Retail Media

"Retaility" TV

2006-07-20T11:49:00.000-04:00

Coming soon to a cable channel near you: "Unwrapping Macy's", a reality show starring, well, Macy's. The show will follow employees' lives as well as the procedures that go into creating the retail environment in America's largest department store chain. Eight episodes are scheduled to air on WE beginning September 30.

This blog was created to follow retailers' forays into media, but never had we expected something this meta.

Have a Coke and an SMS

2006-04-07T10:56:00.000-04:00

Coca-Cola, always intrigued by pocket technology, is poised to deliver branded content to cell phones. Ringtones, animations and wallpapers will be among the items created by a licensee. The key, according to a Coke spokesman? "Brand extension."

Moi

2006-04-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

New from Lancome: Moi, "True beauty at its best." The website is a page-by-page image dump of the magazine, which is available at Lancome counters nationwide. The content is one long advertorial, explaining how to get the most out of Lancome's product line.

The genius of the website is discovered a few pages in: "content" comes complete with integrated shopping and hard-to-miss "add to bag" functionality at the bottom of the page. Read, like, buy: a true realization of the sales world's concept of ecommerce.

A little less multi

2006-03-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

Reverse spin: Yahoo has announced that it is backing away from producing original content, TV-style. In addition to being a bit of a dressing-down for Lloyd Braun, who was brought in specifically for this expertise, it throws a raised eyebrow on retail media producers. If a company committed to multimedia entertainment has slowed down some of its content production, is it because plenty of content exists already that can be repurposed, as Yahoo suggests? Or is there simply enough content out there right now that the company wisely realized this is not the time to be adding to the total?

Infiniti's feature-length ad

2006-02-21T09:05:00.000-05:00

Infiniti's New 30-Minute Ad Is Not An Infomercial, says Infiniti, at least. It's a design piece with philosophical thought from leading African-American creative talents that ends with a focuts on its automobiles. What made this interesting: the program ran on BET twice during Black History Month, and the program will receive follow-up advertising support in March.

Somehow, BET found it appropriate not to label the piece as paid programming, even though it is. The fact that it's not a "hard sell" allowed the automaker to get away with a half-hour of advertorial that does not alert the viewer to its nature. Expect to see more permutations of this if Infiniti sees positive results.

Starbucks in print

2006-02-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

Starbucks--no stranger to media, with its burgeoning music business--has teamed up with Yahoo to create a dating guide to be distributed in stores. The "Espresso Dating Guide" is available on Yahoo's personals site and is filled with handy advice for (surprise!) a date at a Starbucks.

Amazon "series"

2006-01-20T15:48:00.000-05:00

Not three weeks into the new year, and the retail media space is rolling again, this time with an online retailer moving into a new realm. Amazon.com is debuting the Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher Feb. 1. The weekly series, which will be available on amazon.com in live streams and via download, is a "typical" 30-minute talk show, complete with stand-up comedy, celebrity interviews and live performance.

Amazon claims is goal is to "to offer innovative and interactive opportunities for customers to discover ... new films, music and books." But it's also an eyeball play: a chance to get people used to visiting amazon.com regularly, not just when they're looking to make a purchase, and to monetize those eyeballs when they do visit.

Happy holidays

2005-12-27T09:41:00.000-05:00

Unsurprisingly, as retailers concentrated on sales in December, their media forays and announcements grew scarce. As a result, so did blog posts to Retail Media. We'll be back in January with more news and a new analytical feature. See you in 2006.

Target Up2d8

2005-12-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

Using interactive media to corral the kids into paying attention is no doubt going to be a recurring theme in this space. Case in point: Target Up2d8, the place to--in Target's words--"find out about groovy gear, fun features and fab trends in your world." Positioned as an online organizer, Up2d8 includes a desktop app and website that include utility items (like a calendar) as well as fashion "news" that will lead to product and purchasing information.

Up2d8 is a good example of the generational shift that is causing much of retail media's development. Teenagers raised in a media-centric world need to be spoken to in unique ways. (Jim Cramer of thestreet.com recently chastised advertisers for "being in the wrong places.") Up2d8 aims to hit 18-year-olds where they'll be most receptive to the communication, allowing Target to build its brand with impressionable young shoppers in a welcoming manner.

Audi TV

2005-12-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

This news is from a few weeks ago, but it's too good to let pass: automaker Audi has launched Audi Channel, an entire television network, in the United Kingdom. Broadcasting on Sky, Audi Channel includes both product news and information and related content such as LeMans motor racing.

Targeted at Audi enthusiasts (including this author, who drives a 2002 A4), Audi no doubt hopes some of the programming extends its reach to passive and curious television viewers who discover an interesting documentary and engage the interactive features.

Reports indicate that the channel is costing Audi $3.5 million per year and has a potential reach of 7.6 million viewers. It's a fascinating brand extension, although not too far beyond competitor BMW's recently completed film series. Random Culture wisely wonders, however: why not put all the content online? Certainly there's an audience for this content beyond the UK.

The 'Lost' book

2005-11-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting twist: the hit television series "Lost" is spawning a book by one of the characters, ostensibly a manuscript from one of the passengers of the doomed flight featured in the show.

Product tie-ins are old hat. This one, announced last week, has an interesting twist in that its author is supposed to be a character in the show--and a dead one, at that, and one that fans of the show have never met. In addition, the book's plot ties into some of the show's subtext, and mirrors the storylines of several characters on the series.

Given the rabid following and genre "Lost" holds, publishing a book is not much of a stretch. After all, the original "Star Wars" trilogy spawned 45 books in the 1970s and 1980s. Leave it to "Lost," though, to push a book written by a nonexistent and deceased character. Not even "Star Wars" sold books by Yoda's dad.

Saks Fifth Avenue, Book Underwriter

2005-11-14T09:06:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, author Fay Weldon struck what many saw as a deal with the devil, agreeing to include references to the luxury retailer Bulgari in a work of fiction. Weldon gleefully included Bulgari in the plot and the book's title. The publishing industry created a small uproar; some authors demanded that the book be treated as advertising and the book was released under heavy suspicion.

Attitudes have apparently softened in the four years since "The Bulgari Connection" was published. Today's news is Saks Fifth Avenue's involvement in "Cashmere If You Can," a children's book about goats who live on the roof of Saks' flagship Manhattan store. As the New York Times report states, "A Saks Fifth Avenue marketing executive came up with the idea, and the department store chain owns the text copyright. It is as if the Plaza Hotel had underwritten 'Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown-ups.'" And indeed, Saks Senior VP of Marketing Terron Schaefer readily admits that Eloise was the inspiration for the project (bottom box in link).

What's most fascinating, however, is not just that the book was made--on a fundamental level, buying a book about Saks in Saks is not all that different from buying an Old Navy t-shirt that says "Old Navy" on it--but where it's going next: HarperCollins is going to publish the book this fall and sell it in mass retail outlets. And while it is being printed with Saks' full marketing glory, it is being handled as if it were an ordinary children's book, further blurring the lines between art and commerce. Publishing companies are excited for this development.

So: a retailer has a marketing concept, which begets a book that merrily references the retailer behind the project, which the retailer sells as part of an intergrated marketing campaign, which is then discovered and distributed by an outside publisher and outside retail outlets, which are in turn (however unwittingly) promoting the retailer to a completely different audience.

It's a fabulous example of retail media convergence, and a signal to other retailers that the landscape is continuing to evolve.

Nordstrom Silverscreen

2005-11-10T16:06:00.000-05:00

This is the item that got me thinking: what exactly is a retailer these days?

In one sense, retailers have been publishers for centuries. The Sears catalog became popular reading in the late 19th century, as rural home shoppers fantasized about the spectacular products that could one day be theirs. The works of today all derive from earlier forays into clever merchandising and marketing.

In the 21st century, society is moving ever faster toward full media convergence, and that is creating all manner of synergies that would have been far more radical a generation ago. Example: Nordstrom Silverscreen, a downloadable application that promises, "See great '80s videos, remixed." This promise of reworked Go-Go's and Culture Club videos--no purchase required--is coupled with the Mixing Room, where "paper doll" avatars can be outfitted with clothing and accessories sold on nordstrom.com.

It's interesting to note the positioning Nordstrom is using in its promo. "It's totally free," says the site, "and you're not obligated to purchase the outfit you build. Just a little thank you for being a Nordstrom customer." The tone is almost apologetic, as though the people behind Silverscreen want to make sure their program is downloaded and enjoyed by all, no purchase necessary. But that's not the point: the point is to increase brand penetration for nordstrom.com and ultimately boost sales.

Nordstrom Silverscreen is but one example of retail media--a service that simultaneously acts as both halves of the equation. It's a nice effort on Nordstrom's part, and a great place to start our contemplation.

Introduction

2005-11-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Retail Media! This site will explore the continuing convergence of the "sellers" and the "sayers" in today's world--that is, the retailers, brands, and companies that use media communication for more than just selling statements. Blogs, advertorials, catazines, product placements, interactive features: companies are not just marketing anymore. They're becoming part of the conversation. And as a store becomes a publisher and a consumer goods maker becomes a media producer, the question of what is being said--and how, and to whom--must be assessed and observed.