Increasing hunger for digital engagement.

Burger King in the UK took home the 2011 Marketing Week Engage In Store Award for digital menu boards. The digital technology enabled them to alter what appears on its menus at the food brand’s 40 UK travel locations to reflect different types of customers, their buying motivations and the time of day.
As a result, sales of some products were boosted by as much as 63%.

Marketers are increasing using digital technology, customer insight and precision targeting techniques to get the maximum out of their point of sale activity.

Retailers can be concerned about giving up floorspace without clear benefits, so working with retailers to develop specialised in-store marketing benefits both the brand and its partner stores. Forging relationships with retailers is vital if brands are to implement PoP successfully in stores, building relationships with retailers is a “smart trend”, according to Phil Day, director at point of purchase trade association POPAI.

Investment in technology-based PoP can be expensive, so working with retailers to find a solution that benefits both parties means that PoP is much more likely to get used effectively, rather than gathering dust in the stockroom.

Day says that using digital technology in stores to aid brands and retailers is no longer niche, but a mainstream activity. He predicts that innovation in this area will come from even better PoP integration into other marketing techniques in future.

Day adds: “Brands that are successful think of it now as part of their overall marketing strategy.”