Our own Donna McPhail alerts us to this artical from Ad Age;

Deloitte Study Shows In-Store Spending Is Outpacing Even the Internet

(From AdAge.com) Published: September 26, 2007 -- The fastest-growing medium isn't the internet, but shopper marketing, where retailers and package-goods marketers are shifting hundreds of millions of dollars -- doubling their expenditure in the past three years alone.

That's according to a draft report of a new study obtained by Advertising Age and expected to be released tomorrow by Deloitte Consulting for the Grocery Manufacturer's Association. The growth comes despite the fact that marketers have yet to figure out how to define, measure or administer their shopper-marketing efforts.

More growth expected
The study finds shopper marketing has grown from 3% of the overall marketing budgets of the 19 package-goods manufacturers surveyed in 2004 to 6% this year. The manufacturers expect it to reach 8% of marketing budgets by 2010.

That puts the compound annual growth rate for their shopper-marketing spending at 21%, faster even than spending on internet advertising (rising 15% annually) and far faster than the 2% growth projected for spending on such traditional media as TV, print and radio.

Retailers are boosting shopper-marketing spending even faster, which isn't surprising since much of the spending takes place in their own stores. The report pegs growth there at 26% annually, even as spending on traditional media by the eight retailers' surveyed declines about 1% annually...

Further in the article there is a clumping together of "in-store TV" with floor and shelf ads. While it is very encouraging to see screen networks associated with this growing area of spending, it can still be a little disheartening to see it categorized with static POP displays.

Why this move to spend more at the "shopper" level?

First, it represents an investment in the retailers own locations, which makes it truly self serving. But at the same time it can be an investment in bolstering the consumer's brand experience when visiting those same retail outlets. More bang for the same limiited bucks...

Invisible PC A Sign of Things to Come

(via Gizmondo) Soon we'll be knee-deep in ubiquitous computing without even knowing it, where the PCs will be everywhere and appear to be nowhere. – Charlie White

Coming soon to a retailer near you... it's a screen, it's a pc, or is it? Actually it is both. Gizmondo posted a piece yesterday about this product, which clearly shows the path we are headed down. As the PC footprint shrinks, it becomes easier and cheaper to install digital signage networks. And this type of display is much less likely to experience vandalism, which is a problem that has hindered more retailers from using shelf-level screens. There is a lot of talk and focus on the use of larger and larger screens for digital signage networks, but we feel that hardware such as this, when networked and running interactive and informative brand content in the aisle could be much more impactful with consumers overall.

Study finds that 54 percent of top marketers plan to drop one of their public relations or advertising agencies this year.

Reuters via CNNMoney.com
It could be a rough year for some ad and PR firms as more than half of their clients could switch agencies in 2007, if data from the Chief Marketing Officer Council is correct. In a new study, CMOC found that 54 percent of the 350 top marketers surveyed plan to drop one of their agencies this year.

That comes after 2006, when two-thirds of the marketers dumped agencies, which the group says is due to increasing pressure to show results from publicity campaigns. "What we're seeing here is a reflection of the overall pressure that senior marketers now have ... to justify their spending," says Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.

The study concludes that "marketing is undergoing substantial changes due to a mandate for CMOs to improve the relevance, accountability and performance of their organizations."

Read the full story here.

We might suggest that PR firms are hitting the ceiling trying to rise above the din of the media marketplace while getting the mandate from clients mentioned above. And why not try another agency if you don't feel your retainer is getting results? There are more than a few bad PR agencies out there...

This is more evidence that the traditional agency model is struggling to serve their clients effectively in our fragmented, noisy and cluttered marketplace. How can you bring the best strategy and creative to bear when a new media venue is popping up every other afternoon?

The answer (just as it was in the dot com heyday) is to specialize and measure as you go, building the credibility of the new media channel. That's a mandate for ScreenVox, to make sure brands get the best possible mix of creative and measurement on the screen networks of today and the future.

GM Cuts $600 Million Off Ad Spend -- Yes, Really

DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- GM slashed ad spending by more than $600 million last year, a drop so stunning it should convince even the staunchest doubters that the age of mass-media marketing is going the way of the horse and buggy.

GM's ad spend numbers would suggest a cut so enormous that the falloff is greater than the total spending of, say, Nike or Volkswagen.

Sporting Life is a retailer of sporting equipment and apparel in the greater Toronto area, and they have installed digital signage in their flagship stores in the greater Toronto area. ONESTOP Media group is the "turn-key" provider of the network, while FOURWALLMEDIA is the shop handling creative.

We've been keeping an eye on the network's content over the past few months and have come to some conclusions that have implications for retailers looking to deploy similar networks.

Firstly, using 40 inch LCD screens in a clothing retailer practically demands deploying with a portrait orientation. How do you show a gorgeous model in a $1,200 ski ensemble on a landscape oriented screen? Answer: from very, very far away. Not good.

The screens are bright and the pictures are sharp. They are at the right heights, meaning not too high. All the screens are in synch, and you cannot avoid them, no matter where you look. Installation showed little or no visible clutter of cables, mounting brackets or the like. The specific screen locations and sightlines are well thought out. But when the other static signage and back-lit brand POP displays are factored in, there is a definite "clutter" factor overall.

But then again, you're at the mall buddy.