Reflect Adds AdLogic In-House Retail Ad Planning Platform

April 4, 2017 by Dave Haynes

One of the slightly curious things I learned last week at DSE was Reflect – which I totally think of as a retail-centric digital signage CMS – introducing an advertising platform.

My first reaction was: “Huh?” Between Ayuda and BroadSign, and a handful of others out there, that turf is well-covered. Then there are the many, many online platforms, all the way up to DoubleClick, that could also serve ads for targeted screens.

Then there is that little thing about most third-party ad-driven retail networks failing …

But I sat down and got a walk-through, and that cleared my fog. The Dallas-based company has built something called Reflect AdLogic, which is an ad-planning and placement system that retail networks would use just within the universe of their own stores. So a big mass merchandiser could have internal sales people selling and flighting campaigns within its store network for brands that sell products in those stores. It’s not a tool for third-party, non-endemic, build it and pray we sell ads kind of network.

Before Reflect AdLogic, says a company press release, digital signage network operators manually inserted ads into content playlists. Now, they can easily manage advertising campaigns by programming AdLogic to achieve objectives based on frequency of plays and audience impression targets. Scheduling functionality automatically takes into account each location’s hours of operation and customer traffic to calculate precisely the number of ads that will need to be displayed. Ads will automatically play based on the campaign parameters programmed, and advertisers have assurance that they will get exactly what they have paid for with reporting that provides verified playback data.

“Possibilities are limitless when you are a technology company. When we see an opportunity to make our products better, we invent a solution, improve the process, and our clients enjoy the results,” says Matt Schmitt, president and chief innovation officer with Reflect. “It’s satisfying to see our vision come to life with AdLogic, and we’re pleased to be bringing this platform to the market.”

The platform was put together with the guidance of longtime industry consultant Rob Winston, who was walking clients and folks like me through the platform. That’s meaningful because Winston spent years as the frontman for the research and ratings company Arbitron, so the platform is methodical and relevant.

The version I saw was functional, but still early release. The company is now making it all look pretty.

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