Walmart announces the first “shopper-intelligent network at retail” utilizing screens throughout the store, custom content, IPTV, and response measurement and message optimization technology from DS-IQ.

Walmart is the first retailer in the US to rollout a next generation retail media network that is supported by a flexible, open enterprise platform powered by Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) – technology that will allow the retailer to monitor and control more than 27,000 screens in more than 2700 stores across the country. The Walmart Smart Network will also deploy response measurement and message optimization technologies by DS-IQ to enable delivery of the most relevant content to shoppers - by store, by screen, by day and by time-of-day. All of the content on the Walmart Smart Network will be customized, designed to deliver helpful product information to consumers at the point of decision when and where they need it in the store.

DS-IQ enables retailers, brands, and programming groups to understand and improve the effectiveness and relevance of in-store digital media. DS-IQ partners with leading network providers and retailers to develop more shopper-centric communication systems utilizing DS-IQ measurement and optimization technologies.

DS-IQ provides,

• Response Measurement: Comprehensive, near real-time campaign performance, including granular brand and item sales impact analysis.
• Message Optimization: Technologies and capabilities to improve in-store media performance.
• In-store Media Advisory: Programs to guide strategy and design, in order to create in-store campaigns that achieve your goals.

Read the Walmart press release here.

Digital Signage Grabs, Engages, and Informs

A study released in 2008 by SeeSaw Networks, conducted by OTX, to better understand how digital out-of-home media can be used to reach mobile consumers, shows that digital signage advertising engages people, has high awareness, and is a compelling media that advertisers can use to effectively reach people with their message.

Importantly, says the report, digital signage advertising has stopping power. Sixty-three percent of adults say that it catches their attention, which is the highest level reported across all media surveyed, including TV, the Internet, billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio, and mobile phone advertising.

Read the rest of this entry »

LinkedIn has recently updated users groups with the following features,

Discussion forums:
Simple discussion spaces for you and your members.

Enhanced roster:
Searchable list of group members.

Digest emails:
Daily or weekly digests of new discussion topics which your members may choose to receive.

I’d like to ask everyone to share their questions/comments with the rest of the Digital Signage Audience Measurement group in the discussions forum. This will be a great way to share thoughts, ideas, and general comment on the various technologies.

(If your not already a member, click Join The Group)

With just the touch of a screen we’re already use to withdrawing our own money at an ATM, or checking ourselves “in” at the airport. Now window shopping just got pricier: Ralph Lauren launched a 24-hour interactive window in its stores, giving customers the opportunity to shop by touching a wide screen monitor from outside the store.

This retailer is taking this touch screen technology to a new level.

How much is that ensemble in the window? If you’re on the outside looking in at Manhattan’s Ralph Lauren Rugby Store not only can you find out how much the new fall looks cost but now you can buy them all without ever stepping foot inside the store.

“If you’re walking by the store window and you see something in the window that you like you literally just press on the glass,” David Lauren said.

It’s 21st century window shopping. Just like you would on your computer screen at home, shoppers can view images of everything Rugby carries and more. When you see a product you like, just touch it and with a swipe of a credit card it’s yours, any time — day or night.

Read more here.

“Where’s Koodo?” is an interactive game that can be accessed by touching the backlit display screens in any of twelve kiosks located in six of Montreal’s subway stations. The game encourages users to search for one of the iconic Koodo characters amongst a cluttered, illustrated, urban landscape and communicates the benefits of Koodo’s new Nationwide Talk & Text rate plan.

Thanks to new, proprietary interactive digital signage software developed specifically by iGotcha Media, Montreal, for MetroMedia Plus, which sells media in the Montreal subway, commuters, in addition to playing “Where’s Koodo?,” are also able to navigate through Koodo Mobile’s phone and additional rate plan information.

MetroMedia Plus recently completed upgrading twelve kiosks in six of Montreal’s busiest subway stations (Berri-UQAM, Place-des-Arts, McGill, Peel, Henri-Bourassa and Bonaventure) to use the iGotcha Media software. Each kiosk’s interactive display uses 42″ LCD screens and an innovative through-glass touch technology that allows users to control the screen’s content.

About Koodo Mobile:

Launched in Mar 08, Koodo Mobile is a simple, affordable and flexible mobile alternative for those who just want to talk and text. It offers a transparent approach to cellular service with per-second billing and no fixed-term contracts or activation fee.

There’s a lot of discussion in media circles about the impact of digital technology, and one sector enjoying a transformation is the once sleepy domain of mall advertising. Companies such as Adspace Mall Network and OnSpot Digital Network are leading the trend toward digital conversion of their out-of-home mall inventory.

Adspace, the largest in-mall digital video advertising network in the country, has built a network of 1,389 screens in 105 shopping centers in the last several years. Plans are to be in more than 200 malls within two years. OnSpot Digital Network, a two-year-old venture of Simon Property Group and agency conglomerate Publicis Groupe, has 1,300 screens in 49 Simon malls.

Eye Corp., which has become one of the leading mall ad companies in the U.S. after only two years in the market, and long-established mall leaders Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor also see digital as a big part of the future. CBS Outdoor has digital in three of 400 malls it has contracts with. Eye Corp. plans to roll out 75 digital sign units in 10 Macerich Malls in time for the holiday season.

Read the full article here.

NEW YORK, Aug 20, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — New Arbitron Study Explores Ad Relevance, Usefulness to Patients, Visitors and Employees.

86% of those exposed to advertising in healthcare facilities could recall at least 1 advertisement that they had seen during their visit or shift, according to a recent Health Media Network study by Arbitron Inc.

The advertisements, produced by Health Media Network (HMN), appeared as framed wall posters or were broadcasted over widescreen digital television monitors in waiting rooms or treatment areas of the facilities. Health Media Network’s poster displays and digital television screens reach millions of health-minded consumers, patients, and medical employees every month.

Arbitron surveyed hospital employees, patients, and visitors, asking whether the media was informative, useful, and relevant.

Highlights

- 60% of all people in the hospital noticed the posters, the televisions, or both
- 55% noticed the televisions and 45% noticed the posters
- Hospital patrons spent an average of 3 hours and 20 minutes being exposed to HMN posters and televisions
- Hospital patrons who noticed the televisions spent an average of 1 hour and 8 minutes watching HMN programming and advertisements
- 60% were able to recall at least two advertisements and 31 percent were able to recall three
- 67% of those surveyed found the HMN poster content informative compared to the HMN television at 54%

PRNewswire — GestureTek Inc., world leader in gesture-driven user interfaces, and Xpletive, innovators of immersive applications using next-generation technologies, unveiled a space-age, custom-designed interactive attraction at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. GestureTek is the inventor and multiple patent holder of camera-enabled gesture control technology for interactive displays and entertainment experiences.

This cutting-edge immersive display, called the B.C. Explorer, was commissioned by the 2010 BC Olympic and Paralympic Games Secretariat to promote the Vancouver Winter Games and stimulate tourism and investment in Canada’s province of British Columbia.

The exhibit utilizes GestureTek’s patented hand tracking interface, robust visualization software, state-of-the-art 3D infrared camera technology, detailed geospatial data and a curved panoramic projection dome to immerse users in the exhilarating experience of flying over the province of British Columbia.
GestureTek’s system tracks hand movement in complete 3D space, capturing depth information with unparalleled accuracy and resolution. The effect is an incredibly authentic 3D interactive experience that can be delivered without the need for a remote or any other peripheral device.

Users interact with the B.C. Explorer with simple, intuitive gestures and control the experience by tilting, rotating or making a fist with their hand. “Flight Mode” lets users fly though lush forests, over mountains, along shorelines or through cities. Pushing the hand forward makes users fly faster. Tilting the hand sends users into a low flight pattern or a graceful arc across the sky. Making a fist stops the flight so that users can explore points of interest by playing full screen HD movies on the main screen in the user’s designated language.

Read more here.

NEW YORK – EYE USA is responding to client needs with a powerful new way to engage shoppers. Our new mobile marketing solution, Eye Interact, enables clients to increase the reach and effectiveness of Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising by providing targeted, interactive, personalized shopper communications.

Eye Interact, powered by Briabe Media, allows shoppers to opt-in to receive mobile coupons, brand and store information, ringtones, games, prizes and other personalized content.

“Today’s media consumer is unique, demanding and engaged,” said Briabe co-founder and CEO, James Briggs. “Our relationship with EYE will allow brands to experience the powerful combination of OOH media and mobile marketing from one source. As a result EYE’s clients will be able to engage and capture their target consumers from the first impression to maximize the potential of their media buy.”

Wright Ferguson, EYE’s Vice President, Sales, stated, “EYE is thrilled to be able to offer our clients this new, exciting way to engage Shoppers at the point of purchase. We believe this interactivity will only grow in the coming months and years. EYE has always worked to be innovative and accountable. This partnership continues to demonstrate that commitment.”

The EYE portfolio in the United States encompasses over 3,500 panels in 250 shopping malls across the United States, with more than half the portfolio sitting in the top 30 DMAs.

Interesting article on how automated audience measurement systems are being used in a fully monitored research environment to help organizations understand the effectiveness of their products in retail stores. You can read the full article here.

Frito-Lay may dominate the snack aisle of the grocery store, but it is always looking for a competitive edge to increase sales.

What’s providing that edge nowadays is its S.M.A.R.T. Learning Center in Dallas, a 15,000 sq. ft. simulated supermarket that tests the effectiveness of various marketing solutions to drive impulse purchases. Through automated observation and other research methods, the marketer studies the behavior of actual consumers as they shop the aisles and react to different merchandising tactics.

Frito-Lay built the learning lab to answer three fundamental questions:

- What would lure shoppers to the snack aisle?
- What merchandising solutions would encourage people to go down the snack aisle?
- Once there, how could the shopping experience be improved?

Clancy was in charge of a series of tests in the learning lab last year that laid the groundwork for the ongoing research that continues to pay off for Frito-Lay.

“The key thing we struggled with in the past was how shoppers would react when they were actually in that environment. You can observe them in stores, but this was the first time we could do it on our own. We could create whatever we wanted to. We could change the merchandising, the product, whatever we wanted.

“My job was to think of and implement new research methodologies,” he went on to say. “We wanted to understand what happened to shopping behavior and the perception and purchase of our brands when we made certain changes to our aisle”

Frito-Lay sought to determine the effectiveness of displays in attracting shoppers and to understand the relative performance of different merchandising concepts in driving impulse purchases. Overall, the simulated store served as a platform for transforming
in-store marketing.

Clancy said the in-store behavior of shoppers reflects their actual response to different elements of marketing and merchandising. So, an important element of the lab was measuring shopper responses using various solutions such as transaction tracking (loyalty data, sales, household panels), survey research, cart tracking, manual observation, and automated observation.

“I wanted to use as many multiple methodologies as possible. We didn’t know which ones would work or how they would work. So we had quantitative, qualitative, and observational. We used five methodologies to see which one would work better for our needs. But the overall learning was that putting them all together worked best. Our learning was so much deeper that it would have been had we just gone down one path.”

Clancy singled out the important contributions of VideoMining, State College, Pa. The firm’s in-store technologies and analytics form a scalable measurement platform designed to deliver precise metrics on shopper response at every retail touchpoint.

“VideoMining could quantify all of the shopping and tell me that people were lingering a lot more at certain points in the aisle. ‘Heat maps’ showed where shoppers were spending more time. It really helped us understand which merchandising was working and which was not.

“The way we merchandised the aisle made shoppers look for new things and spend some time in different sections – really browse as opposed to search,” Clancy said. “Browse is a good thing, and search is not a good thing. That was a key learning for us. Knowing where shoppers were going in the aisle helped us optimize the product set and sometimes change the flow a little bit, too.”

He listed the following benefits of studying shoppers in the simulated supermarket:

- Understanding the “shopability” of various marketing strategies
- Deeper understanding of shopper behavior
- Understanding display effectiveness by type and location.
- Appreciating the power of observational techniques.