Q&A: Mood Media and Vibenomics Merge

Q. Who is Mood Media?
Brenner: Mood Media is the world’s leading on-premise experiential media company, servicing over 500,000 customer locations worldwide. The company is dedicated to elevating the customer experience through curated music, messaging, digital signage, content management system (CMS), scent marketing, audio-visual hardware systems and more. 

Q. Who is Vibenomics?
Brenner: Vibenomics, now a Mood Media Company, is a first-of-its-kind, turnkey solution combining digital in-store audio and visual media with adtech and ad sales solutions for any retailer, retail media platform, DSP or advertiser. 

Q. Why/how will this acquisition augment Mood Media’s business?
Brenner: The retail market is looking for simplified digital in-store solutions. With Mood Media’s scale and Vibenomics’ innovative advertising technology, the acquisition adds to Mood Media a full-stack solution for brick-and-mortar advertising, increased revenue opportunities for retailers, and greater consumer engagement and motivation at the ever-critical point of sale. Merging with Mood Media gives Vibenomics the scale and U.S. in-store retail network to aggregate and deliver over 275 million monthly unique shoppers to advertisers.

Q. How does Mood Media plan to integrate Vibenomics’ technology into their own and when?
Brenner: Our limited partnership on technology began more than six months ago. The go-to-market solution is available today as a combination of Mood Media’s content management software (CMS) for audio and displays in-store and Vibenomics' full-service advertising offerings. As we move forward, product features will be advancing; integrations are expanding to include more retailer data and tying retail media platforms into our scaling inventory is a priority.

Q. How can retailers bridge the physical-digital gap and drive innovation?
Brenner: The retail landscape has pivoted to focus on the customer experience. Stores must incorporate technology to deliver a  “phygital” (physical and digital) experience to their modern consumers. The consolidation of Vibenomics’ and Mood Media’s networks — combining on-premise experiential media and in-store advertising solutions on one digital platform — meets retailers’ needs to continue in-store innovation. For brick-and-mortar stores to thrive, they must embrace an all-in-one platform like ours that digitizes and personalizes the in-store shopping experiences that today’s consumers expect. 

Q. How does this acquisition change the competitive landscape and impact the market at large?
Brenner: No other company in the market today has the scale and retail diversity of Mood Media and offers a single CMS solution for digital audio and visuals in-store that include in-store digital advertising. The acquisition comes in an era when retail media networks continue to flourish, with U.S. retail media spend increasing from $31B in 2021 to a projected ad spend of $61B in 2024. As champions of innovation, we believe that retail media networks represent the future of on-premise digital experiences for brands, retailers and consumers as an essential component of any digital ad campaign. Joining forces with Mood Media is a crucial step toward innovating retail media in-store in the next generation of on-premise advertising. 

Q. Will the Vibenomics brand be rolled into Mood Media, or will you act independently?
Brenner: Vibenomics will remain in place as a wholly owned Mood Media subsidiary leading the in-store advertising division. Our new tagline, “The Sights and Sounds of Retail Media In-store,” demonstrates how we intend to serve the market as a Mood Media company.

Q. What does this mean for existing customers of Vibenomics? 
Brenner: Access to Mood Media’s digital assets will empower Vibenomics’ retail and advertising partners to enhance their in-store experiences with a turnkey solution delivering the ubiquity and revenue-generating capabilities needed to drive the next iteration of retail media. Additional features include:

• Ease of campaign execution via programmatic providers.
• Creative, hyper-local and contextual audio advertisements to reach customers while they are in the store.
• Optional managed services available for retail media networks through the Vibenomics Ad Ops team.
• Proof of performance reporting on actual impression delivery.
• Integration directly into retail media platforms.
• Closed-loop attribution available through the Vibenomics partnerships with retail media network POS data.

Q. What can we expect from Mood Media and Vibenomics over the next few months?
Brenner: This acquisition signifies the beginning of a rapid expansion and in-store innovation. It enables us to quickly grow the number of brick-and-mortar stores investing in digital experiences, onboarding new retail media networks, and expanding advertisers’ access to our platform’s inventory. We’re anticipating rapid scaling throughout multiple retailers and platforms in 2023.