Your Ad -- and Product -- Here

The store is an advertising medium, but that doesn't mean displays are merely billboards. At least I hope not.In developing our profile of CompUSA this month, we learned about the CompUSA TV Network, an in-house operation that sells ad space on nearly 18,000 screens situated throughout the chain's 226 stores. The network is touted by CompUSA as a great way to "reach 6 million tech-savvy shoppers per month" along with thousands more employees "for as little as $42 per store."But aside from one token reference, the web site extolling the network's virtues completely ignores the direct, immediate impact these spots might have on sales of the advertised products. Isn't that sort of missing the point?The store provides an effective venue for generating brand impressions, for reaching large numbers of people in a way that traditional mass media increasingly cannot. That's why a company like 1-800-Contacts will buy floor decals in supermarkets -- or why even a TV network like ABC will work with American Greetings to get promotional ads for programming onto store shelves.But discussing the brand-building potential of in-store advertising without emphasizing its ability to increase sales is like a discussion of Pamela Anderson's acting talent without mentioning her appearance. At best, it's a little disingenuous; at worst, it's completely irrelevant.The danger in treating the store as just another advertising medium is that the primary function of retail -- selling product -- gets lost within the agency-speak conversations about "consumer impressions" and "cost per thousand."Taken to the extreme, display space could end up being viewed as ad space to be granted by the retailer to any product willing to pay up -- rather than to the products with the greatest potential for incremental sales gains. Display innovation gives way to standardized templates, with guaranteed placement making uniqueness less urgent and, quite possibly, the impact less substantial.The strength of an ad on Wal-Mart TV rests not in its ability to reach more than 100 million shoppers, but in the fact that it signals the immediate availability of that product to them.Will Wal-Mart TV ever accept advertising from products and services that the chain doesn't offer in stores? Quite possibly. But you'll never see Wal-Mart base its merchandising decisions on Wal-Mart TV's advertiser list.That would be missing the point.Peter BreenManaging Director, Content

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