Paul’s Homemade Ice Cream runs on two things: consistency and personality. The menu needs to be identical whether you’re in Sandton or out in the Klein Karoo. But the in-store promotion running next to it? That’s supposed to feel local - this store’s got a waffle special on, that one’s pushing milkshakes, another’s running both.

TST Digital currently runs digital screens in 25 Paul’s stores and licensed in-store music in 13, with a third screen - a window-facing promotional display - now rolling out to every store nationwide. It’s one of South Africa’s fastest-growing ice cream franchises, spanning both major metros and small towns.

The challenge: one brand, two different update problems

Every Paul’s store runs two screens, and each one needed a completely different way of being managed:

  • The menu screen has to be identical, nationwide, updated once a month - including a new Flavour of the Month every 30 days. Updating that manually, store by store, across a national franchise isn’t just slow, it’s not realistic. It needs to go out everywhere at once, with one action.
  • The promotional screen is the opposite problem. It’s deliberately not the same everywhere - one store might be pushing milkshakes, another waffles, another both, depending on what’s working locally. That screen needs to be just as easy to update, but store-by-store, not all-at-once.

Most digital signage platforms are built for one of those two patterns. Paul’s needed both, running side by side, on the same account.

The solution: Bloom, configured two different ways

Both the menu and promotional screens are 55-inch commercial-grade displays, run through Bloom, TST Digital’s cloud content management platform - the difference is entirely in how each screen is configured, not the underlying platform.

  • The menu screens are set up for one-click, nationwide publishing. When the monthly menu (or the new Flavour of the Month) is ready, it goes out to all 25 stores at once - no store-by-store editing, no missed locations.
  • The promo screens are configured for per-store autonomy, so a specific store’s promotion can be swapped independently, without touching the other 24 stores’ screens.

That split - one dashboard, two entirely different update patterns - is what makes a national franchise rollout actually manageable day to day.

Licensed in-store music, matched to the brand

Alongside the screens, TST Digital runs fully licensed in-store music in 13 Paul’s locations, tuned to a genre that matches the brand - colourful, playful, disco-leaning, in keeping with Paul’s own personality. Rather than playing the identical track at the identical moment in every store, each location pulls from a large rotating playlist within that genre, so every store sounds like Paul’s without sounding like a loop.

Support that goes straight to the people who need it

One detail that matters more than it sounds: when something needs attention, individual franchisees contact TST Digital directly - not through Paul’s head office first. That keeps small issues small, and keeps Paul’s own team out of a support queue that was never meant to be theirs to manage.

Full turnkey for every new store

As Paul’s opens new franchise locations, TST Digital handles the complete build - screens and sound installed together as part of the launch, not added on afterward. One supplier for the hardware and the audio, from day one of a new store.

What’s next

TST Digital is currently rolling out a third screen - a window-facing promotional display - to every Paul’s store nationwide, extending the same store-level flexibility to the front window.