In 2011, some 1,400 Mac’s/Couche-Tard convenience stores in Canada are set to be connected by a digital signage network that includes bluetooth enabled technology, operated under a new partnership between Toronto-based iSIGN Media Solutions and Pinpoint Media Group, Mediacaster Magazine reported.
Using iSIGN’s patent pending interactive advertising solution is expected to expand the advertising content reach to mobile phones, allowing for real-time analysis by incorporating wireless, location-based interactive proximity tools running on Bluetooth enabled technology.
The roll out of the new technology is scheduled for early 2011 in Quebec, where the chain has over 85% of the market share in the convenience/gas retail market. Installations are then planned for Ontario where it has a 65% share of the market and Western Canada, where it has a 60% share of the market.
Pinpoint Media is a marketing and branding firm, with a focus on in-store retail networks. The Pinpoint network consists of 5,200 digital signs/faces and is contributing and influencing the $8 billion in annual transactions from up to 1.5 million daily customers in Pinpoint enabled locations. Once all signage is embedded and advertisers request activation of the IMS 3.0 software, annual revenues of just over $8 million are expected to be generated by iSIGN’s monthly licensing fees.
The embedding is an automated process, performed remotely, as is the activation, which will be done throughout the network to engage advertisers.
“This will be a very unique ROI opportunity for our advertisers and will be instantly measurable as all signage is embedded and the IMS 3.0 software activated for advertisers,” said Enmanuel Rumbos, president of Pinpoint Media. “This is something that ad agencies and clients alike are constantly looking for in this emerging medium.”
“Advertisers on the Pinpoint signage network will be able to receive real-time feedback to each advertisement sent to shoppers’ phones from every sign in each location,” iSIGN’s CEO Alex Romanov told Mediacaster Magazine. “Currently our IMS 3.0 software has demonstrated the ability to interact with 150,000 or more mobile devices per month from a single unit and we look forward to the volume of data we will capture in a chain with millions of customers monthly. Pinpoint’s advertisers will be the beneficiaries of large volumes of confirmed responses to each advertisement.”
