BrainTrust Query: Will the CBS Acquisition of SignStorey Transform In-store Media?

As an agency practitioner who has worked in the in-store industry for 16 years, I support this move by CBS--it will help expand the visibility of the store as a viable media space and I hope it will expand the network to include more stores.

That said, I cannot stress the importance of integrating shopper testing of the actual "creative product" that the network delivers to shoppers. The medium is at risk of overall failure if the shoppers become annoyed and turned-off and move on to screen-free stores. The network needs to understand that short-term sales goals will NOT drive success. If we listen to and learn how to please shoppers and truly deliver content that "helps" them in the stores, we'll have a more appropriate, effective and measurable marketing tool in the long run.

Anne Howe, Founder, Anne Howe Associates

I am not sure that the benefit in this is necessarily for the retailer. It does not seem to me that a consumer will make a supermarket or any other retail store a destination because they can watch out-takes of 60 Minutes.

But for CBS and for consumers it continues to give access to sending out messages (what is on tonight that you may not know or have forgotten about) and for the consumer another venue to choose to be informed, assuming that they are already not listening to a download on their iPod or working on their Blackberry

Overall I think a great move for CBS.

Charlie Moro, President, CFS Consulting Group, LLC

In 1992 Ted Turner started his TV network for airports (still successful today) and the Checkout Channel (for supermarkets). The Checkout Channel was soon scrapped, but the medium grew robustly. CNN supplies programming to Captivate, which has screens in 700 office buildings in 21 cities, largely in elevators. PRN takes programming from NBC and Fox, for Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and other chains. It's very common for cross-media ownership to thrive. CBS owns highway billboards and many local newspapers own TV and radio stations.

Mark Lilien, Consultant, Retail Technology Group

There is TV and digital media in-store? Seriously, and I shop regularly, no one watches or listens. And if they do, it is absent mindedly. The money here is made on manufacturers paying money to the in-store media salesperson who does the best job of selling this non-starter. Read all the stats on shopping behavior...time crunch, store choice, etc, etc and who is going to watch TV, let alone a commercial, in a store unless stuck in a line? And, didn't we all just discuss how line speed is picking up, and where it isn't, retailers like Whole Foods are getting a lot smarter about entertaining their customers, and it is not with a TV!

Richard Alleger, Vice President, Rodale Press, Inc.

I thought it was a great move when Thomson acquired PRN--that match-up held a lot of synergies and made a lot of sense. CBS acquiring SignStorey, I'm not as sure. If we were talking about Cox or Comcast or someone like that--another distributor--that would make more sense to me. But I like the idea of someone with a lot of content with some skin in the game. As Laura says, I think the market for that content is somewhat limited beyond grocery, but the solution space definitely needs an enthusiastic injection of content and this deal could be the first step down that road.

Has CBS signed content deals with other network providers? Some of the gas station people, for example? I wonder how it will affect those deals....

Nikki Baird, Managing Partner, RSR Research

I'm probably displaying my age and sounding like a grumpy old man, but I get absolutely nothing out of the TVs that are placed around our local stores. I can see TVs that show D-I-Y ideas in a Home Depot or Lowe's as adding value for consumers and other similar applications. The only value I have seen in my grocery shopping trips is the local weather forecast at the checkouts. Quick clips of shows, ads, etc are just noise or something to clutter your mind when you are in a hurry to complete a quick trip to the store. And wouldn't you love it if the person ahead of you in line takes longer to checkout because they are watching something on the TV that they just have to see? It is easy to see what CBS will get out of this, but much harder to see the benefit for the rest of us.

Art Williams, Retail Marketing Consultant/Analyst, Independent

"Transform" may be an overstatement of the immediate impact of the CBS deal. "Accelerate" or "validate" may be more appropriate. This was certainly not a surprising deal, as the two companies had been working together for some time. Clearly CBS sees the SignStorey grocery network as a perfect entry into the space, and a natural outlet for their content. SignStorey was diligent in its channel focus, so as Nikki points out, the formula may have to change in if other channels are pursued.

All that being said, having yet another media behemoth enter the fray will only accelerate innovation, adoption and consolidation in all aspects of the emerging narrowcasting space. To the extent that more partnerships, more M&A activity and more investment are driven by CBS' entry, then in the long run "transformation" may turn out to be apt.

Ken Goldberg, CEO, Real Digital Media

Might be good for CBS. Maybe they can finally get someone to watch Katie Couric if they're stuck in a checkout line.

Len Lewis, President, Lewis Communications, Inc.

This is an extremely positive development for in-store media, although Richard Alleger's reservations are right on target. The fact is that there are billions of people, globally, visiting stores every week, and there is no reason to believe that they cannot be reached by "walk-by" media. The appropriateness of the content, whether for brand building or stimulating an immediate sale, is a vast, unresolved issue. Compounding the problem is the number of micro-environments that occur in each store--literally hundreds, if not thousands. This is the challenge for content and placement--what message, when and where. Think of it this way: did Burma Shave highway ads work? In-store TV will work--eventually.

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor TNS Global Retail & Shopper, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

Aside from helping similarly-built companies settle on a valuation and exit strategy, it seems unlikely that CBS's deal will have any significant effect on the business models or implementation strategies of other projects, especially those that don't rely on 3rd party advertising as their primary revenue source.

I look at the deal as a hedge by a company with a foot in both the broadcast and OOH media worlds. If the value of OOH continues to increase (or accelerate, as it has the past 3 years), the value of SignStorey's real estate (which CBS priced at about $50K/store) will increase significantly. If it doesn't, they get to write off some or all of a $71M investment, which isn't a huge amount of money for them anyway.

Bill Gerba, CEO, WireSpring Technologies, Inc.

This looks like a great boost for the retail medium. However, the content that CBS will be distributing takes our eye off the ball of in-store sales activation.

With the stated approach to content, theirs will be a place-based media play, rather than a tool for triggering purchase of products within reach of the screens.

Still, it signals new interest and much needed momentum.

Gwen Morrison, President, The Store, WPP's Global Retail Initiatives