Zoom planning to double digital network over coming year
August 5, 2008 by Dave Haynes
Ok, back from a weekend of bagpipes (kids), beers (me) and monsoon rains (Mother Nature). No PC. No blogging.
There’s not that much I missed, but I did read some very encouraging news from Zoom Media’s US operation (note – a company client), which has stuck its wet finger in the economic air and decided to go ahead and double up on its digital screen network in bars and eateries.
Zoom Media & Marketing, having completed the first phase of its digital rollout in its out-of-home nightlife network, expects to hit 1,000 venues by Spring 2009, the company announced Tuesday (Media Week). The digital network in bars and restaurants is currently in 500 venues across the top 10 markets, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The digital LCD panels are networked by a broadband Internet connection to offer advertisers flexible, targeted advertising by venue and day part. Content features a mix of paid advertising and promotional content that the venues use to highlight menus, events and specials.
“One of the elements that make Zoom’s Social Network uniquely valuable to marketers is the dwell time,” said Dennis Roche, president and chief operating officer for Zoom U.S. “Patrons are generally at these establishments for up to 2 hours, which allows for longer form communications, multiple messages, and more creative forms of ads than can be accommodated in an environment with lower dwell times.”
In addition to the digital network, Zoom’s nightlife media category extends to 4,000 bars and 16,000 static billboards.
There are definitely some companies holding off on deployments right now, either because money has dried up or they want to see how much of a recession this really is. So it’s good to see some companies looking things over and going forward. For out of home companies like Zoom that have to roll trucks to sites to change printed material, digital is starting toi make more sense — particularly if the poster face can change remotely, and several times a day.
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