Ad network players start pushing into ethnic venues

May 2, 2008 by Dave Haynes

A press release that moved Thursday talks about Houston-based ZipCast‘s deal to start installing screens into a Hispanic drug chain in LA and the Bay area.

Farmacia Remedios only has 10 stores, so this is hardly a blockbuster. But it represents what you are going to see more and more of in this space – specialization and carving out well-defined verticals. I have clients at various stages of their plans that very precisely go after a certain piece of the market, be that ethnicity or type of retailer.

In this case, the press release says: ZipCast will launch these commercial grade 42” plasma screens in strategic store locations such as in-store medical offices, Hispanic OTC and homeopathic areas. To maximize viewer retention and increase revenues, screens will broadcast medical educational videos, instructional guides and product advertising.

Getting focused makes sense in many respects, because it should be much easier to build up critical mass and also much easier to identify and tap local and regional ad dollars. Somebody who wants to establish a network in chain drug across the US needs to be in 20-25 markets to start getting any real attention from national media planners. Carving out Hispanic-focused drug stores in a few key markets is still hard work, but probably a much easier road to head down.