The recent launch of TouchTunes’ Attract Media platform provides an example of how digital technologies for better targeting consumers are being applied to video, ads and music outside the home.
TouchTunes, which grew out of the digital jukebox industry, provides an interactive music and entertainment platform for music, video and ads that is deployed in over 71,000 bars and restaurants in North America and Europe. It also provides a mobile app for Apple and Android devices that allows users to play music in venues.
It currently handles over 1 billion transactions a year and is the largest in the country, explains TouchTunes COO Jim Wilson.
The new Attract Media platform is designed to expand on those efforts by providing a cross-platform experience for TV screens and mobile devices inside bars, restaurants and other venues.
Mobile proximity technologies allows the platform to deliver targeted advertising based on anonymous demographic information from the phones in the location. It can also use that information to target the type of entertainment, music and ads that are being aired at the venue. “We have a good sense of who is in the venue and can use that create interesting experiences,” he says.
The platform is designed to provide a different experience than the sports or other TV channels airing in the venue but Wilson stresses that in the future they could work with TV players to create targeted second screen experiences. “It would be possible to offer ads and experiences based on what is on the TV at a given time,” he says.
It also partnering with content producer to promote films. Recently, Universal Pictures worked with Attract Media to promote the film Fifty Shades of Grey. Using Attract Media’s screens, consumers across the country could view the film’s trailer, swipe through an interactive photo galler, and play music from the soundtrack in-venue.
“The digital out-of-home category is a fast-growing market as it provides advertisers with highly compelling, interactive formats to engage consumers,” Wilson says. “With Attract Media, we are transforming the way marketers can leverage digital screens in-venue as an activation platform by integrating mobile, social, proximity, and other technologies.”
In addition buyers like WPP’s Kinetic can accesses Attract Media’s inventory directly, as well as programmatically through its exchange.
