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16 ~ www .bandt.coni.au S P E C I A L R E P O R T 25 APR IL

Retail marketing's brave new worldT H I S P A G E :B l u e t o o t h , M O V Et e c h n o l o g y , p la s m a & L CDs c r e e n s a n d t h e f u t u r e

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a f t e r p l e n t y o f r e t a i lt h e r a p y , o r a q u i c k f ix ?

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o f t e n ? A n d w h y ? A l l tl a t e s t f a c t s a n d f i g u r

How new digital technology ismaking its mark out-of-homeThe application of digital technology has revolutionised out-of-home marketing and placed it as one of th efastes t g rowing comm unications se ctors. In this re por t, Louis W hite looks at whe re we're at and what's aheI f the T els t ra T-Life shop on GeorgeSt, Sydney is anj'thing to go by ,expe ct the influence of digital tech-nology at point-of-sale purch ase andin the retail envii*onment to grow inthe fiitui-e. With almost 40 LCD and plasm aTV sc3:^ns, interactive displays, both staticand live content, and a coffee shop in th ec omer to add to the casual ambiance, T el-stra 's T-Life store is five time s the size of itsother outlets.

Digital technology' is becoming a ne w aidin point-of-sale and re tail environm ents. Inthe past five yeai-s Bluetooth, out-of-homedigital narrow casting, high-definition p las-ma and LCD scre ens and interactive bill-boards designed to attract the consumer'seye have become paramount in shoppingcentres and retail stores. In coming y ears,technology will only becom e m ore advancedand sop histicated.

"What technology was rel ev ant in 1998 isnot in 2008," says Anthony Xydis, m arket-ing director of Adshel. "We are only on th ecusp of what is going to happen in term s oftechnology' infiltration."

According to the Outdoor Media Associa-tion, Adshel has the high est density of out-door site locations across th e Australian andNew Zealand m arkets, ge nerating $428 mii-hon in net m edia rev enue in AustJ-aha in2007. Xydis believes th e out-of-home digitalm arke t will only grow.

"Fifteen ye ars ago we haf] \Trtually noroadside adve rtising and now 15,000 sitesexist across Australia." Xydis say s.

"We can use a m ultiple of technologies attrain stations and bus shel ter s and so on toreach our tai'ge t audience. Retail too, ha sbecome a really poweiiul envi-ronme nt to reach pe ople."

Adshel recently workedwith Nike to launch its newMercurial Vapor boots. Th e

Bugatti Veyron supercar.The sites allow consumers to plug head-

phones into the sound station to he ai' audiofor the clip and download an edited, one-m inute version of the video clip to a m obilephone - content that is unique to the out-door and online campaign.

"This is only the se cond time an advertis-er has combined a digital LCD display andBluetooth solution using the Adshel Cr eateportfolio." Xydis said.O N TH E MOVEHelen Willoughby, chief exe cutive of theOutdoor Media Association, believes thenext step will be active audience me asure-m ent - an Issue the organisation is cuiren tlyworking on vvith m easure m ent of outdoorvisibility and exposui-e (MOVE) technology'expe cted to be available by late 2008.

"The MOVE p roject will be the first out-door audience m easure m ent tool in theworld to cover all outdoor m edia foiTnats,including sh opping ce ntres and aii-port inte-riore," s ays Willoughby.

"We will be able to track consumers andthe m ai'ketability of youi" product from thetime consiuners leave the ir home until theyreach the shopp ing centre or store."

But it's at point-of-sale, not oudoor, wherethe influence of digital is growing, accordingto TVevor Jones, m anaging director of Phd-creative.

Retail Motion is a digital signage comp a-ny and division of Phdcreative , sp ecialisingin the de velop m ent of TVC quality contentfor corporate re tail and plasma or LCDscree ns. The company has installed fullhigh-definition 165cm p ortrait s cree ns for

HCF on George St, Sydney,which display custom isedcontent.

'Toint of Purchase Adver-tising Intem ational rese arch

" W h a t t e c h n o l o g y w a s r e le v a n t i n 1 9 9 8 i s n o t i n 2 0 0 8 , " s a y s A n t h o n y X y d i s , m a r k e t i n g d i r e c t o r o f A d s h edecision," says Jone s.

"The m essage outside the store nee ds tobe m ulti-layered in order to drive the per-son into the store . . . but eve rything m ust beintegrated, from out-of-store m essages tothe in-store digital comm unication, and theoverall key is to get the content rightbecause content is king," he says.

"A lot of re tailers still aren't us ing con-tent to their advantage.

"Digital is like the intern et 20 yea rs ago.That wasn't predicted and the gi'ovrth ofdigital will be h ard to forecast. The cross-selling opp ortunities are endless."

gy , says using Bluetooth as p art of a sping centre me dia camp aign is "a greato engage consumei-s at the jwint-of-puchase, with th e objective of creating aunique interaction with tha t brand aning consumei"s in-store".

"Shoppers are bom barded witli huof advertising m essages in a shoppingtre environment," says Gunn.

"Bluetooth prov ides clients with thty to cut through these m essages andengage with a consumer directly throtheii' mobile phone.

The beauty of Bluetooth is that it pvides retailers with a 24/7 m arketing

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"Detailed reporting too provides l-etailerswith valuable infoi'mation on the peakdownload tim es, over a numb er of loca-tions."

Breeze Ifechnology - Media Planet's Blue-tooth technology' partn er - recently workedon a fou]-week campaign with WarnerMusic to promote th e Veronicas new singleHook M e U p and the new N ow Sum m er2008 album in 360 shopping centres and foodcouits across Australia.

The campaign resulted in 11,000 down-loads, but tracking B luetooth downloads tosales isn't easy.

Julie Frikken, creative director at PrimeDigital Metlia (PDM), says th e jury 's stillout on Bluetooth technology.

"It can be perceived as intrusive, andlimitations in the technology tend to hinderintegi-ated and longer term campaigns.Interactive screens, in theii* manyformats, do work, but only in very specificenvii'onments.

"It's important to remember that, inalmost all environments, the audience isthere to do something else. Asking too muchof them sounds gi-eat in a planning session,but doesn't always translate to success inreal life."

P L A S M A A N D L C D S C R E E N SPDM control Austi*alia's largest centrallymanaged out-of-home d igital network. Theyrecently worked w ith Boost Juice to providecontent for portrait and LCD screens at 65prominent locations aci-oss A ustralia.

More t h ^ one million youth consumers,85% aged between 18 and 34 . are \iettingevery month. "The cuirent state-of-the-art

says The P harmacy Channel will combinecontent and ad vertising designed especiallyfor the healthcare envii-onment.

"(It) will aim to engage sh oppers whilethey are spending time in-store, for exam-ple, to wait for a presaiption or to seekadvice from the p harmacist," says Fishwick.

He believes all media has a role to playwhen com municating to the customer.

"A well-planned media campaign tha tincludes retail media on the schedule, willconsider the different roles of each medium

'We think the jury's still out on Bluetooth. It can beperceived as intrusive, and limitations in thetechnology tend to hinder integrated and longerterm campaigns. -JULIEtechnology is intemet facing high-definitionmedia players connected to high-definitionplasma or L CD screens," says Frikken.

"The acceleration towards large-formatdigital continues unabated."Out-of-home specialists TorchMedia is

another company embi-acing the use ofbroadcasting content on LCD and plasmascreens. The company recently announcedits involvement with The Pharmacy Chan-nel, a new digital network of LCD screensbeing rolled out across 700 Pharmacy Guildpharmacies across Australia. Mark Fish-wick, managing director of TbrchMedia,

i, ECD, PRIME DIGITAL MEDIAand a(^ust the execution accordingly," saysFishwick.

"For example, media such as TV andmagazines are gi'eat for long-term branding.Media that are on the way to th e retail envi-ronm ent - which can include adioand tran-sit advertising if the person is on the way tothe shops, and also includes advertising inth e cai- pai'k and enti'y points to shoppingmalls - acts as a short-term brand recallzone. And in-store media is the sales activa-tion zone. An advertising campaign th ateffectively includes all three zones will usethe same core message but with a different

tone, man ner and sense of urgency."We call this retail m edia's ability to

the gap between tbe couch, the cai' pathe cash register."C O M M U N I C A T IO N T H E K E YFrikken believes that there is still sommisconception i-eg'dniing technology inout-of-home space.

"There still seems to be a view that difficult to tral y engage consum ers in out-of-home env ii'onments," says Frik

"This may be as a result of the undewhelming quality {)f content on many eAustralian digital signage networks, apaitly as traditional media folk still anpate that people Svatch' OOHD sci*eenlike they do a television rathe r than tjaway high impact sn ipi^ ts of infonnatthey dweO.

"I suspect it's also simply a case of cand m edia agencies adapting and accea new media," she says.Frikken adds that OOHD deliver msages to a highly targeted anil 'captiveence in a rich and compelling way. "PDmedia is imique in that it allows mai'k'surgical strikes' - messages relevant paiticulai- envii-onment, location, and day of the week and tim e of the day. Inronments with frequent revisits, the cstant refreshing of content also engagMixing advertising content with other

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IL , 2008 S P E C I A L R E P O R T www.band t . com.au -shopping centres is solely for communicat-ing w ith shoppers at the point of purchase,"

e n t s in i n n o v a t i o n p r o v i d e s t y l i s h a n d e f f e c t i v e t e c h n o l o g y , " s a y s J u l i e F r ik k e n .infotainmen t ' , such a s real-tim e

ent headlines, alsos im pact .

"As 'sameness' pei^ad es ca tegories andloyalty con tinues to decrease, a m edi-t influences a clearly defined con-

er d efinitely works. Urban myth has its , but w efindquite the opposite.

ave found tha t b nm d ra ther than t r ade

drives mo st large-scale netw orks beinginternation ally deployed - and that 's acrossall catego ries." she says.

Mike Tvquin, CEO of Ey e Media Au s-tralia an d New Zealand , is in agi*eementover the pivotal role of digital techno logy atpoint-of-sale and in a retail envii'on m ent.

"From a client an d m edia agency point ofview, I would say one of the main m iscon-ceptions is the \-iew tha t a flvertising inside

'The evolving retail environm ent pi-o-vides a m uch broa der bi-anding opportun ityta rgeted to a b roadcas t audience.

"Interestingly, som e of the key grow thcategories w ithin this environm ent includeautomot ive and mal ia . 65% of Australiansare regular shoppers, visiting centres onceo r m o r e a w ee k an d s pen d i n g a n a v e r ^ of90 m inutes in c entre each visit ."THE FUTUREWith new inno vations in technologyappealing quicker than w e can click to thenext site, point-of-sale and retail environ-m ent.'; will beco m e even savvier in th eir bid

i-f con sum er spend. But wha t te ch-noiogy will survive?

FiiMten says a n "80/20 rule" w illapply in the near future.

"The li read and bu t te r 'OOHD m edia wiO be driven b yrobus t , cent ra lly managed ne t -w orks of high-definitionscreens playing a strategic mixof quality targeted content ,while 20 % will be a com bina-tion of niche technologies(interactive projector, in-win-dow tou ch screens, w eather-proof displays, WTap-;SD tele-

W h a t m o d e ms h o p p e r s rw a n t f r o mr e t a i l e x p e r i e . .page2d

vision and m obile interactivity) there toma ke high im pac t brand s t a temen ts .

"All of this m eans less ba rriers in placem ent , mo re ways to engage and in te rac twith the consumer and fascinating new cative o pp{)rtun ities," she says.

Tyquin believes that technology will cstantly reinvent itself.

"Technology is never a 'fad' as such.Advancements in innovation provide styish an d effective technology', which to geter with well suited creative content specito the a ud ience, form s the basis for a souadvertising business model.

"It is also dependent on audienceengagem ent an d the suitab ility of this - iline with chan ging con sum er behaviour, right execution, the fii 's t t im e - is essenti

As far as fads go it has becom e appareto a dvertisei*s that fonn ats which use a

TVC style approach, including aud isound, has no t proven to b e an eff

t ive fonna t for comm unicaing to consum ei*s in a shop-ping centi-e environm ent,"he says.

There is no dou bt tha tdigital media is an at tractiad vertising option. I t willI inly become m ore promi-nent an d m ore tai-getedas new technology andt re n d s e m e i ^ . a

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