ISMI works on in-store media measurement

As we talked about several months ago, it seems that the In-Store Marketing Institute has been working with P&G, Wal-Mart and a host of other major retailers and CPGs to measure the impact that in-store marketing has on consumers. As the article notes, the drive to find a common way of measuring and reporting this influence is expected to bring retail media up to snuff with other "measurable" media like TV, radio and print:

The measurement model predicts consumer reach by category or area of the store, by retail format, and by day of the week, delivering unprecedented insight into the store as a marketing channel.

The model could prove to be a watershed event for the marketing world, because it allows the store to be compared alongside television, radio and other forms of mass media for its ability to deliver consumer reach. In effect, it could do for the store what the measurement of gross ratings points (GRP) did for television.

While in-store marketing has long been an element of the consumer marketing mix, its potential value as a brand-building vehicle has never been objectively assessed, largely because there hasn't been a way to accurately measure the total reach of a campaign conducted at retail. By establishing a common metric that can be understood by both brand marketers and retailers, this model can eliminate that obstacle.

While the debate about how to actually measure in-store media will likely continue for some time, the approaches taken by the ISMI, POPAI and other groups indicates that a new wealth of data, tools and metrics should become available soon.

Visualstore contemplates the in-store digital media channel

Visualstore, a site typically more devoted to store fixtures and visual design/merchandising, wrote an article a few weeks ago about retailers "taking the plunge" into the world of digital merchandising. Digital signage, interactive kiosks, in-store audio networks and eye-catching visual effects are all discussed in enough detail to be interesting for those of us already familiar with these things, yet enough background info to be accessible to traditional merchandising specialists. As they note, though, there are challenges that come along with the perceived benefits of digital systems:

Is it all a panacea, without challenges? Is anything?!? Hope Remoundos, senior vp of sales and marketing at the Hudson News Co., has just installed a digital media program in her stores. She says delivering content to the stores has been difficult. The installer has been known to mount the satellite dish on the roof aimed the wrong way. And the plasma screen manufacturer's orders have gotten hung up in shipping. But she likes the fact that she controls all of the content from her home office in North Bergen, N.J., so she can test it in her test lab on site. She also sees that customers like interactive motion displays, so the company is getting ready to install its first interactive floor projection logos now.

Overall, VS seems to have quite an positive impression on the impact of digital media on store design and performance.

CircuitCity testing digital signage in store floors

I'm still not completely sold on floor-based digital signage, but CircuitCity seems bullish enough on the concept to give it a try. As Mediacaster Magazine tells us:

IntelliMats, LLC is launching pilot program with The Source By Circuit City to put digital video signage display mats in stores in the Toronto area.

IntelliMat is a patented, portable dynamic floor display that delivers digital advertising and informational messages - at the point of decision.

According to Steve Pappas, president of InterTAN, the pilot program will test consumer attraction to the mats in Canadian malls and the appropriate messages at the critical point of entry to the store. "We fully expect the mats will catch customers' attention as they approach the store, which is a key time to increase awareness of our products and services," Pappas said.

The IntelliMat is a wireless computer embedded in a thin mat made of a lightweight thermoplastic alloy. With four LCD screens, it creates a 30-inch diagonal display with full multi-media capability. Translation: lots of color, motion and sound from a high quality video display--right at your feet, right in the store and right at the point where purchase decisions are made. The engaging video display can be seen clearly from more than 10 feet away.

I can't say that my point of decision is precisely when I'm looking down at my feet while standing in front of the aisle of products I'm going to browse, but like other digital signage offerings IntelliMats attempts to engage the customer as close to the first moment of truth as possible. We'll certainly be curious to hear the results.

McDonalds tries digital menuboards in the Philippines

We've all seen them here and there... digital signs being used to bring moving content to otherwise static menuboards at many quick serve restaurants (QSRs). While none of the big guys have yet decided to introduce these devices throughout their enterprise, a number of franchisees of McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC and many other restaurants have deployed in smaller numbers.

Today it looks like we'll continue that trend, as Globaltronics Inc will be deploying Scala-powered digital menuboards to 118 locations in the Philippines, "to enhance the store experience and strengthen McDonald’s branding exercise by keeping customers informed, entertained and educated with visually rich content. The signage network was also aimed to enhance the customer shopping experience in addition to ensuring a focused message is delivered to its intended audience."

You can read the full press release here.

UK university testing BluScreen bluetooth-enabled digital signage

The New Scientist (admittedly not one of the publications I usually turn to for digital signage news and information) is carrying this interesting story on an experiment being run at the school of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University in the UK. Much like a regular digital sign, screens set up in the building can display different types of multimedia content and combine pre-stored and live information to create a dynamic and engaging presentation. However, the real fun happens when people whip out their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones:

The display detects the presence of devices fitted with Bluetooth wireless transmitters carried by people walking past, such as cellphones and PDAs. Software agents then "bid" against one another to determine which adverts are then shown to those viewers....

If more than one person is standing in front of the screen, however, the system must try to choose material seen by as few of the current audience as possible.

It does so using software "agents" to represent different adverts. These agents have a fixed advertising budget and bid against each other depending on the number of new exposures their advert is likely to get. Greater exposure results in higher bids and the agent that bids the highest wins.

That's certainly an interesting way to get viewers more invested in the screen and its content. Nike and R/GA have previously tried a similar concept on a bigger scale (literally, using the JumboTron in Times Square), and had very encouraging results, so I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of technology make its way into more traditional digital signage applications in the future.

IntelliMats to test in-floor digital signs

We've seen companies test floor-mounted digital signs before, so this should come as nothing new:

IntelliMats, LLC announced today it will launch a cooperative pilot program with The Source By Circuit City to place its digital video signage display mats in stores in the Toronto area.

According to Steve Pappas, president of InterTAN, the pilot program will test consumer attraction to the mats in Canadian malls and the appropriate messages at the critical point of entry to the store. "We fully expect the mats will catch customers' attention as they approach the store, which is a key time to increase awareness of our products and services," Pappas said.

The IntelliMat(R) is a wireless computer embedded in a thin mat made of a lightweight thermoplastic alloy. With four LCD screens, it creates a 30-inch diagonal display with full multi-media capability. Translation: lots of color, motion and sound from a high quality video display--right at your feet, right in the store and right at the point where purchase decisions are made. The engaging video display can be seen clearly from more than 10 feet away.

"Earlier U.S. retail pilot programs showed that more than 90 percent of customers are drawn to the mat," said Jim Currie, president and CEO of IntelliMats. "Through in-store customer interviews, IntelliMats also learned the majority of customers thought the mat enhanced the store environment and found the messages helpful to their purchase decisions.

I'm not sure where the IntelliMat folks got that data, but I'd love to see it.

IdeaCast to launch in-gym narrowcast network

AdWeek tells us that, "[f]ormer ad agency executive Fred Smith is launching a media company called IdeaCast that will target consumers as they work out at their health clubs. Smith and his backers have spent $15 million securing programming rights from networks including CNN, CNBC and ESPN, and deploying reception equipment in participating venues." While more like a cable TV station (and thus slightly less like a true digital signage system), the network is unique in that it is securing massive amounts of commercial content and rights to redistribute it to a very targeted set of locations. The group claims that when it goes live later this month, it will be in enough high-end gyms to reach 1,000,000 viewers each day. While I know that I'm usually listening to my iPod or staring off into space when I'm at the gym, it's hard to look around and not at least glimpse a TV somewhere, and for just that brief period of time, you technically would be watching it.

Still, it remains to be seen how effective an out-of-home media channel can be when it's far away (both logistically and conceptually) from the actual point of purchase. Smith and his backers seem pretty confident, though, having plunked down a lot of money to see this network get off the ground.

ScreenFX buys POPTV

ScreenFX, UK digital signage company and operator of the MallFX, TrainFX, HealthFX, BigFX and LiveFX advertising services, announced that it has bought screen media sales company POPtv to boost ad sales on its 3,000+ screen network. While there's not much detail, AVInteractive has a short article on the acquisiton here, and the actual ScreenFX press release is here. A brief clip:

ScreenFX plc (AIM: SFX), the digital advertising and communications specialist, today announces the acquisition of POPtv Limited (“POPtv”), an independent media sales company representing screen media in shopping malls, health and retail environments, for a total consideration of £75,000, together with a management earn-out linked to gross profit over the next four years. Independently owned POPtv, which stands for ‘Point of Purchase’ TV, had a turnover of £1.2 million at 31 March 2006. All POPtv senior management will remain in position.

Since the company is publicly traded, we should be able to tell whether this purchase had a positive impact some time in the next few quarters.

Tags: digital signage, in-store TV, POP displays, retail TV

Secured Digital to invest in through-glass touch screen maker Kioskmedia

From this press release:

Secured Digital Applications, Inc. (OTCBB:SDGL) today announced that it had executed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in a joint venture agreement with Kioskmedia, Sdn Bhd, a leading provider of free-standing, interactive displays and kiosks in Southeast Asia.

Secured Digital, a global media production company, will hold 75 percent of a new joint venture company to which Kioskmedia will contribute its assets and existing contracts. Kioskmedia has developed and installed interactive kiosks and free-standing interactive displays in six countries in Southeast Asia and Europe.

Secured Digital and Kioskmedia will jointly develop and market a new line of interactive display products in Asia that utilize through-glass technology and free-standing digital signage. The joint venture will also provide a network of free-standing payment kiosks, which are popular in Asia.

Secured Digital will inject $450,000 for its 75% stake in the joint venture company. The venture is projected to generate $600,000 income during its first year of operations.

Of course, through-glass technology is what powered the remarkably successful technology demo at the Ralph Lauren Polo store in NYC this year, so as the price becomes more affordable I'd certainly expect to see more retailers experiment with it, simply for the "wow" factor.


Tags: digital signage, at-retail media, touch screens, kiosks

Avocent announces point-to-multipoint HD extender

Here's something for all those people wanting to show the same channel of high-definition content across multiple screens in a digital signage network (in the same physical location, of course): their HD extender will let one source signal repeat to multiple endpoint destinations, supposedly running all the way up to 1080i resolution. From the press release:

The Avocent Emerge MPX1000 HD multipoint extender includes a transmitter and receiver that provide feature rich, high-definition media support for use in professional audio-visual applications. The Emerge MPX1000 extension product extends video and audio over standard 10/100 Ethernet wiring up to 3000 feet and wirelessly through walls up to 150 feet, or up to 1000 feet line of sight with optional directional antenna. Audio-video synchronization is maintained at each display and all wirelessly connected receivers remain in lock step with each other. The Avocent MPX1000 HD multipoint extender has interchangeable modules for input of analog VGA signals or digital HDMI/DVI signals. The Avocent MPX1000 HD multipoint extender solution provides two primary user interfaces: an intuitive menu system that lets you access multiple web pages and a front panel display to control and configure the system. The extender also allows for several methods to control external A/V equipment through RS-232 serial and infrared connections.

While I'd be extremely excited to see this thing work, our past experiments with video-over-wireless have not worked too well, with frequent quality and interference issues. Additionally, some products in the past that have claimed to do real HD have actually downsampled the video only to re-upsample it later.

UnoLink launches digital menu boards in Latin America

This press release at PRWeb notes that UnoLink and Scala have partnered to deploy a product called VideoMenu, which, as you may have guessed, is a digital menuboard system, to 24 Cines Unidos movie theaters throughout Venezuela.

Scala and UnoLink cite the usual advantages of digital menu board systems, including centralized price control, the ability to perform real-time pricing experiments, and of course the ability to impart motion to otherwise static graphics on the menus.

EZ Show to roll out... something

As I mentioned just a few months ago, EZ Show, the company who's still a few screens short of it's self-stated goal of 10,000, may actually be deploying a network now. According to this article at aka.tv, "EZ Show Network is rolling out a 393-location digital-signage network to Follett Higher Education Group university and college bookstores across the U.S., set to eventually reach 71m customers annually. The first stage of the rollout, involving 253 screens in 193 stores, began mid-August, and the second stage will add a further 200 stores."

So from the sounds of it, this should be verifiable. If true, the ability to reach an audience of 71 million could be quite noteworthy. While the news carries a bit more weight coming from aka.tv, there have been innumerable networks that were "pre-announced" and never quite came to fruition.