"STOREBOARD REACHES 100% OF SHOPPERS"
StoreBoard Reaches 100% of Shoppers
by Amanda E.H. Pritchard
Reaching 100% of shoppers? Talk about maximum coverage! That's just what StoreBoard Media has been able to accomplish with their advertising space sold on security pedestals at nearly 8,000 for drug stores nationwide, including chains such as CVS, Duane Reade, Longs, Jewel-Osco, USA Drug, Kerr Drug and others. StoreBoard advertising panels take up approximately 85 square feet in each store. As the company likes to say, "they are only aisles away, not miles away, from the shopper's point-of-decision."
These powerful out-of-home mass medium eye catchers are positioned as a media buy and do not consider other in-store media as competition. Rather, StoreBoard creates an opportunity for brand advertisers retailers to take advantage of a great location to build the branding value of their stores awareness with their target consumers.
Coining themselves as "the billboard network that dominates retail entryways nationwide" they are "always on, always in the right place and always visible." Effective and fast, this full service company will coordinate, print, verify and install these dynamic first impressions.
The first security pedestals surfaced around 1982. However, they were not used to their full potential until some 15 odd years later in 1997 when the then Manager of Physical Security for Food Lion Stores, Coyt Karriker, "decided to test-market the concept of actually selling this real state to brand advertisers to "greet" consumers and promote products sold in the store." His company later merged with StoreBoard, which is now the industry leader behind this new concept, StoreBoard is now bestowed with the honor of "having created one of America's first indoor (multi-chain) billboard networks."
Security pedestal ads placed with StorBoard run for four-week flights. Over the years these in-store marketers have grown to welcome great success. Each security pedestal advertisement runs four weeks. These out-of-home advertising gurus seem to have cornered a market that can't be beat. Captivating and making a beeline for customer as they enter the store utilizing this first point of contact space was simply brilliant or as Karriker and his partners went on to find out this was a niche retailers were lining up to try out. Suddenly, national/regional brands chains have signed on the dotted line to have their ad messages brands at the forefront of this new way to market. Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble along with Kodak were eager to share their promotions as they greeted incoming consumers.
For retailers, StoreBoard Media turns a cost (the pedestals) into a revenue-generator, and dresses up the pedestals with colorful, relevant visuals. Essentially, the overall goal of the security pedestals is to decrease retailer investment by offsetting advertising revenue. In today's world, potential consumers may experience sensory overload. As StoreBoard has proven these buyers are introduced to the product at hand right away instilling the ability to clinch a sale in a matter of seconds. After all, nothing happens until something is sold!
According to Procter & Gamble, "this is the first moment of truth. It's the three to seven seconds when someone notices an item."
This shift of power in the business of advertising has also developed a new rule of thought, this is where the consumer is most influenced…in the store where they are already inclined to buy. Thus answering the ultimate question, where's the consumer? They're already in front of your advertisement.
Compared to the "motherload" of advertising, the Super Bowl, StoreBoard ads are viewed four times more than their television competitor, reaching a wider audience and costing the advertiser less. StoreBoard ads generate more than half a billion monthly gross impressions.
That's not the only upside to this in-store phenomenon. Although StoreBoard is positioned as a branding medium, trials have been administered for the advertised products and found that those sold in the store indeed they did received a boost in sales—a nice "bonus" to a branding campaign!. For example, Claritin saw a 14% spike in sales. And P.S. there's good news to for the drugstore retailer. Studies show that the retailers recoup the device's cost due to shoplifting decreasing which in return boosts profits.
Engaging consumers is the name of the game. Short attention spans along with diminishing incomes are just a few obstacles but, once you put the wheels in motion or in this case the pedestal you've got your eye on the prize.
Take it from an expert,Coyt, Karriker, who says, "The delivery of information is a ‘SIMPLE’ conversation." Enough said.
"Our ads are the first thing consumers see when they enter the store," said Doug Leeds, CEO of StoreBoard Media. "We deliver ‘recency’ to advertisers, who are thrilled at the prospect of having their ads seen so close to the time of a purchase decision."