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Infomercials and Groupon deals on digital out-of-home?

Ad tech firm rVue expands its direct-response inventory; will this start a new trend in DOOH?

August 22, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Digital signage advertising is taking another step toward smartphone interactivity, with infomercials, location-based Groupon deals and even music downloads for sale.

DOOH tech firm rVue, which had already introduced direct response infomercials to the digital out-of-home space, today announced the launch of rVue Direct, expanding its direct-response offerings to also include music content, public service announcements and real-time, location-based coupons and special offers.

In March, rVue announced a partnership with Global Infomercial Services to bring "alternative advertising channels" to product marketers (read: shorter versions of well-known television infomercials for DOOH networks).

The company has now added an online portal, the "Content Hub," through which rVue's network partners select DR contentas well as other potential revenue-generating content, such as Groupon deals and music downloads, to play on their networks.

According to today's announcement, the interactive content in rVue Direct's Content Hub features toll-free 800 numbers and embedded QR codes to entice consumers on the go to purchase. "With the launch of rVue Direct, rVue and its DOOH network partners will share in the revenue generated from each product or service inquiry made through the platform. This provides a new revenue opportunity for rVue and the company's network partners in addition to the advertising revenue generated through rVue's demand-side platform," the company said.

Given that analysts suggest most DOOH networks run well under capacity in terms of inventory sold, this means network operators could fill open slots with direct-response content on a revenue-sharing model. Advertisers would not pay for the slots used for direct-response content, but the revenue from any products sold from that advertising would be shared, according to rVue President and CEO Jason Kates.

For instance, rVue's new Content Hub includes "Scan and Jam" segments that feature music playing while a QR (quick-response) code is displayed. Consumers can scan the QR code with their smartphone to be directed to download the song and pay for it via their Amazon.com account, Kates said. Also, the QR codes displayed in the one-minute "Scan and Jam" clips expands to fill the screen after about 45 seconds, allowing consumers to pick it up with their smartphones from about 20 feet away, Kates said, making it applicable for concert venues where the digital signage would be interactive on a one-to-many basis.

The Content Hub also includes Groupon special offers, according to the rVue Direct website:

Daily local deals are streamed live, straight to your network — and ready for easy purchase by your audience. Networks who opt-in to promote daily deals receive a unique flash file to embed in to their playlist. The QR enabled file then populates your content loop with the most location relevant daily deals based on the networks IP address. Networks choose when to run the deals and how often. The latest and most up-to-date files are streamed seamless, with new deals replacing sold-out deals instantly. The file will continue to update itself as often as needed, every day.

The process started with Global Infomercial Services earlier in the year, and has blossomed since then, Kates said in a recent interview.

"We've extended the offering and made it a lot more robust," he said. "GIS brought us that stuff, but it really opened our eyes up to the opportunity to be able to do some other things simultaneously."

Per-inquiry is the name of this style of marketing, Kates said, and rVue Direct is for the DOOH industry, offering some "exciting possibilities."

"There's no media expense; nobody's buying anything from anyone. It's all on a revshare model," he said. "And every single media channel on the planet, they all use this business model, and it works, just look at the QVCs of the world."

The direct-response element from consumers also means networks can get additional analytic information to better sell their networks and show their reach to other marketers, Kates said.

But the medium still has to get buy-in from both halves of the equation. DOOH network operators will have to embrace playing content on their screens with no guaranteed level of income, while direct-response or per-inquiry vendors will have to embrace the shorter timespans of DOOH advertising. No one involved thinks consumers are likely to stand around in a mall or a train station to watch a 30-minute infomercial.

But the ability to target consumers out of the home, and to potentially catch them when they are in a buying mindset, is an attractive proposition, according to GIS' Director of Sales and Marketing, Michele Quinlan, in a recent interview.

A cautiously optimistic Quinlan acknowledged that she wasn't entirely sure how well the usually longer-form infomercial format would translate to the shorter-length of DOOH ads, but said her company is happy to be able to target shoppers out in the marketplace and get immediate responses via QR codes.

The next month or so could prove critical, she said, since any responses to the direct-response content will provide GIS with analytics to take to its product vendors, who have to be convinced to truncate something along the lines of a 30-minute "Magic Bullet" infomercial down to 60 or 120 seconds.

"This is the great experiment, to see if it works," she said. "We have a big trade show next month, and we hope to have enough data from our tests right now to take to our vendors. They're going to be the toughest ones to convince."

The variety of added content, combined with digital out-of-home's ability to reach people in, well, out-of-home environments and mindsets, though, has Kates more than a little optimistic.

"The whole idea is that digital out-of-home deals with consumers, not audiences," he said. "And that's the opportu."

Read more about digital signage advertising on our DOOH Advertising research center.

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