Advertisers can get their digital message in upscale shopping centers on the same screens where mall merchants post their sales and specials.

To find out how to get your client’s message in front of consumers while they are in a shopping frame of mind, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Advertisers can buy spots on screens placed in common areas of shopping malls. The ads are interspersed with promotions for products on sale at mall stores.

Who
Adspace Mall Network, headquartered in New York.

How it works
Advertisers buy spots on plasma screens in the common spaces of malls. The screens broadcast in full-motion video, with audio. The venue is available to advertisers whose products are not for sale at any stores in the mall.

The loop shown on the digital screens is six minutes long and includes two minutes showcasing “Today’s Top 10,” the best sale items offered by mall retailers. But mixed in are ads from the outside advertisers.

These advertisers buy 15-second spots. Creative can be a mix of existing creative that's been reformatted and creative that's been made especially for the mall screens.

Throughout the mall, the various screens run the same loop but on different schedules, so consumers see different segments as they pass one screen and then another. Mall events and hours are also broadcast in the loop.

The screens, which measure 65 inches diagonally, are mounted in structures that are 8 to 9 feet tall.

Screens are placed in such high-traffic areas as food courts and inside mall entrances.

Advertisers tend to be half national and half local in the largest markets.

Markets
The program is available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Denver, Sacramento, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Portland, Charlotte, Nashville, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Little Rock, Dayton, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

Numbers
There are 1,300 screens in 102 malls in the Adspace network. There are an average 14 screens per mall.

Reach is 100 million people every four weeks, according to Directory of Major Malls data supplied by Adspace.

How it is measured
Monthly mall traffic is monitored and numbers are provided to advertisers. Additionally, data is available from Nielsen indicating who is viewing the screens and for how long.

Advertisers can also add built-in measurement tools like coupon redemption to their campaigns.

Research
According to a 2007 study conducted by Nielsen for Adspace:
-Screens were viewed by 47 percent of mall shoppers, with average commercial recall of 34 percent.
-Over 80 percent of respondents stated they wanted information about what items were on sale the day they visit the mall. Additionally, 72 percent said they were interested in receiving information about store and mall events.
-The average views per visit was 3.3 times. The average time viewed per visit was 114 seconds.

What product categories do well
Topping the list is entertainment, including ads for television shows, DVDs and movies. Telecommunications is also a top category.

Local advertisers tend to be car dealers, colleges and nearby businesses.

Demographics
A study of viewers by Nielsen Media Research in April 2007 for Adspace Mall Network Found that 58 percent of visitors over age 12 are women. By age, 8.8 percent are 18-24, 12 percent are 25-34, 12.6 percent are 35-44, 12.2 percent are 45-54 and 13.8 percent are 55 and older.

Making the buy
Lead time is one week, with creative in hand.

Advertisers can buy the network or cherry-pick locations.

“National advertisers tend to skew to the top 10 markets,” says Adspace executive vice president Bill Ketcham. “Some buy all the locations while others only buy malls where they have retail outlets. Some advertisers, like car dealers, buy just the malls in their DMA.”

The cost per thousand impressions is in the $4 to $5 range.

Who’s already on the Adspace Mall Network
Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Ford, Coca-Cola, New Line Home Entertainment, U.S. Army, Lionsgate and Victoria’s Secret are recent advertisers.

What they’re saying
“In this day and age it’s hard to get consumers’ attention with TV, radio and print all so fragmented. With this in-mall execution we can capture their attention when they’re out and in a shopping mode and are receptive to the medium.” – Robyn Duval, associate director of national advertising for Verizon Wireless in Atlanta

Web site info
Adspace Mall Network at http://www.adspacenetworks.com