Commentary

Mall Ad Net Adspace Brings 'Second Screening' To Malls

by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, October 4, 2012

One of the most interesting aspects of the mobilized retail conundrum is ownership of the experience and the customer. Amazon and eBay are not the only digital entities intruding on the brick-and-mortar world with their own insurgent brands. Third-party shopping apps, mail owners, coupon vendors, packaged goods manufacturers, mapping services, and more are all using mobile as entryways into the shopper experience. Now the in-mall ad network Adspace is getting into the fray with its own promotions app Clip’d.

Adspace operates a network of digitally connected HD screens within malls that claim to reach 48 million unique visitors each month with visual programming. The core business for Adspace is based in 2,864 displays in 205 malls in the U.S.

The app itself lets you pick your nearest mall and then serves you coupons and promotions for the nearby stores. The app also has video content that is complementary to the stores. Adspace is promoting the app with its own in-mall media. Fifteen-second and 30-second spots on over 1700 screens will illustrate how to download and use the app to passing shoppers.

In early tests at select malls around the country, Adspace claims strong activation and interaction rates. Clip’d will work now in 128 malls, and so can try to address about 31 million uniques a month.

If those people bother downloading. After all, there is shopping app clutter already in the market. Just as manufacturers and retailers stuggle over whose app really should be addressing the consumer, so too does the consumer have to wonder where best or first to go to get deals and offers for the nearest or favorite retailers. Retailers have their own apps, malls their own, and then there are the discrete coupon apps, rewards programs like Shopkick, product scanners, etc. Most of these apps vying for user attention are trying to leverage their existing media and customer relationships to break through the app glut. But do we risk just confusing the consumer with these many app entryways?

mobile, retail

2 comments about "Mall Ad Net Adspace Brings 'Second Screening' To Malls ".

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Dev Crews from Citrix, October 4, 2012 at 1:56 p.m.
People seem to be responding well, paying attention, watching the digital billboards, and downloading the apps, even in a rather distracting environment. Clip’d is working with the StarStar platform (from my company) so the app can be downloaded by simply dialing **CLIPD (**25473) from any smart phone. The downloads have performed very well, with strong end-to-end engagement and high activation rates, comparable to some of the results we have seen with broadcast TV campaigns.
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Andrew Coleman from Rogue Two Marketing, October 5, 2012 at 5:21 p.m.

Love the concept - a viable promotion proposition that's genuinely and directly connected to in-store retail sales volume (as opposed to ecommerce, which is easy-peazy these days compared to old-school retail point of sale complexities).

The only rub I see is that this platform, like most others, is still basically just a tool for merchants. That may make sense at a mall (since merchants pay the rent, after all), but they're not the disintermediated parties here: it's the CPGs who have the problem. (not to mention the untapped consumer promotion budgets) Their products sit on other people's shelves; retailers (as always) remain the gatekeepers.

Find a way to tap into CPG promo dollars (not silo'ed or fragmented by retailer) and you will truly see digital coupon activations take off...