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Among all its other accomplishments, the internet has advanced the notion of targeted advertising, personalized and localized, and that notion is about to make its way into supermarkets.
Imagine this: A customer, upon entering a store, is handed a small scanner with a video screen. The customer scans in a card with personal data about product preferences and such and then begins his or her shopping.
Sensors placed in the ceiling every 10 feet or so track the shopper’s whereabouts within the store.
As the customer is moving among the aisles, the screen on the scanner displays information on sales and other data based on the shopper's previous purchases, as well as ads.
"We have access to the shopper’s buying history, and maybe other information if they provided it online," says Robert Brazell, chairman and CEO of InStore Broadcasting Network, the retail media company that’s rolling out the system.
"As you’re coming around a corner, the screen on the scanner serves you up ideas, such as menu ideas," he says. "Maybe we see you haven’t bought beans since six weeks ago, and now maybe there’s a special."
The new system launches next month in 10 to 20 Stop & Shop stores in the Northeast.
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Brazell says the scanner portion of the system will work in conjunction with a network of video screens placed around the store that will display ads and shopping tips, quite a number of them in fact: 40 to 50 large screens, as well as numerous 15-inch screens within the aisles. Screens within departments will air ad messages and shopper tips keyed to shoppers in those departments.
Advertisers will be able to place ads on the network of screens and also on the individual shopper's scanner and know who they are reaching.
"It’s by market and impression reach," says Brazell. "Pepsi might say, ‘I want a national buy, I want women adults 18-54, I want a billion impressions and $10 CPM.’ We sell it in an identical fashion to TV."
