Walmart decides not to continue with PRISM media measurement

From the "surprise, surprise" department...

Walmart has concluded that, while Nielsen's initial run of PRISM measurements were useful enough to generate some customer insights, they won't be continuing with the program in 2009. As AdAge reports:

"Walmart was pleased with the insights they gleaned" from the PRISM pilot but decided not to participate in the national syndicated service "consistent with their internal data-sharing policies." To participate in the pilot, Walmart last year partially lifted a ban that had been in place since 2001 on sharing sales data with syndicators such as Nielsen and Information Resources Inc.

Other major backers of the research effort, including Target, Kroger, P&G, Unilever and Kraft, are still planning to push the service in the coming year, but Walmart accounts for a large portion of overall shopping dollars, so having them out of the research pool isn't going to be good news for anybody hoping to purchase Nielsen PRISM data to get a better idea for what's going on inside of the retail giant.

In addition to being compliant with Walmart's own regulations about sharing data with syndicators like Nielsen, continuing with PRISM probably would have meant duplicating some work between that effort and their own in-store measurement practices, which are slated to use DS-IQ as part of their new Walmart Smart network of digital signs.

At this point, I wonder whether Walmart never really intended to go forward with PRISM, but was merely using that program as a way to verify that their own DS-IQ data was accurate. I bet Nielsen made them a good deal in order to get them on board in the first place, so for Walmart it would have been a relatively low-cost way of getting a top-notch research firm to qualify their competing offering.

Pretty sneaky, eh?

Tags: digital signage, walmart, media measurement

Walmart to air voting PSA on their network

On the heels of yesterday's story about the Ad Council looking for more digital out-of-home networks to air their commercials for mass-transit systems comes this press release indicating that Walmart will be putting their network to good use soon enough too:

As part of an ongoing effort to engage its customers and associates, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) will begin a voter registration campaign with public service announcements (PSAs) on its in-store television network later this month to encourage 136 million weekly customers and 1.4 million U.S. associates to register and vote in the November elections.

The campaign will include two, 15-second PSAs that will encourage viewers to register to vote and cast their ballots in the upcoming election. The PSAs will run in stores through Election Day.

The company will also launch a voter registration portal on its corporate website beginning today, and feature posters with voter registration information at nearly 600 Sam's Club U.S. locations.

Over the years I've seen the Walmart network run local emergency information pending hurricanes and tornadoes, and I've even seen spots focusing on community businesses and organizations. But this is the first time that I'm aware of that the retail giant has used their in-store TV network to help rock the vote. It makes perfect sense, of course - a huge percentage of people shop at a Walmart every week, but one has to wonder what's in it for the big W? The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if they determined that the audience most likely to see these in-store ads might vote for Walmart's preferred candidate.

On a related note, is it still Wal-Mart, or is it Walmart? I saw a news release a few weeks ago indicating that the company was switching to the second variant there, but today's press release still uses the older, hyphenated style? Which one is it?

Tags: digital signage, out-of-home advertising, walmart

Walmart to roll out 2nd generation digital signage network with PRN and others

There has been much speculation about what (if anything) Walmart was planning to do with their in-store TV network, which has been more or less the same for quite a few years now. Some suspected they would in-house network and media operations. Others thought they would continue to let PRN operate it, much as they had before. Today it looks like the cat's out of the bag:

Custom programming on the new network will be provided by Studio2, a newly formed company led by key advertising executives who are experts in in-store communications and were involved in the development and testing of the new network.

Network operations, implementation, advertising sales and HDTV wall programming will be provided by Thomson's Premier Retail Networks (PRN), Walmart's current partner for these services.

Response measurement, learning, and message optimization technologies will be provided by DS-IQ, which supplied analytical insights for the network pilot last year.

PRN's involvement on the network end isn't surprising, since they have a rather low-cost means of getting content to lots of screens, and all of the usual best-of-breed content delivery features. However, Walmart decided to split the content part out into an entirely new company, which I think is pretty remarkable. While we've long felt that there are very few -- if, in fact any -- digital out of home agencies out there right now, it would seem that Walmart has not only agreed, but decided to take matters into their own hands (in a way that really only they can). I would more than expect that they'll take on other clients besides Walmart, which will probably result in a bunch of new best practices for digital signage content floating out there. Here's hoping that we see some additional validation of our own findings :)

Also noteworthy is DS-IQ's involvement. Needless to say, this is a HUGE deal for the company and their technology.

What I'm still waiting to hear is what, if any, role Saatchi X -- another entity essentially formed at Walmart's demand -- will play. After all, they're supposedly THE expert group when it comes to marketing at-retail, and we know they already spend a good deal of time poking around in Walmart stores on behalf of their biggest client.

I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this network in the news, and of course lots of people will be out there watching the roll out as it starts up in September.

Tags: digital signage, walmart, prn

PRN taking over the Walmart Mexico network

Long known for their work in the US Walmart stores (as an aside - does anybody else think that 'Walmart' just looks weird after writing 'Wal-Mart' for so many years?), PRN announced last week that they would be taking over the operation of the firm's in-store TV network in Mexico, which was originally installed and managed by Spanish language media company Televisa S.A. de C.V. As the press release they put out notes:

PRN now operates and manages the largest in-store media network in Mexico, which is currently installed in 287 large-format Walmart Supercenter stores. The system features large plasma screens in select areas within the store and 19-inch flat-panel LCD screens at checkout lanes and waiting areas. The Walmart network is driven by two channels with displays and programs specifically designed for each location within the store. The storewide channel, positioned at the traffic hot spots in the main alleys guides shoppers and informs them of products sold in the store, encouraging cross-shopping via short and targeted messages. The waiting area channel enables shoppers to watch entertaining and informative content to reduce perceived wait time while they are in line at checkout and service areas. The waiting area channel broadcasts longer messages to provide more detail to the shopper about products and services.

PRN has a group in Mexico dedicated to building the content for the network -- long gone are the days of merely repurposing plain old TV commercials. These guys know what works and what doesn't, and aren't afriad to invest in the time and manpower to do it right. Of course, that won't stop them from sourcing "high-quality branded content from a variety of areas to enrich the Walmart in-store media network," much as is done in the states.

To answer the other question you have on your minds (and to hopefully stop the influx of phone calls and emails I've been getting about it), yes, Walmart Mexico is still a WireSpring client.

Tags: walmart, prn, digital signage, wirespring