Home Depot focuses on retail experience

The AP notes that in the wake of former CEO Bob Nardelli's resignation, the Home Depot will be shifting strategies a bit to sell off its Home Depot Supply business (catering to professional construction companies and contractors) in order to free up some cash, buy back some shares, and focus exclusively on its retail stores.

While both the AP story and the original press release are unclear about how some of the estimated $10.3B from the sale will be used in-store, recently the company has been criticized for poor customer service and challenging store layouts, especially in contrast to rival Lowes, who has made great strides in both of these areas. I'd thus expect to see a wave of hiring (there's never somebody in an orange apron around when you need them!), hopefully some improved wayfinding signage and maybe even a planogram change, and there's even the possibility to install some retail media services or interactive kiosks to provide supplemental services.

Tags: Home Depot, retail experience

P&G to commit $2B to retail-marketing efforts

As Advertising Age announced a few days ago,

Procter & Gamble Co. is preparing to give some $2 billion in retail-marketing funds a seat at the same table as advertising.

The company is partially consolidating its marketing groups to put retail-marketing strategy under the same marketing directors who oversee brand teams instead of under the group that manages the sales force. Once the new system is introduced, general managers or marketing directors who find a brand responds better to trade marketing than consumer marketing will be able to shift more funds in-store. This should make for a more genuinely discipline-agnostic P&G.

The move aims to answer questions that long have dogged package-goods marketers: who should control the tens of billions of dollars spent on trade promotion -- often the largest part of the marketing budget -- and how to make those dollars work in the same strategic plan as advertising and consumer promotion.

Analysts estimate that Procter and Gamble spends over $2 billion a year on trade marketing, which is about twice as much as the entire digital signage industry generates right now. Of course, if you were to throw in all POP displays and merchandising the market is quite a bit larger, but a $2B addition is still extremely significant.

While there's no reason to think that 100% of that amount will be channeled in store -- after all, there are lots of other techniques like direct mail, online and event/promotion that could be successful -- given P&G's past indications that in-store marketing techniques (like digital signage) are becoming increasingly important it's probably safe to bet that we'll see some new things in-store from them (literally).

Here's the real question, though. If P&G is successful with this new plan, how/when will we find out about it? And will there be a cascade effect, where other major CPGs suddenly jump in and start redirecting large portions of their advertising budgets?

Tags: P&G, in-store marketing, marketing at retail

Dressing up the lowly gift card

In the course of reading this little article in PROMO Magazine, I started to think about the process of purchasing a gift. These days, pre-paid, branded gift cards are a huge business You can buy a branded gift card for virtually any retailer, get instant personalized gift cards using custom photography, and number of variations on that theme. While the PROMO article looks at the use of new and better packaging to dress up gift cards so that they're more suitable for gift-giving, I approached the process from the other end, thinking about the steps somebody might go through that would lead to the purchase of a gift card as a gift.

Let's face it. A lot of people still feel like giving a gift card is just a cop-out. Even those people who hate shopping for gifts, or don't know the recipient particularly well. I think perhaps we've all gotten the impression that a gift purchasing experience should either be a) amazingly easy (in the case where you know what the perfect gift for somebody is), or b) excruciatingly difficult (as if the expenditure of time on your part is going to be translated into that gift, and the recipient will immediately know how much you care due to this).

The industry's response has been to add personalization capabilities, prettier graphics, and more graphical choices. This gives the shopper the ability to either a) immediately find the perfect gift card image, thus satisfying the "it should be easy" condition, or b) spend hours flipping through a catalogue of gift card entries, or even better, use some custom photos and graphics to make a unique card himself, thus satisfying the "it should be hard" condition.

I actually think there's another part to the process, though, and that's the retailer's obligation to present the card as a valid gift. Again, new packaging does address some of that. By making the cards festive and interesting, there's an implicit understanding that the item being purchased needs to be special, not just a piece of plastic. Catering to those who don't catch the implicit vibes, lots of stores have started to feature the cards prominently at checkout aisles and on endcaps in order to make sure that everybody knows that they're there in the event that even after all that hard shopping, the shopper can't find that perfect gift and has to "settle."

But while they've certainly improved their displays since the gift card really exploded a few years ago, I still get the feeling that they're relegated to second-class status when it comes to store design. Hanging pegboards and flimsy cardboard displays are hardly a great way to showcase a high-margin, nearly universally-acceptable product, but few retailers that I've seen seem to agree with me. You know you're going to be selling these things forever, and they don't take up a huge amount of space. Why not build in some great-looking permanant displays to merchandise them like the high-margin items they are?

Bringing online shoppers back into the store

Dave Polinchock over at Brand Experience Labs wrote a little blurb on a company called NearbyNow, who has the formidable task of encouraging online shoppers to make purchases in-store. They do this via a combination of web-based marketing and advertising (including optimizing retailers' web sites), traffic generation, and a bunch of analytics software to monitor progress. The general idea is that even if shoppers can already look for discounts, sales and coupons online (and they do), there are still a host of reasons for shoppers to actually complete the purchase process in the bricks-and-mortar world. Given how easy it is to buy just about anything online and have it delivered to the doorstep these days (I did about 75% of my Christmas shopping online last year -- Amazon free shipping rocks!), it's getting harder for many retailers to articulate their benefits over purely-digital shopping.

That's where NearbyNow comes in. From this article in the St. Pete Times:

"We're adding a Google-style product search that makes mall sites relevant to how people shop today, " said Dunlap. Follow-up surveys found one in 10 shoppers who used NearbyNow said it influenced an ultimate purchase. One in 100 tried to reserve something.

Reserving stuff, though, is hard to pull off.

Some chains can handle queries by e-mail directly to and from each store. Most do not. So NearbyNow telephones each store from a Kansas call center. Some store clerks will check the racks, some won't. Some will hold products for a customer for 24 hours, others won't. NearbyNow promises a response within 90 minutes, but the average is 20 minutes.

Westfield pays nothing for the NearbyNow hookup. But all of its stores and mall kiosks get a free text listing of what they want summoned for product searches.

This is clearly a logistical play as much as it is a tech play, and from just these few paragraphs it's pretty clear that a lot of retailers don't yet grasp how important these kinds of services will become as the Internet shopping experience continues to improve. Still, we're a long ways off from the time when we can strap into a virtual reality suit and navigate products just as we do in the real world. Until then, bricks-and-mortar retailers will continue to have a significant advantage with any product line that does best in a try-and-touch instead of a show-and-tell situation.

Tags: NearbyNow, store experience, advertising

Raft of new inventions promise wireless power, interactive packaging

While most of the new companies and individuals that we've worked with these past few years have been skilled, educated and competent, every once in a while we'll get a call from somebody who -- knowingly or not -- asks for the impossible. Not low pricing impossible or new software development impossible. I'm talking about real law of physics-breaking, time-travel and unicorns impossible. Of all the crazy and inane-sounding requests, my favorite has to be the demand for wireless power. Of course such a capability would be a great boone at home, at work, and of course... in the retail store.

Well, if a bunch of researchers at MIT get their way, I may soon have to poking fun at people and instead start learning about wireless power infrastructure. That's right, they can light up a 60W bulb from 15 feet away with no wires, and there's a good chance that the enabling technology (which uses finely-tuned magnetic fields to deliver the power safely across short distances) will find its way into the consumer sector in the coming years.

As if that wasn't enough, Swedish researchers have identified a way to bring interactivity to static posters and packages by laminating a conductive polymer to standard heavy-duty posterboard. As New Scientist notes,

The billboards are made almost entirely from paper materials, making them cheap to assemble, and easy to recycle, says Gulliksson. "We've used the roll-to-roll methods used by industry to process paper materials."

To make the paper surfaces interactive, the team screen prints patterns using conductive inks containing particles of silver that overlap, allowing a current to flow.

The interactive billboard is made in layers with a 3 centimetres thick back layer of Wellboard - a kind of extra-strong cardboard - forming the base. A sheet of paper screen-printed with conductive ink is placed on the base, with a second sheet carrying the billboard's design placed on top.

The middle conductive layer is connected to a power supply and simple microelectronics that play, pause and rewind sounds when the correct sensors are triggered.

Touch sensors are made using a fine pattern of conductive lines in which the current flow is altered when a hand touches it. Laptop computer touchpads use the same principal.

Speakers are made by printing electromagnets out of conductive ink and stretching the paper over a cavity like a speaker cone behind the billboard. The electromagnets vibrate in response to a current, creating a sound.

Touch- and sound-enabled posters are only the beginning, though. Once the process is perfected, I'd expect this kind of technology to quickly find its way into POP displays and even product packaging, where it could add both novelty and utility to an area that could use some excitement.

Want to engage customers? Here are 12 things NOT to do

Have you read C.B. Whittemore's "Flooring the Consumer" blog yet? Whittemore bills the blog as one focused on, "improving the store experience, particularly in flooring," but believe me, she always has some great insights that are applicable to the majority of retail situations. For example, in a post from a few days ago Whittemore laments the sad state of Wal-Mart, its stores, and its relative indifference to the customer experience, particularly in relation to Target, who has gone to great lengths to keep their own megastores fresh, attractive and inviting. Rather than create a to-do list for errant companies hoping to find their way back to delivering positive customer experiences, Whittemore instead delivers a top-12 what NOT to do list:

1. Don't allow your stores to become dingy, un-cared for, dated or unpleasant.
2. Don't create an environment that burdens your consumer.
3. Don't become complacent and think that good enough is OK.
4. Don't fall in love with expansion and lose sight of existing stores and customers.
5. Don't understaff your stores.
6. Don't focus completely on being the lowest priced retailer.
7. Don't be a schmuck.
8. Don't lose touch with the marketplace.
9. Don't have tunnel vision.
10. Don't ever underestimate the power of quality, convenience and customer service.
11. Don't ever alienate your core customer base.
12. Don't wing it!

Obviously she adds some critical insight to each element of the list, but for that you'll have to read the whole article :) While all of these points are great, my favorite is #12, which seems to be overlooked so often. Rather than just guess at what might work in-store, or implement a huge plan based on a single "great idea" from a company insider, more companies need to implement more a exacting implement -> test -> analyze results strategy to figure out what works. Integrate customer/shopper comments, query in-store staff to gain insight into sales floor techniques, and look for untapped resources and inefficient processes. Above all, be willing to try things that might fail, but also be willing to change them once you've recognized that they actually are failing.

Tags: marketing at retail, in-store marketing, store experience

Nike and Foot Locker partner for new retail experience

DDI has a short blurb on a new partnership between Nike and Foot Locker to bring about a new type of retail store. Dubbed the "House of Hoops by Foot Locker," the pair expect to open 50 of these themed stores over the next three years to, "create a new brand- and community-oriented retail experience celebrating the culture of the game for basketball consumers."

While Nike and FootLocker have used this theme for store-within-a-store displays before (as in the above image), a self-contained store to brand and promote the culture of basketball is a new direction for both companies.

Considering how hard Nike has tried to correlate their brand and brand image with the overall notion of sports and activity, I think this marks a natural next step for the company. By strategically placing these stores in areas with a high density of people who don't just play basketball but feature it prominently in their worlds (I'm guessing mostly urban areas), Nike has the opportunity to not only pick up some incremental sales, but further establish themselves as the "official" brand of basketball. Not a particular player, or a given team, or even the whole NBA, but the very sport itself.

Will it work? I'm on the fence here. While Nike has proven to be quite nimble and great at both identifying and establishing trends, the urban market is notoriously fickle and anti-establishment, so that will be a tall order.

Tags: Nike, House of Hoops, retail marketing

Wal-Mart to provide some in-store media measurement data

Sorry for nearly month-long posting hiatus on this blog. I've been pretty good about keeping up with the WireSpring Kiosk/Digital Signage Weblog, but that came at the expense of posting here (and to digital signage news and kiosk news) less frequently during some serious busy times.

Fortunately, I can kick things back off with a bang, since Wal-Mart recently announced that they would be releasing some retail media tracking data as part of a larger project with Nielsen In-Store to measure in-store media consumption and effectiveness in about 1,000 of its US stores, and that's seriously big news for the retail media industry. Apparently, the company's initial results with Nielsen's PRISM in-store tracking system were determined to be 76% accurate (via cross-checks with in-person audits), which was a better than expected result. Tweaks to the system have supposedly raised accuracy to about 85%, which would be pretty impressive for a fully automated system, and were good enough for Wal-Mart to commit to a larger deployment of the system.

Considering how many have bemoaned the lack of accountability and effectiveness of traditional media channels recently (myself included), many are hopeful that the results of such a wide-scale study will indicate that retail media is better at connecting with consumers and communicating brand messages. Of course, if it turns out that's not the case, we'll be in for a rough time as marketers again scramble to find something that works. Not that I think that will be an actual problem. Our internal, customer-provided (and thus potentially tainted) data clearly indicates sales boosts and high satisfaction scores correlated with retail digital media networks.

At the DSE show last week, Nielsen In-Store's George Wishart noted that CPM (or gross impressions, or something similar) is likely to be the de-facto standard for media measurement and pricing for the foreseeable future, as that's what media planners are most comfortable with. Of course, Nielsen's PRISM system, which relies on simple infrared scanners to essentially measure store traffic at different points, is suited for only capturing this particular measurement. On the other hand, while more sophisticated measurement systems that can do things like eye-tracking, gaze-tracking, and idleness tracking could generate more precise measurements, without something to compare against, retailers and marketers would have little ability to actually use the data (not to mention the privacy issues that come with that level of tracking).

As ususal, RetailWire has some good discussion on the subject, so you might want to check that out as well.

Tags: digital signage, in-store media, retail media, Wal-Mart, PRISM

Digital retailing design ideas from VMSD

VMSD (formerly VisualStore) published an article a few days ago spotlighting some of the more interesting and certainly more striking digital retailing concepts that I've seen so far. By far my favorite is that for Postbank, who really hit a home run with their clean, contemporary and very high-tech looking design (pictured left). As Sean O'Leary, VMSD's technical editor notes, "In the case of Postbank, the implementation of different types of display and interactive technologies is leveraged to create a more 'human' environment," and I'd certainly have to agree with that statement. In today's retail environment where digital solutions are often still tacked-on as an afterthought, Postbank and others have demonstrated that integrating the digital elements (which in this case are entirely functional) directly into the store design can be extremely compelling. This approach certainly beats out those who are still hanging solitary unmodified plasma screens from the rasters or tucking the odd self-service kiosk into some dark corner where nary a customer will venture.

Of course, because Postbank does rely on these kiosks to actually help process customer requests (customers can work unaided in a truly self-service fashion, or can ask the help of one of the branch's bankers and tellers who roam the floor), they have the right motivation to make sure that the devices look friendly and inviting. They're also freed from having to follow the standard format of having a queue area and teller's desks, which gives them a good deal more flexibility with the floor plan.

Bonus points for making the kiosks look like JetBlue's self check-in stations, which in my opinion still set the bar for kiosk design.

Tags: Digital retailing, Postbank, self-service

Re-thinking retail design to address consumer self-service

A few weeks ago SelfServiceWorld published an article on the "new rules" of retail design. The crux of the argument: "New technologies make it possible, for the first time, to reach those individual customers with individual experiences. Digital signage, self-service — and, perhaps most importantly, the rise of multi-channel retailing — are demanding a new holistic view when it comes to the design of in-store experiences."

As I read through the rest of the article, which talks about retail media, shopper traffic monitoring and even shelving, I couldn't help but think: the rules are still the same. Ever since that first shop keep decided to put a sign outside his door advertising the arrival of fresh produce, biscuit mix or bolts of fabric, the rules have been largely the same. Make the store pleasing to the eye, ensure that shoppers feel comfortable, and (in the US at least), make sure that there's plenty of room to navigate. While there are arguments both for and against making products easy to find and convenient to purchase right away, these are more merchandising questions rather than design ones. Likewise, the addition of digital signage systems and other in-store media augment, not replace, current design considerations.

On the self-service front, there are basically two categories of devices that impact store design. The first are those machines that improve the store experience by making a hard process easier. I'd place self-checkout lanes, price lookup terminals and product information kiosks into this category because each provides shoppers a way to perform a standard in-store action more quickly and with less hassle than before. However, in all of these cases while store design might have to be modified slightly to make optimal use of the technology, they certainly don't require dramatic changes. The second category of self-service devices gives shoppers access to new services that they might not have had before. Loyalty program kiosks and product extension/virtual shopping terminals go here, because these kinds of activities are generally not available otherwise. These technologies have the potential to be quite disruptive when properly integrated into a store's business and design plan, and I could see the case for making significant changes to a store's layout if management thought it would drive business via these devices.

With everybody from Wal-Mart to Victoria's Secret constantly trying out new designs in an effort to improve the in-store experience, it's clear that there's no sure-fire method for winning over customers. Between changing tastes, new and diversified product/service offerings and the fickle nature of shoppers in general, the best we can do is try and keep up with consumer trends while making stores more enjoyable to navigate. While new retail media services can make the shopping experience better and even more fun, to those who have already been exposed to the fine art of store design, I think they're more likely to inspire ideas of evolution rather than revolution.

Tags: store design, retail media, merchandising

Will digitally-based customer assistance help solve store customer service woes?

That's exactly the question that the latest BrainTrust Query over at Retail Wire is trying to answer, and as usual, the participants in the discussion have some great insights to share. Using examples like Experticity's kiosk-based remote assistance platform, or the 3D avatars employed by some other self-service technology companies, Laura Davis-Taylor posits that there's a need to engage the customer at a point when she is making an active investment in learning about a product/service, which is an important part of the sales process to be sure.

The upside of such programs is that by relying on artificial intelligence and a centralized customer support staff, retailers can lower costs while improving the service experience by being able to instantly access product information, loyalty programs, etc. and tie those into the support process. Of course, the downside is that the human customer is now interacting with a kiosk, and whether there's a human or a computer on the other end of the Internet connection, it's not quite the same as speaking to somebody in-store.

While there are certainly valid arguments to be made on both sides, it seems like this technology, or something reasonably similar, will become a de-facto addition to the retail environment given the dramatic upswing of in-store self-service kiosks (for all sorts of uses), and the advent of more capable mobile devices. A few years from now, it seems like it would be more likely a customer would want to interact with a human being or really smart AI on the other end of their smartphone (a device already optimized for human interaction) rather than a self-contained kiosk. On the other hand, of course, kiosks will always be able to offer more functionality, larger screen real estate, peripherals like printers, and so on, so there's a place for them as well.

Technology aside, though, the success or failure of these services lies with their ability to connect with customers and offer them genuine value. My favorite quote from this Brain Trust survey comes from Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D., President, Global Collaborations, Inc., who suggests that, ". If the interaction doesn't really feel like talking with a "live" person it should not be presented that way. In many instances, consumers are seeking information and that source doesn't need to be in the form of a personal interaction." Both information and presentation of the information are important inside of a store, and even the most well thought-out product brochures and marketing info won't make a difference if they aren't presented in such a way that the customer will be receptive to them.

This could be the biggest challenge for companies like Experticity, whose entire business involves delivering a real-world experience inside of a real-world environment, but via an artificial, digital medium.

Tags: Experticity, self-service, in-store marketing, customer support

The Curious Shopper checks out Uniqlo

Though I first noticed articles about it back in November of last year, I still haven't found my way into the new Uniqlo store in NYC (granted I'm not exactly in the target demographic). But over at the Curious Shopper, Sara (who is), gives it a great going-over. She suggests that the retailer's difficulties moving out of its home market in Japan have been at least in part based on cultural differences:

Uniqlo has been challenged to translate its retail offering into other cultures. A first attempt at the UK market failed when big, splashy store openings were met with confusion. Now, Uniqlo is focused on bridging the culture gap, by understanding the mind of the fickle US consumer, while also maintaining a subtly Japanese aesthetic. They've set some lofty goals with that one.

When I visited the store, I had a slightly different observation. For me it was less of an American-Japanese gap they needed to bridge, and more of an Old Japan-New Japan gap that needed balancing. I saw spare Japanese discipline coupled with hip Japanese pop culture. The interplay between modern and traditional was fascinating, if not entirely cohesive. Most interestingly, the traditional was actually more in tune with the trends of American retail.

Sara also makes an excellent point about the use of repeating items/images as part of a merchandising strategy. Repetition is one of those basic Psych 101 principles that ties in to everything from short-term memory to pattern recognition, but we still see limited use of it in-store. While I could see a problem at a supermarket or big-box retailer, where trying to create repeating instances of 50,000 different brands might become a bit maddening, it seems like a natural fit for private label retail.

Tags: Uniqlo, repetition, merchandising, in-store marketing

22 year-old writes how-to manual for tray liner advertising

Man, I knew these echo-boomers liked to take matters into their own hands, but this is still pretty impressive: 22 year-old Phillip Tapia is trying to re-invent food service tray liner advertising, which, while certainly not one of the sexier sides of the ad industry, is a practical and established marketing medium. According to this press release, "Phillip and his father (Mike Tapia) currently distribute to 26 Wendy’s restaurants in southern Colorado along with dozens of Little Caesars Pizza locations in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Denver Colorado. Between Wendy’s and Little Caesars pizza, the Tapia family will print and produce more than 400,000 tray liners and pizza box toppers every month. Tray Display only uses soy-based inks and prints on 100% recycled paper to ensure our tray liners and box toppers are environmentally friendly." The business model features tie-ins with local radio stations and takes advantage of local advertisers and sponsors.

While still small at only 400k impressions per month, the thing that most impressed me (and most differentiates this startup company with so many others) is their willingness to share what they've learned: Tapia launched www.TrayDisplayAdvertising.com, which includes a How-To manual for others interested in the tray advertising business. Instead of keeping his findings a secret, I suppose he hopes to make a name for himself in the industry by sharing what he has learned works and doesn't work in the market.

IconNicholson's interactive mirrors bring social media to shopping

While the image above may look like something out of the Haunted Mansion at DisneyWorld, it is in fact a prototype interactive mirror developed by IconNicholson and demonstrated at an NYC Bloomingdales for a few days last week. The mirror allows a shopper to virtually try on different outfits by projecting an image of the selected item(s) "on top of" the shopper's own image. While the obvious benefit might be a new wave of efficiency that allows shoppers to try out a larger number of items without having to drag them all into a dressing room, the mirror's developers had a more social goal in mind: group shopping. As this article from the New York Times notes,

As [self-described shopaholic Tracy] Noah stood in front of the mirror, a camera relayed live video images of her to an Internet site where online participants could view her outfit. When Web viewers responded by sending her comments, their instant messages popped up on the left side of the mirror for Ms. Noah to read. They also selected items for her to try on, causing virtual images of the clothing to appear before her in the middle of the mirror, like life-size holograms.

The article notes that shopping for non-essentials (ok, what I would call non-essentials) can be a largely social experience for many, and the prospect of trading a night out shopping with the girls isn't likely to be replaced by a night in front of the computer watching one of your friends go shopping any time soon.

Augmented reality mirrors have been a hot topic lately. Other blog posts about them include:
AddMirror brings retail media to the narcissist
Adidas virtual shoe-fitting mirror

Tags: IconNicholson, Bloomingdales, digital signage, interactive mirror

Immersive Display Solutions and ZmmConnect present the Ad.mersion system

Maybe I'm starting to get old, but the more I see gimmicky advertising solutions like interactive floors, 3D holographic displays and immersive systems, the more quickly I immediately think "this will never catch on at-retail." Aside from some extremely cool-looking demonstrations, I just haven't seen many practical applications that use these kinds of things to do something unique, innovative, and genuinely useful.

Of course, every once in a while somebody like Reactrix - makers of some of the aforementioned interactive floors - will go and do something amazing like raise $45 million to place their wares into malls in hopes to sell advertising and sponsorship deals, but to me even that kind of seems like having more dollars than sense. Perhaps it's because I'm not the right target audience, and maybe getting kids to jump up and down and run after a spinning Nike logo on the floor really will help to build a connection between brand and budding consumer. But I'm going to need to see some data before buying into that.

Now on the other hand, I do think that these kinds of immersive technology may have a place in experiential shopping venues - those who put the brand and the experience front and center instead of focusing exclusively on selling products (and after doing a bit of research, it seems that David Polinchock from the Brand Experience Lab would agree).

Where's this going? Well, I started giving this area some thought after reading that a company called Immersive Display Solutions announced that a great use of their immersive graphical "bubbles" (for lack of a better word) is retail advertising. I'll be the first to say that IDS's immersive screens are extremely cool. They create a feeling of depth and motion that just can't be matched by a much smaller flat screen. However, it seems like this is a solution in search of a problem, and I'd be surprised if the Ad.mersion system, as it's called, can gain traction in the increasingly competitive out-of-home advertising market. Do the displays have the ability to attract a crowd? Yup. Will it be enough to offset the expense of the system and its ability to only address a relatively small number of people at once? Right now, I don't think so.

Granted, advertisers have a long history of latching on to the latest novelty in hopes that it will catch enough attention with its uniqueness to make it worthwhile. But like my feelings towards Reactrix, it's going to be a challenge to show that these systems are practical for more than brand promotion and producing a more interesting in-store experience.

Tags: Ad.mersion, marketing at retail, out-of-home advertising