Many great independent retailers are closing their stores. In my neighborhood, a wonderful local store called Cheeky B had to call it quits and liquidate their inventory. In an all to common scenario, their out of state landlord wasn’t interested in working with them, and instead will try to find new tenants looking to risk opening a store in this economy.

Worse, the regional chains are taking a beating…

Joe’s Sports (formerly G.I. Joe’s), a regional outdoor sporting goods retailer filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early March and this week their assets were purchased by (now famous) retail liquidator Gordon Brothers. GI Joes was founded in 1952, they operated 31 stores here in the Northwest. Joe’s said the unseasonably try winter, hurt sales, but many people point to their recent transition from an emphasis on hunting/fishing to a more general sporting goods as their strategic mistake.

Storables, is a Portland based retailer with 8 stores filled for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on March 31st.   Storables continues to opperate and although very few retailers ever successfully emerge from Chapter 11, Storables may be able to use the bankruptcy to divest themselves of some of their orphaned stores (in Minneapolis and Arazona), that are likily disproportionately expensive support with advertising and inventory.

Kitchen Kaboodle is a portland based kitchen retailers with five stores.  This week they announced the novel concept of cutting their days open to just four a week (Thursday through Sunday).  Inventory has looked very light in these stores for several months and they’ve laid off close to 25% of their staff, so you have to be concerend about their long term prospects.  They are trying to shift their brand promise to one of “Low Prices.”

For the employees stuck at retailers during liquidation, it’s pretty ugly.  They will lose their jobs and benefits and be rehired by the liquidator.  Customers will flood the stores in a feeding frenzy, looking for great deals with very little empathy for store staff.  In most cases, they won’t find great buys.  Gordon Brothers historically will raise prices, and then start offering discounts from the inflated new price (a practice they mastered at CompUSA and Circuit City Liquidations).

All these store closings will also hurt food traffic for other retailers in the same shopping centers.  There aren’t many big box retailers looking to expand, so you’ll likely see these “Junior Anchor” stores like Joe’s stay vancant for quite some time.

I’ll be interested to see where the entrepreneurs that started these small businesses end up.  Will they stay in retail, and move on to something else?  Should we all be investing in Gordon Brothers?

Last week they published a new study, Gone in 2.3 seconds.   This study, surveyed 1000 consumers about the influences on their purchase decisions, and concluded amongst other things that in-store marketing is very effective, and that more than 60% of purchase decisions are still made in the store.  The study is certainly interesting, and I frankly agree with many of it’s conclusions.  You can read more about the study at Ad Week or at the Experiate blog.

However, I have to ask….  is this kind of research methodology remotely valid? Basically they are asking customers to fill out a survey about what effected their purchase decisions.  But psychologists have proven time and time again that human beings aren’t aware of many of the factors that effect their decision making.  Study the work of psychologists like Twitchell, Kahneman, and Tversky to see how bad we really are at understanding and predicting our own decision making.  In fact, it turns out that when you tell a person in advance that after making a decision they will have to explain it, you dramatically influence the decision they will make.  We’re even worse at predicting what will influence our future decisions, and how we will feel about those decisions.  I’m confident that if we could survey every apparel shopper who has an unworn, expensive item hanging in their closet for over a year, just before they made that purchase, most would say they expect the purchase decision to make them very happy and could even give you reasons why it would.  Yet the item hangs in closet as a trophy to buyers remorse.  When the survey respondents said that they were more influenced by in-store communications than advertising, does anyone really beleive that the respondant thought back through the 3000 advertisements a day she was exposed to, before concluding that the fact tag in the store is what compelled her to own an item?

I’ve used this type of research countless times in my career, but I don’t put much stock in it anymore.  We ask people for subjective opinions, often when we know that those people can’t possibly give us accurate answers, and then we tally up their answers and call it “Quantitative” data (usually to imply it’s more credible than the more fuzzy “Qualitative” data of other research methodologies).  It’s a great methodology for proving that a tactic or strategy we already want to follow is the right one, but I don’t think it stands up to much scrutiny.  These days, I far prefer research methodologies that observe the shoppers actual objective behavior, it’s usually slower and more expensive, but it it’s worth it.

It’s interesting, that they have opened a number of retail stores with a distinct consumer feel (and certainly with expensive high foot traffic rent), despite the fact that WiMax is probably more of a Business to Business solution at the moment.   WiMax claims download speeds of 6Mbps and upload speeds of up to 1Mbps, although like most wireless technologies your actual speed is highly dependant on coverage.  At my office out in the suburbs of Portland, I get good coverage and 5Mbps downloads, but in my 4th floor condo in the heart of the downtown Pearl district, I barely get coverage at all, and when I do it’s slower than my AT&T 3G broadband card.  Clear promises that they are adding more access points in my neighborhood, and that the dense, tall buildings are a challenge for the relatively directional WiMax signals.  They have a variety of rate plans ranging from pay as you go, to $50/mo for unlimited mobile usage, which is the plan I have.

Anyway, this week Clear came out with a new toy, the Clear Spot. This is a batter powered WiMax to WiFi router/hub that allows you to share your Clear connection with other WiFi users.  In theory, this is pretty cool… plug your WiMax USB modem into the battery powered, small form-factor hub, and you start broadcasting a WiFi signal that your laptop, IPhone, X-Box, etc… can all use.  And since it is portable, you can easily use it at the coffee shop, your car, etc…  So being the early adopter that I am, I grabbed one up for $139.

It works exactly as promised, configuration is very easy.  You can set it up with password protected access, add WEP or PKA Personal security, it passes through VPN and every other service I’ve thrown at it. 

But my initial reactions are a bit disappointing.  First of all it charges with a proprietary charger vs. a standard USB connector (so I’ll need to buy two extra AC chargers to throw in my travel kit and office, and a DC charger for my car).  The proprietary charger is 5v (which is what USB uses), but it’s 2.5A which is more juice than a standard USB charger, so in theory it would charge more slowly if they used a USB charger.  Since this uses a mobile phone style Li-Ion battery, it’s hard to imagine they couldn’t have adopted a USB charging standard. 

My next disappointment came when I learned that it would only work with my Clear modem and not my AT&T USB Connect Mercury modem.  In fairness, neither Clear nor the hardware manufacturer, Cradlepoint, promised that it would, but the Clear Spot is just a rebranded Cradlepoint PHS-300 which does work with my AT&T modem.  Basically if you buy the Cradlepoint branded version you get AT&T compatibility, and if you buy the Clear branded version you get Clear compatibility.  Cradlepoint promises to support WiMax directly in some products, but apparently the marketing gods decided to intentionally cripple this particular hardware, because that always makes for a great customer experience.  I sent an e-mail to Cradlepoint tech support, and they responded that the latest firmware could be downloaded from the website which would make it work with both modems, but that turned out to be erroneous information.  I then sat on hold with tech support for 45 minutes (they weren’t kidding about average hold times being over 30 minutes), and had a customer service representative confirm that the Clear version of the product can’t be used with the AT&T modem.

Since currently clear doesn’t have coverage anywhere but Portland, and since I can’t use my nationwide AT&T modem with the Clear Spot, at least I won’t have the invest in the travel accessories for the Clear Spot.  Come on Clear, this could have been a really cool product.

Let me start by saying that Apple has the best dollars per square foot metrics in all of retail.  They don’t need to apologize about their stores to anyone.  Further, there are many elements of their experience that I love,  including their signature architecture, genius bar, useful fact tags, category signage with decision tree suggestions, window displays and wireless CRM.

That being said, here are some areas that could be improved…

Accessory shopping. Apple does a great job merchandising their own product (and editing their assortment) but their merchandising for third party product is pretty weak.  First the adjacencies are very poor(accessories are merchandised far from the primary product).  Once you get to the accessories display, the signage and wayfinding is non-existent.  Cases for iPhone, iPhone 3G, iTouch 1.0, and iTouch 2.0 all look alike, and Apple leaves shoppers trying to find the small print on the individual SKU’s packaging to tell which are which (and of course the packaging has no consistent standards across brands).  Once you find something you might want to buy, you can’t try it!  Am I really supposed to buy $400 headphones without auditioning them?  How good is this printer?  Which Bluetooth car speaker is the loudest?  What features should I care about in this category (you teach me exactly how to shop for a laptop but give me no advice on buying external storage for example).

Where do I go to  pay? The wireless POS system apple uses is great, but it can be really confusing to figure out how to buy something.  Not every employee has a terminal, some have a cash drawer, some don’t.  Some can take gift cards, some can’t.  Do I just line up behind any name badge and wait until my turn to learn if they are a walking cash register or not?!?  Is this the line to pay or for the Genius bar?   Watch people shop these stores, and you’ll see lots of prospective shoppers bounce around trying to buy (and in some cases, you’ll watch them give up and walk-out).

Nothing to discover. I can visit a Best Buy store every week, and each time find some new product that wasn’t there the week before.   Apple’s assortment is much more static and predictable.  It’s very rare for me to walk into an Apple Store and accidentally discover some exciting new product.  I need a reason to visit your stores more frequently.

Multi-Channel? Come on Apple, you’re a leading technology company, but I can’t check the inventory of my local store online?  I can’t pay with my iTunes account using my iPhone in the store?  I can’t build a wishlist anywhere.  Can I use the website to reprint a receipt from the store?  Separate operations for online and physical stores is so last century.

Apple stores are an exclusive club, and I’m not a member. These stores really are a victim of their own success.  Zealous Apple customers  love to “hang out” in the store and talk to employees, which is great, but new customers have to interrupt the ad-hoc user group to get help.   There’s a whole Apple vocabulary that I don’t know.  The store culture is just not inviting to the uninitiated.  If you don’t believe me, try sending your Mom into the store, and see how long it takes her before she has the courage to engage an employee.

Scale? As an investor, I also worry that the completely labor dependent sales assisted environment is scalable.  What would your stores have to look like if you ever to enjoy 20% – 30% of the personal computer marketshare?  Could you keep hiring the quality of people you rely on now?  You’re customer experience doesn’t seem to translate very well from 200 Apple stores, to 800 Best Buy stores for example.

Retailing is really hard, and I can easily imagine the internal debates about the compromises involved in fixing any of the above.  I know it’s not fun to get criticism, but looking at your stores through critical eyes is how you get better.  I first hired Envirosell to study one of my stores in 1994, now they’ve been tearing apart my customer experiences for over 15 years.  I hate the experience, but I keep going back because they make me better.  Apple does a great job, but you’ve got to keep innovating or someone will do it for you!

Obivously, the economy will have a major effect on attendance this year (as it has with almost every trade show).  I’ve spoken to many clients who will not be making the trip (many will be missing the show for the first time in years).  Once again the show is during Spring Break, and March Madness here in Las Vegas.

Personally, I suspect that many exhibitors and attendees will skip this year, learn the world did not end, and may not come back even if when  the economy does turns back around.  I’m really suspicious about the ROI for companies like mine to exhibit at these shows, so in one sense, I won’t be disappointed to see the show become less relevant.  On the other hand, I really enjoy the opportunity to network and spend time with my peers in the industry, and it will be shame to lose that.  Perhaps it will all get replaced by some flavor of social network?  One idea that makes a lot of sense would be to put on these shows every 2-3 years, as is the practice with the big European shows.  That would allow enough time to really build up some interest and buzz when the show year does come around.  I’m sure that the event companies that put on these shows don’t want to walk-away from the annual revenue, but they really need to consider something dramatic to save their business.

Although Microsoft hasn’t publicized the scope or mission of this new retail initiative.  Many reporters and bloggers responded by immediately assuming the stores will directly complete with Apple and that Microsoft’s efforts will fall short of the Apple experience.

• Microsoft Retail Stores a Risky Proposition - PC World
• What Microsoft Can Learn About Retail from Apple and Best Buy  - Fast Company / Robert Scoble
• Microsoft apes Apple – Tech Harold

I’m excited that Microsoft is getting back into retail (Microsoft opened a store at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco from 1999 to 2001), and I think they have every chance to do so successfully.

First of all, we don’t yet know what the scope and mission will be for this new initiative.  Will it be a single flagship store, or a world-wide chain?  Will it cover the full range of Microsoft products, or perhaps just be a gaming store?  One thing we do know, it’s purpose will be very different than Apples was.

When Apple hired ex-Target exec Ron Johnson to open a Chain of Apple stores in 1999, Apple had a major problem.  They had a well recognized brand with a zealous community of users, but no reliable place for them to buy products.  Today Apple operates 250+ stores which allowed it to survive the implosion of dedicated computer retailers in the US (CompUSA, ComputerCity, etc…).

Microsoft has exactly the opposite problem.  Consumer can only buy a small subset of it’s product directly.  Microsoft sell most of it’s applications directly to businesses, and it’s operating systems directly to computer and device manufacturers.   Microsoft products are widely available.  So Microsoft’s problem is a about branding not about distribution.

Secondly, while Apple is a great retailer that has pioneered some true innovations in customer experience, they are far from perfect.  There are many elements of their customer experience that are down right annoying.  Further, the shoppers needs are always evolving, so even if Apple does a great job of meeting shopper needs today, they can easily fail to meet them tomorrow (just ask Piggly Wiggly, Woolworths, or A&P).

It would be impossible to propose a strategy or design for Microsoft Retail without knowing what specific pain points Microsoft intends to address with its retail strategy.  But its easy to think of some frequently overlooked elements of the customer that Microsoft could raise the bar on, and own.

So here are some suggestions to Microsoft Retail:

Sensory Branding.  Nordstrom, Tommy Bahamas, and others are starting to effectively use smell in addition to sight as part of the retail brand, but that’s still just the tip of the iceberg.  How can Microsoft weave the smell of a freshly opened X-Box, with the signature sounds of their operating system, and the distinctive tactile feel of a Sidewinder mouse all in a physical space?  If it do it well, they’ll be the first ones to do so.

Converge the in-store and at-home experiences.   Consumers started mixing the two long ago (over 50% of consumers that spend more than $100 in a Best Buy did their research on-line before visiting the store).  How can the physical stores embrace that and take it to the next level?  Can I start a shopping experience in a web browser at home and have my cookies shared with the store?  Can the store make sure they e-mail a custom set-up guide for any products I buy, so that instructions customized to my use-case are waiting for me when I get the product home?  If I make a list of the A/V products I own at home (or take a picture), can the store use the data to sell me the right cable for my X-Box in the store?

Assortment Editing.  This is going to be a potential challenge for Microsoft, but our choices when we go shopping these days are overwhelming.  Too many retailers just throw us to the wolves with a dizzying array of choices.  Apple does a great job of assortment editing with their own products, but they jump the shark as soon as you get into the accessories and third party products “what’s the difference between these eight different headsets?  Can I try them?  No!?!?”. Look at a retailer like REI in terms of doing a great job of assortment editing of third party products.

Exclusivity.  We all want to feel like we have the upper hand over our peers in some way.  Were you the only one of your friends to get to see the new TV Pilot before it came out?  Do you have the only Puma x Yo! limited edition shoes in your circle of friends?  When I go to the trouble to visit your store, reward me by giving me an opportunity to get or experience something unique that I can boast to my friends about.  Even better yet, surprise me with something that I didn’t expect when I came in to the store.  And surprise me with something different every time; create anticipation.  Maybe it’s a custom ring tone from famous artists that I can only download to my Windows Mobile device from the store one day, and the next time it’s a Photographer taking a professional portrait of me to use in my Windows Live! Space.

Social.  Shopping is a social experience, so design a physical space for it.  What can I do in the store with my friends?  What could I have done if I had brought a friend, that will make me want to invite a friend along next time?  If I didn’t bring a friend, can I start a video conference from your store to my friends?  How can I share my shopping experience with the people important to me?

Aspire.  Make we want something that’s hard to get.  Perhaps it’s the dream gaming rig that I can’t afford.  Or maybe it’s the complete collection of weekly free songs I can download for my Zune.   How about allowing me to earn frequent shopper points, that I can eventually redeem for a custom Avatar on X-Box Live?

Solutions not Products. Don’t just sell me a product, sell me a new experience or a new use-case that I want to be able to do.  That experience probably requires me to buy some new things from you, but they need to work with things I already own, and I need to have the knowledge to make it all work together.  This is a HUGE disappointment for most customers “I bought this phone with speech recognition, to be able to use the Bluetooth feature of my new car to call my husband on my way home from work, but I’ve never made it work.”  Be the first retailer to help me get the experience I want (even though it involves products I already own and education that I probably won’t pay for).

Proximity Marketing.  Turn my mobile phone into a wireless physical cookie that lets me share info with the store in exchange for a better shopping experience.  I don’t just want frequent shopper points for purchases, I want them every time I walk in and turn on my phone.  When I talk to a salesperson, I want him to know how I connect to the internet at home, which controllers I have for my X-Box, if I watch videos on my Zune, etc….  All this needs to be completely opt-in of course, and I should always be able to shop anonymously using the stealth mode for the wireless cookie app on my phone.  And DONT make this just for Windows Mobile phones.  Be the first retailer to offer a custom shopping app for the IPhone to enable a unique experience in your store.  Have digital fact tags adjust to my preferences when they detect my presence.

This is fun, exciting stuff!  (yes, I do know that I’m a dork)

But there are also a couple of things I would avoid.

Don’t use cool technology, just because you can and just because it’s “cool.” If you need an example of why this doesn’t work, go visit an AT&T store with Surface in it.  Every element of the store has to add value for the shopper, just being novel isn’t enough (especially if you expect shoppers to visit more than once).

Don’t try to walk in others shoes. If your competition really is Apple, then don’t try to out Apple, Apple.  Figure out what features they “own” and don’t hang your hat on those features.  If they already own distinctive architecture for a retail store, you should still have great architecture (we all should), but don’t try and make that you’re signature element.  There are two many new innovations to be made, to bother walking behind a strong competitor.

I know a lot of people like to see the 800 pound gorilla fail, and many are betting against you, but there is SO MUCH ROOM for our shopping experiences to improve, I’m excited to see a company with Microsoft’s innovation, talent, and resources move the ball forward.

Their first hire, David Potter, is an executive with leadership experience at the most successful retailer in the world (Walmart), and one of the greatest story tellers there is (Pixar); that seems like a great start to me.

I have no problem believing digital signage can be an effective tool in a window display (see my recent Harrods post).  But most successful windows displays are designed to draw you into the store.  In this case, these windows need to drive you someplace else.  Worse, the overwhelming majority of closed stores are in less than desirable real-estate where the shopper has already migrated away.  If I were an out of home advertiser (happily I’m not), I’m not sure I’d be too excited about buying sub-optimal locations and then hoping to change a hundred years of consumer behavior by using the windows to drive traffic to some other shopping venue.

Since the inventory of advertising locations is likely to be pretty liquid, it’s going to be a challenge for the network operator to have capitol equipment available to set up ad-hoc digital signage displays.

Does digital signage offer some special opportunity in these empty windows that some form of static advertising does not?  (other than all the usual intrinsic advantages of digital sigange).

All and all I just don’t get excited about this.  Am I too cynical?

Adrain Cotterill who writes the excellent Daily Digital out of Home blog, sent me a heads-up this morning about a new window display being unveiled at Harrods.

For US centric readers, Harrods is based in the UK, and is one of the premiere department stores in Europe along with the likes of KaDeWe from Germany or Printemps of France. The US doesn’t have a true equivalent in terms of eclectic and comprehensive product assortment, but I suppose the closest comparison would be to a premium Macys.

In any case, the new Harrods windows features a display technology called Itrans provided by Screen Technology Limited. The technology allows for super-bright daylight viewable video images that can be configured into irregular shapes. The Harrods window features a series of modules configured in the shape of an “L”.

I assume the display is being used to display full-motion video rather than static images, and I’m eager to hear what length of clips and how many different spots the Harrods windows designers intend to run.

I’d expect to see the spots be very short, since they have to capture attention and delivery their messages instantly.

Regardless, I love the idea of the irregular shaped display. The Psychologists call it the “Orienting Reflex”, an innate human disposition to give more attention to the unusual/unexpected. (Biologists point out that the OR response helped keep early humans alive by noticing predators, changes to the environment, etc…).

We’ve all spent our whole life looking at landscape oriented 4:3 (or now 16:9) TV screens. They seem neither unusual or unexpected to us, and most of us have become expert at tuning them out. That’s why I’m a much bigger fan of using monitors in portrait mode. Harrods use of an “L” shaped display is even better.

Of course it’s no surprise that Harrods (a world class practitioner of window displays) would know how to best leverage our most basic psychological responses to capture our attention. For most of the history of retail, the dressing of display windows has been considered the highest form of art in retail visual merchandising. It used to be common for talented students to study theater in school (for the great lighting and staging experience) and go on to apprentice for a top window dresser for many years before getting a chance to do their own windows.

Sadly, in the US as urban sprawl became the norm, and retail migrated from city centers to indoor mega-malls, windows displays became somewhat of a small niche. As we are currently seeing a shift back to city center retailing, it will be interesting to see if great windows displays re-emerge. I hope they do.

Ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. They do a number of events each year at a variety of international venues. The primary attendees are brands, agencies, publishers, portals, and service providers.

I’m not sure if it’s the intention, but the bulk of exhibitors and content are primarily focused on web based activities (media buying, search, e-mail marketing, web analytics, affiliate marketing, blogging, etc…). There is not (yet) much of a presence for Digital Out of Home, much less retail environment specific content.

Obviously, their oversight willingness to let me in, shows they have some interest in retail. The exhibit floor has about 300 exhibitors, mainly with 10×10 or 10×20 booths. The anchor exhibitors were Yahoo and Google. It felt like the overwhelming majority of exhibitors were focused on some element of the web advertisement delivery supply chain.

The only Out of Home or Retail focused exhibitor was SeeSaw Networks. SeeSaw is a what I like to call a network aggregator for DOOH advertisers. Meaning, they allow an advertiser to buy spots that play across multiple DOOH networks. They also partner with LocaModa to do some interesting marketing campaigns to mobile handsets.

As for my panel, I found my fellow panelists pretty interesting. Our moderator was Lori Schwartz for the Interpublic Groups Media Lab (I’m looking forward to visiting her lab in Los Angeles next week).

After Lori introduced us, I led things off talking about state of in-store marketing, and my often repeated opinion that the goal of in-store marketing activities in the store has to be to drive sales and customer satisfaction, not to sell ad space. I shared a few case studies of our work with context sensitive digital signage, RFID based customer affinity, and SKU Activated merchandising. Lori and the audience asked some tough but insightful questions, and hopefully I didn’t stumble too badly. I think the RFID based customer affinity (aka “the Minority Report” style marketing) was most interesting to the audience.

Alan Schulman, the creative director of IMC2 talked about what was new and cool from the perspective of an interactive agency (Alan was quick to point out that IMC2 is the largest still independent interactive agency out there). He showed a case study of the next generation of proximity marketing experiences planned for deployment in New York City taxi cabs.

Michael Mak, demonstrated bCODEs kiosk/scanner for optically reading a text message from a standard cell phone. This allows a marketer to SMS a textbased eCoupon to a consumers phone, and then the consumer can redeem it in a store by holding their phone up to a kiosk. I’m a big fan of using a mobile phone (or other consumer owned device) as the “physical cookie” in retail stores. At the moment, bCODE has one of the best means of doing so. The minority report style experience we can create with a wireless keyfob is very compelling, but how many consumers will carry a pocket full of electronic tracking devices once the experience really takes off? Clearly consumers need a single device that they already have reason to carry, that lets them opt in to multiple environmental CRM experiences. Obviously an RF based solution would be much preferred to bCODEs optical system but at the moment bCODE is a pretty good cost/experience trade-off.

Last, we had Bruno Uzzan from Total Immersion demo their very cool “Augmented Reality” technology. This was by far the coolest live demo of the four of us, and drew all the oh’s and ah’s from the audience. Basically, they load 3D models of objects into a computer, and plug a video camera into the computer. So for example, Bruno had scanned the physical box that a set of LEGOs comes in, as well as detailed 3D models of the items you can build with the LEGOs inside. When he holds the box in front of the camera, the camera recognizes the box (no mater what angle or orientation), and the computer software superimposes the 3D model on the face of the box and even lets him manipulate the model. So you can imagine setting up a “Magic Mirror” in a LEGO store where kids can grab any box off the shelf, hold the box up to the “mirror” (aka Monitor w/ camera), and see what can be built with those LEGOs. It’s a visually stunning demo. I can clearly see the benefit for large scale presentations and events, but I have mixed feelings about its retail application. I have no doubt that the technology can be used as an effective traffic generating novelty. And I can also see the great benefit to interactive 3D models being used to demonstrate certain products in a retail store. I’m imagining back-yard swing-sets in a toy store that has no room for actual swing-sets, for example. It’s not clear if attaching the 3D model to a physical object and then watching it on a video display is really better than just directly watching the 3D model on the display. I could see it going either way, so I’d certainly want to test it with real shoppers before I made a major commitment of resources. If the price is right, I’d put one in a flagship store without a second thought. This has much more visual impact than say, a MS Surface.

Here’s a few more independent reviews of our panel:

Internetnews.com

techconfidential.com

ad:tech blog

My bottom line… if you are in retail or DOOH you can definitely get something out of these shows, but I wouldn’t skip a major retail show to attend ad:tech instead. On the other hand, if you’re looking for some cool IT services and tools to serve up banner ads, you’ve hit the mother load.

I was recently traveling through the security checkpoint at the San Diego airport, and found this tray provided to pass my luggage through the X-Ray machine.

This ad works for two reasons.

1. It surprised me by hitting me with a message when I wasn’t expecting it. I’ve been watching TV for my whole life, I’ve trained my brain to tune out the advertising noise from that channel. I was completely unprepared for the ad in the tray, so it got by my usual mental filter.

2. The ad for shoes hit me , precisely at the time I’m holding (and slightly embarrassed by) my slightly passed their prime Allen-Edmunds. Not only will I remember that the ad was clever, but I’ll actually remember what product the ad was for. That’s perfect context sensitive advertising.

By the way, if you haven’t shopped at Zappos.com, it’s the best online shoe shopping experience you’re ever likely to find.

What about you? What ads have managed to rise above the noise for you?