News

Golden Pantry chain stocks up on digital signage and mobile advertising

The Convenience Network, a digital signage network provider to the c-store industry, has moved forward with its strategic partnership with ad sales company Engage Mobile Media Solutions, and mobile ad tech supplier iSIGN Media Solutions.

February 20, 2015

Atlanta convenience-store chain Golden Pantry Food Stores has stocked up on digital signage and mobile advertising, thanks to a new strategic partnership between The Convenience Network, iSIGN Media Solutions and Engage Mobile Media Solutions.

Under this strategic partnership, TCN and Engage have agreed to market a complete digital signage and mobile advertising solution in the convenience store channel, utilizing iSIGN's patented technology and hardware, the companies announced this week.

According to the companies' announcement, Knoxville, Tennessee-based TCN, a digital signage network provider to the convenience store industry in the U.S., has moved forward with its strategic partnership with Engage Mobile Media Solutions LLC, the advertising sales arm of Graphic Media Inc., and iSIGN Media Solutions Inc., a provider of interactive mobile advertising solutions that serves advertisers, manufacturers, retailers and advertising agencies throughout North America.

The launch of this partnership included installations into the Golden Pantry chain, a 38-location network located in the greater Atlanta area. Installations began in late January, and were ready for a February launch for contracted advertisers. National brands including Mars, Kellogg's and Swisher Sweets are among the advertisers taking part in this digital expansion for TCN.

"Until now TCN has displayed contracted advertisements, weather, news and sports on digital screens with the purpose of helping store chains promote the sale of products to customers inside the store," said Steve Newman, president and CEO of TCN, in the announcement. "The effort has been successful, and we are pleased to expand our services to best serve our convenience-store clients. We can now deliver point-of-sale advertising to customers at the pumps as well as to the mobile devices of customers as far as 300 feet outside of the storefront, generating interest in our advertisers' products, driving footfall into the stores and ultimately increasing sales."

Newman reports that the initial response to the addition of proximity-to-mobile advertising has been positive. "We expected a positive reaction, but did not quite expect to see such an extraordinary opt-in or acceptance rate by customers," he said, adding that more than 50 percent of the people who respond to the "push" request respond favorably and request to receive the advertisers' messaging.

The iSIGN Smart Antenna is an interactive proximity-to-mobile marketing technology that enables brands to deliver targeted messaging, offers and loyalty perks to consumer mobile devices on location and in real-time. The Smart Antenna delivers relevant, timely messages on an opt-in basis at no charge to consumers, transmitting rich media to consumer mobile devices via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies.

"This strategic partnership is an important expansion of the National Mobile Network," said Ron Leman, Engage's president and CEO. "The forward-thinking and hands-on approach of the Golden Pantry management team helped make the expansion into the Golden Pantry stores a very smooth transition and we expect continued success with their team."