholas and his team developed a suite of branded templates and housed them on an intranet page dedicated to digital signage. The page also includes video tutorials and best practices, creating a self-serve model for local teams.

“We wanted to make sure the content looked professional and aligned with our brand,” Nicholas said. “Templates were a big part of that.”

Technical Improvements and Strategic Support

Upon taking over the digital signage program, Nicholas contacted Poppulo’s Customer Success team for help with implementing the governance strategy and providing technical best practices to ensure the company’s signage network was effective. This partnership was crucial, helping ZS troubleshoot technical issues and learn about advanced features like content targeting through labels.

Our partner on Poppulo’s Customer Success Team is the reason our digital signage is as effective as it is today. They helped us stabilize the platform and then showed us how to leverage advanced features to execute our strategic vision.” –Nicholas Burrage

With guidance from Poppulo’s experts, the team at ZS implemented a labeling system that allowed content to be targeted by region, country, or office. This eliminated the need to upload the same content to multiple playlists and enabled more personalized messaging. “Learning about labels was a game changer,” Nicholas said. “Now I can just add a label, and the content goes exactly where it needs to.”

The Results

The reinvigoration of ZS’s digital signage network—and the subsequent support provided to Nicholas and the Internal Communications team—has delivered significant value to ZS, both in terms of operational efficiency and employee engagement. Complementing the company’s other internal communications efforts, its digital signage now serves as a dynamic, multi-purpose communication channel that supports global alignment while celebrating local culture. The partnership with Poppulo has been central to this success, offering not just a tool, but a team committed to ZS’s long-term goals.

Improved Engagement and Visibility

ZS has seen clear signs of increased engagement with its digital signage program. Internal surveys have shown that more than 90% of employees feel they’re informed about the firm’s vision, strategy and business priorities—a testament that the company’s channel mix and overall internal communications strategy is working. Additionally, feedback on the content displayed on its signage network is frequent—indicating employees are paying attention. QR codes have proven particularly effective for time-sensitive communications like enrollment deadlines and event registrations, giving employees an easy way to take immediate action as they head to their next meeting or grab a coffee in the kitchen.

The growing success of digital signage has also sparked increased interest across offices, with requests to manage local playlists rising significantly over the past two years. Additionally, internal stakeholders proactively request content to be added, and leadership has embraced the platform as a key communication tool.

Our leaders love the digital signage. When they walk into an office and see their message on screens, it reinforces that we’re aligned, and everyone is informed.” –Nicholas Burrage

Scalable, Targeted Communication

The ability to target content by region or office has transformed how ZS communicates internally. What was once a one-size-fits-all channel is now a dynamic, personalized communications medium that reflects the diversity of ZS’s global workforce.

“Before, I had to update individual playlists with curated content that was relevant to one location,” Nicholas said. “Now, I can simply add everything to the global playlist and label it for only Japan, or only the Americas, or any other region.”

This targeting capability has reduced Nicholas's content management time by approximately 80%, while increasing content relevance across regions. What previously required managing content in separate playlists for each location now takes minutes rather than hours.

Cultural Impact and Local Empowerment

Digital signage has evolved to become a vital tool for building culture at ZS. Offices use it to celebrate heritage months, promote local events, and share employee success stories. In India, where ZS has four offices and a large employee base, a regional playlist was created to streamline content distribution.

“The India comms team was usually sharing the same content across all four offices, but it was four times as much work to upload separate playlists,” Nicholas said. “We built a regional playlist so they can do it once and target all four offices. It’s been a huge efficiency gain.”

In 2025, ZS took its digital signage strategy to the next level by live streaming its global all-hands meeting across all offices using Poppulo’s screen takeover feature. Supported by Poppulo’s Customer Success team, the initiative was a major success, once again proving the value provided by Poppulo’s approach to customer success, and Nicholas’ vision for innovating on how ZS leverages digital signage to reach its goals.

“It was a huge win,” Nicholas said. “We had offices hosting watch parties, and people loved it. It also sparked more interest in using local playlists, and we’re now getting more content ideas, which is incredible.”

The partnership between ZS and Poppulo exemplifies how strategic vision, combined with the right technology and dedicated implementation support, can transform internal communications on a global scale. With the support of the Poppulo Customer Success team, ZS’s email and digital signage channels have become a dynamic, strategic, and critical component of ZS’s overall internal comms program, inspiring and connecting employees across continents.