Marketplace Station guys get US footprint; cut content deal

May 21, 2009 by Dave Haynes

Toronto-based Marketplace Station continues to impress me with the strides they are making with one of the more watched and coveted retailers on this side of the Atlantic.

The first deal the company (also known as Planet-Tek Systems) did of any note was with Whole Foods Market in Canada, and having installed a vendor-centric DS network in the two Toronto stores and put the plans in place for the Vancouver stores, now the guys are working with Whole Foods in the US. They were in Chicago the last several days, and have turned on a much larger Whole Foods outlet in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago – a 70,000-foot concept store for the organic grocer. The store, which just opened yesterday, has more screens than the Canuck installs and, I’m told, those screens offer good sightlines despite the mass footprint of the store.

The company has also done a deal with Vancouver-based Alive magazine, which is squarely focused on the natural health industry.

For alive, says a press release, the partnership will primarily service marketers with a leading multi-platform approach that covers print, online, and now even in-store digital signage communications where many of their clients market and sell their products. For Planet-Tek Systems, the partnership will primarily strengthen their in-store programming elements by transforming monthly editorial topics covered in alive Magazine and its online site into condensed full-motion segments with topics ranging from nutrition, health, environment, and holistic issues.

This is clever at both ends, as alive now has a way to address and cover off the risk of ad dollars moving to digital by moving with it. And Marketplace Station has a solid, known source for refreshed content that’s actually relevant in the environment.

Well done, guys.