Network selling ads on screens embedded in coin-op dryer windows

February 19, 2011 by Dave Haynes

I’ve heard business plans here and there from people targeting coin-operated neighborhood laundries as a media venue, because of the lengthy dwell times. But it was the usual screens-on-walls thing. This is the first time I’ve seen a network that actually puts 8-inch digital screens IN the dryer windows.

The Clean View Media  Network is working with the American Dryer Corporation (ADC) — billed as “the industry’s undisputed leader” in dryer technology — to market a system that has an LCD panel embedded right into the dryer machine window.

The system is IP-connected to Frame Channel (Scala’s) digital picture frame, Media RSS-driven platform.

Clean View Media™ DryerAd video display doors are the most exciting innovation in the coin laundry industry since the invention of the stack dryers in the 80?s! Now, laundromat customers become ‘your’ customer by allowing them to be entertained while you are providing them with valuable information about your company’s products and services.

The company is based in Watsonville, California and has about 100 screens up and tumbling. But the company suggests there is a huge market available, with some 30,000 coin op laundry venues in the US and multiple machines in each location.

“This is an exciting new venture,” says Paul Coty, Vice President of National Sales for Clean View Media ™ Network, and distributor of commercial laundry equipment in California. “Not only can businesses promote themselves to a very attentive audience, but they will also be able to control their advertisement content, select location, and advertising schedule using the internet. The launch of Clean View Media ™ Network will allow our clients to create their ads using text and image uploads or provide links to YouTube videos of ads that they have created.

The go to market strategy seems to be putting these upgraded dryers with screens into locations for no cost (the upgrade part, not the whole dryer) and then taking a piece of the advertising revenue.

CVMN is an excellent option to bring into your facility both for the ad revenue you will generate, but also for the customer service and entertainment value that you are providing. Let’s face it, most of our laundries are functional, not many are entertaining. We can help your laundry stand out from the crowd and guarantee extra revenue each month you are a CVMN partner.

Payments to Owners are a percentage of the ad revenue generated by that location. Ad prices are based on estimates of how many customers pass through monthly. This estimate is based on water use and equipment mix. A large busy store could make thousands of dollars in extra revenue every month through this program! Rest assured, no information about your business will ever be shared with anyone for any reason.

It’s kinda loopy, but not entirely so. As a hyperlocal ad thing, I like this a lot more than ads in really transient environments like c-stores (where people may be in front of screens for mere seconds). But the day-to-day audience numbers would not be very high at all on laundry venues, and the laundry crowd is also not what you’d call a premium advertising audience.

There is a section about national advertising, but the current footprint would probably have to grow by 100X for that medium to even be a consideration by big brands – never mind all the objections that would get raised about formats, measurement, compliance and so on.

The promo video shows the cause and effect thing of a young woman seeing an ad for Mexican food just down the street, and heading out to grab a snack while her clothes finished off. That’s true hyperlocal. But someone has to sell that ad, and that is something way more easily suggested than accomplished.

The assertion that these screens could make thousands of dollars in extra revenue every month is also a bit on the wishful side. There’s a long history of networks that have made those kinds of claims, and few if any have ever really delivered on the rev shares that were touted.

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