Premier Retail Networks (PRN) is to link its in-store screen-advertising platform to Cabco Group's TV-enabled shopping carts, and sell airtime on them.
The two companies will establish “a seamless connection” between the Cabco TV Kart screens and PRN's platform, they said. The screens are fixed in specially-designed shopping carts and serve to entertain children seated in the lower area of the carts as well as to deliver commercial messaging to the adults pushing them.
The duo will also add new interactive features to the Cabco units.
“Advertisers are looking for exciting in-store media that delivers results, but they are also looking to consolidate their media spend and work with experts in the area of content optimisation,” said Cabco COO Brad Johnson.
Although best known for its Wal-Mart TV network, Thomson-owned PRN operates more than 250,000 screens in some 6500 stores for retailers which also include Carrefour and Circuit City.
Cabco says its carts are currently in about 1000 supermarkets worldwide, but it is now focusing on the U.S. market and says it has contracts in place that will allow it to reach some 10,000 retailers in that country “over the next few years”.
The two companies will establish “a seamless connection” between the Cabco TV Kart screens and PRN's platform, they said. The screens are fixed in specially-designed shopping carts and serve to entertain children seated in the lower area of the carts as well as to deliver commercial messaging to the adults pushing them.
The duo will also add new interactive features to the Cabco units.
“Advertisers are looking for exciting in-store media that delivers results, but they are also looking to consolidate their media spend and work with experts in the area of content optimisation,” said Cabco COO Brad Johnson.
Although best known for its Wal-Mart TV network, Thomson-owned PRN operates more than 250,000 screens in some 6500 stores for retailers which also include Carrefour and Circuit City.
Cabco says its carts are currently in about 1000 supermarkets worldwide, but it is now focusing on the U.S. market and says it has contracts in place that will allow it to reach some 10,000 retailers in that country “over the next few years”.
Our take:
It's mightily impressive that Cabco has gotten carts into 1,000 supermarkets already (if that number is to be believed, at least), but that's still a long way from the 10,000 in their plans. While the carts are ostensibly configured to entertain kids and advertise to parents, we wonder what's to stop PRN from trying it the other way around, or, more likely, advertising to both parent and child in an attempt to get one or the other (or both) to make an impulse purchase. This wouldn't have to take the form of anything as elaborate as those "Toyfomercial" cartoons of the 1980s (He-Man, My Little Pony, yes, we're talking about you), but could leverage the fact that kids influence a very large dollar amount of purchase decisions every year, and in particular, in the snack, cookie and beverage aisles of the local supermarket.
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