St. Paul, Minnesota-based The Vomela Cos., which provides specialty graphic design and printing services, has acquired printing company Visual Impact LLC, Blaine, Minnesota. 

"As a full-service provider in out-of-home advertising, retail, hospitality and events, Visual Impact's capabilities align well with Vomela's current offerings and strengthen our ability to deliver branded experiences to a growing portfolio of clients," said Vomela president and CEO Mark Auth in a news release.

The Vomela Cos. is a full-service specialty graphics provider, producing a wide variety of promotional, store decor, event, fleet, original equipment manufacturer (OEM), commercial and transportation graphics services. The company employs more than 1,400 people in 23 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

Visual Impact joins Vomela’s family of brands, including C2 Imaging, which specializes in retail signage and on-demand digital printing; Corporate Identity Systems (CIS), which provides end-to-end, high-design graphics for retail, vehicles and environmental; Fusion Imaging, which provides large-format printing services; and Pratt Visual Solutions, which specializes in creating retail environments through design, store decor and P-O-P for brands of every size.

Kroger has tapped OneView Commerce to deliver a series of digital initiatives.

In a move to meet changing shopper needs, Kroger is leveraging OneView’s headless Unified Commerce platform and capabilities to finalize the grocer’s digital orders and power e-commerce pickup and delivery experiences at more than 1,000 Kroger locations.

"Using OneView's platform, we continue to deliver an innovative associate experience," said Sriram Samu, customer technology vice president at Kroger, in a news release from OneView. "The solution helps us create a seamless associate experience through guided processes and simplified training — ultimately reducing our customer wait times."

Kroger development teams leverage OneView's unified commerce transaction engine to meet both store associates' and their customers' rapidly evolving needs across modalities, according to the release.

"We are pleased to support Kroger's phenomenal success in speeding delivery of solutions based on their strategic business transformation priorities and customers' needs," said OneView CEO Linda Palanza in the release. "Their results are a testament to our vision for unified commerce and our platform's power to enhance customer and store associate experiences while enabling retailers to retain control over the development and delivery of new brand-based interactions."

7-Eleven’s annual "Bring Your Own Cup (BYOC) Day" is making its return to stores in August for the second time this year, after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Aug. 27, 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards loyalty members are invited to fill up the cup or container of their choice with their favorite Slurpee drink flavor for $1.99 at participating 7-Eleven, Stripes and Speedway locations. 

The return of BYOC Day follows the reactivation of 7-Eleven Day (otherwise known as "Free Slurpee Day"), which is observed annually on July 11, though was also canceled the past two years due to pandemic precautions. BYOC Day also returned earlier this summer for the first time since before the pandemic on May 13 and 14.

To participate in the retailer-designated micro holiday, shoppers must bring their own clean cup (or creative container) that can fit upright within the 10-inch diameter hole in the in-store Slurpee display dispenser.

"We know that Slurpee drinks are a summertime staple for customers, so we're bringing back BYOC Day to celebrate the popular frozen beverage for a second time this summer following a very successful Slurpee Day," said Dennis Phelps, 7-Eleven proprietary beverages senior product director, in a news release.

Slurpee flavors available include blue raspberry, cherry, piña colada or Coca-Cola as well as 7-Eleven’s limited-time mango lemonade flavor.

OneScreen.ai, a marketplace provider for buying and selling out-of-home (OOH) advertising, has launched a comprehensive public directory of OOH advertising inventory with more than 3,200 providers, including media companies, vendors and agencies.

According to a news release announcing the launch, the directory comprises more than 864,000 media listings across a variety of categories, including billboards, taxi toppers, LED trucks, street furniture and transit signage, in 340 different formats.

The rapid rise of OOH advertising has been met with some challenges, including making it difficult for marketers to manage inventory and long sales cycles manually. OneScreen.ai’s directory aims to alleviate some of those pain points by offering searchable listings and a suite of free tools to manage inventory in one place, accelerate sales conversations and increase discoverability by potential buyers.

“Building and deploying this exhaustive directory is the genesis to ensuring everyone can easily and openly buy or sell OOH ads,” said Sam Mallikarjunan, co-founder and CEO of OneScreen.ai, in the release. “While other directories exist in the OOH space, none are democratized — completely open and public, without a third party intermediating to keep sellers from interacting with buyers. Now, that is no longer the case. … Our mission is to continue working collaboratively with industry friends and partners to even further accelerate the success of OOH.”

Media owners can upload, edit and sell their inventory directly from their listing in the directory. Some free tools include campaign building, embeddable maps and invoicing intended to make their inventory more accessible, discoverable and easier for marketers to buy.

From Aug. 1-14, select Best Buy stores will serve as temporary PokeStops as part of Niantic's Pokemon Go, the free augmented reality mobile game that lets players catch and fight digital monsters based on their real-world location.

For two weeks, Pokemon Go trainers can visit more than 800 Best Buy stores turned PokeStops to find and collect essential items, like PokeBalls and Pokemon eggs.

Best Buy is also drawing attention to the latest collection of Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) products, which mostly launched in June, including:

• The Pokemon Go Elite trainer box expansion, including 65 card sleeves featuring Mewtwo, 45 Pokemon TCG energy cards and a collector’s box for the cards.
• The Mewtwo V or Melmetal V Pokemon Go V battle decks in multiple styles, including a 60-card deck, three reference cards and one code card to play online.
• The Alolan Exeggutor V Pokemon Go collection, including four booster packs and one code card for Pokemon TCG Live.

INEO Tech Corp., the developer and operator of the INEO Media Network (a digital advertising and analytics solution for retailers), in July entered into a programmatic partnership with Broadsign, a platform provider for digital-out-of-home (DOOH) programmatic advertising. 

With this agreement, advertisers and media buying agencies who utilize Broadsign's Reach platform will gain access and be able to purchase ad space on INEO's Media Network of display screens located at the front entrance of retail stores.

"Teaming with Broadsign allows us to make our inventory more accessible to advertisers looking to reach consumers at the last mile,” said Kyle Hall, CEO of INEO, in a news release. “We're thrilled about the new revenue potential this partnership provides and look forward to continuing to grow the INEO Media Network and increasing our advertising fill rates."

"Connecting with consumers in-store can influence purchasing decisions and help grow brand loyalty when the right messages are put forth. INEO's network is highly desirable to advertisers as interest in reaching retail audiences at the point of purchase continues to grow, and we're excited to onboard this inventory to Reach to benefit media buyers," Broadsign sales director Karim Kanji said in the release.