Jan 3rd 2008
From The Economist print edition
Is in-store television an effective advertising tool? Perhaps, if done right
IN-STORE television would seem to be a no-brainer for big retailers.
It makes their shops more attractive to consumer-goods companies
because they can advertise their wares direct to a captive audience.
It lets retailers run their own advertisements and promotions. It
keeps shoppers informed and entertained. And after an (admittedly
large) investment in the in-store network, it can be a lucrative
source of advertising revenue.
APNow available in stores everywhere
Even so, in-store television has so far worked well for only some
retailers in some countries. America's Wal-Mart, the world's biggest
retailer, started with in-store TV ten years ago in partnership with
Premier Retail Networks (PRN), a firm based in San Francisco that is
owned by Thomson, a French technology firm. It has the world's biggest
network, with screens in over 3,000 of its huge shops in America.
After much trial and error it seems to have learnt how to carry it
off. Some 140 firms, including Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever,
the world's biggest consumer-goods companies, pay to advertise on
Wal-Mart TV. (Wal-Mart and PRN split the proceeds, but will not say
how.)
Wal-Mart started with a single in-store channel but now has six,
covering subjects such as food, electronics and health, which are
shown on giant screens in a store's various departments. Since the
attention span of busy shoppers is short, these channels differ from
ordinary television. A 30-second spot created for TV is too long,
except for people stuck in check-out lines. Spots of five to 15
seconds, with one or two messages, work best. Non-stop advertising
puts shoppers off, so Wal-Mart mixes advertising with entertainment,
weather reports and cooking tips. On average, customers watch one
minute of programming per visit. They get annoyed if it is too loud,
so Wal-Mart turns down the volume when its shops are less busy.
Continued...
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10431119
