|
|
at an in-store kiosk
New devices download coupons and product info
By Kathy Prentice
Stores may not be decked out yet in tinsel and lights, but evidence of the approaching retail rush is appearing in catalogs, magazines and mailers that reach shoppers at home.
It is also showing up on billboards and in other out-of-home venues, and this season there is yet another venue for delivering messages to consumers.
Shoppers now can scan an invisible watermark on packaging or promotional materials to get additional product information and discounts via internet-driven kiosks on the floors of all manner of retail stores.
Advertisers can use print ads or direct mail to get consumers into the stores and to the kiosks. Or they can snag them once they’re browsing a department.
To find out how you can get your client’s ads and promotions onto the retail floor via internet kiosks, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Coupons, advertisements, promotions and other messages that can be accessed by shoppers, at the point-of-purchase, by scanning a digital watermark at a kiosk site. The interaction can also be used to gather data about consumers.
Who
Digimarc, based in metro Portland, Ore.
How it works
An invisible digital watermark on a package, brochure or print ad can be scanned at the kiosk for promotions and product information.
Digimarc calls the digital watermarking MediaBridge.
Shoppers can pick up a watermarked package or brochure from an in-store display and hold it up to the kiosk to receive a printed coupon or data about the product or general information related to the product.
For example, scanning a cold-medicine package could lead the consumer to health information.
“It could even give you a list of drugs you wouldn’t want to take with it,” says Laurie Tilley, director of marketing for Digimarc MediaBridge.
“The kiosk can act as a virtual salesperson,” Tilley says.
“Sometimes in a retail environment you don’t want to be approached by a salesperson. So you hold up the tag, say, on a pair of pants, and it tells you what top and purse go with it. Or in the cosmetics aisle you hold up the blush, and it tells you about complementary lip gloss and nail polish.”
Signage and store personnel are used to raise consumers’ awareness of the kiosks and how they work. Instructions are also on the watermarked packaging.
A direct mailing is another method of delivering the watermarked message to consumers, who then bring it to the retail outlet for discounts and data.
When the digitally watermarked print materials—product packaging, brochures, cards, magazine ads or mailers—are held in front of the web camera in the kiosk, the MediaBridge software launches a browser that instantly connects the user to printed promotions and relevant internet information.
“We had a national computer company put an ad with a watermark in a Sunday circular, and in that case customers walked into the store and registered for a discount by putting information in,” Tilley says. “It greatly enriched the database.”
Kiosks come in a variety of sizes and can be mounted on stilts, pedestals or a wall. Printers, keyboards and touch screens can be utilized.
Additional advertising space can be available on the kiosk’s exterior surface.
The internet can be live-fed in real time or the information can be stored and updated.
Most kiosks have print applications, Tilley says.
“You hold up the watermark and get information or coupons. You press ‘print’ and rip off the coupon.”
Advertising, promotions and data-gathering about consumers can be built into the marketing program.
Digimarc works with a variety of promotional agencies to provide turnkey service.
“We’re the glue that provides the concept and strategy,” Tilley says. The example she uses is a soft-drink company that wants to do kiosk advertising inside a drugstore chain.
“We’ll broker the placement with an agency that already has that relationship,” she says.
Outside the retail floor, the watermarking application can be used for event marketing.
“For instance, at a live sporting event or a concert, a tobacco company could set up a tent with a promotion to drive people inside,” Tilley says.
“Or the watermark could be on branded paper cups at a concession, and the announcer could say that people can hold their cups up to the kiosks at halftime to see if they won something.”
Local and regional advertisers, as well as national brands, would work in kiosks, Tilley says. “We can make it affordable if there are five to 10 units.”
Kiosk internet promotions can work as stand-alones or part of a media mix, she says.
Creative can start with a logo or static art provided by the advertiser. Animation, flash and other enhancements can be added.
Creative can tie into a bigger campaign.
The watermarks are invisible.
Markets:
Demonstration markets were in Florida and on the West Coast, but Tilley says the company can set up services in any and all domestic U.S. markets.
Numbers
How measured? Response is measured by number of scans at the kiosks.
“If we send out a direct mail to 10,000, we’ll know how many hits came in. We’ll know how many times someone held up a card, the time of day and the flow of busyness during the course of the promotion,” Tilley says. “For instance, were the first four days the busiest and then Saturday?”
“You can directly trace the impact from ad to hit on-site or by bodies in the store,” says Joanna Jones, account manager for Momentum in St. Louis, which has run campaigns for two clients.
“Usually the mid-level managers need to prove that the tactics they choose have results. We can provide the cold, hard facts with redemptions and interactions.”
Research
What product categories do well?
Media, apparel, sports, pharmaceuticals, food, electronics and entertainment.
Demographics
There aren’t specific age or gender groups that this venue works best with, Tilley says. “We have conducted research on virtually all age groups, and the appeal seems positive for both male and female audiences and for all age groups.”
Making the buy
Lead time is generally 60 days, although Tilley says Digimarc has implemented a campaign in 30 days.
Campaign length is flexible, Tilley says. Campaigns can last days or months.
Factors that affect pricing include the number of kiosks and locations, the complexity of the advertising or promotional program, the number and type of markets, length of the campaign, who is providing creative and the level of reporting required by the advertiser.
Contact Digimarc at 877-477-9992 or at sales@digimarc.com
What they’re saying
“There’s a desire in the current marketplace to integrate brick and click. To move a web presence to retail and back again. The web base can be used to send an ad to a targeted market and bring people into retail locations. We did that for a computer client. The target was men and women, 25 to 49. We leveraged our client’s sports sponsorship by giving people a piece with a watermark at an event. We found a lift of five to 10 percent directly from this program.”–Joanna Jones, account manager for Momentum, headquartered in St. Louis.
Etc.
Another retail application for Digimarc technology is having consumers scan the watermark on a used product package at home with a web camera to obtain a coupon or to place an order directly via the internet.
October 9, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.
Printer-Friendly Version
|
Send
to a Friend
Cover Page |
Contact
Us
