Mood Media Bulks Up Retail Media Capabilities, Acquiring AdTech Firm Vibenomics

March 21, 2023 by Dave Haynes

The retail-centric solutions provider Mood Media has bulked up its capabilities in the fast-growing area of retail media networks, acquiring Vibenomics, a company focused on in-store digital advertising.

Known most for in-store audio/radio, Austin, TX-based Mood says it does on-premise media for more than 500,000 business locations, across some 140 countries, including curated music, messaging, digital signage, content management, and scent marketing.

The company says adding “Vibenomics’ differentiated technology position in on-premise media solutions enables deeper insights for advertisers, increased revenue opportunities for brands, and greater consumer engagement and analytics at the point of sale.”

Vibenomics, based in Indianapolis, is described as a single, all-in-one retail media network, “empowering retailers to digitize their on-premise experience and advertisers to connect with customers via display, audio and experiential channels. Through a first-of-its-kind turnkey solution, this model delivers the ubiquity and revenue-generating capabilities needed to drive the next iteration of retail media.”

Vibenomics says it works with hundreds of CPGs, and more than 50 endemic and non-endemic categories.

“Mood Media is committed to delivering the next generation of in-store technology solutions,” says Malcolm McRoberts, Mood’s CEO. “Vibenomics extends these efforts by strengthening our ability to deliver highly effective programmatic advertising that enhances consumer engagement, provides critical analytical insights, and helps our customers and partners super charge their business results. Put simply, our goal is to be the leading, end-to-end cloud-enabled provider of fully-integrated on-premise media experiences and the combination with Vibenomics and their outstanding management team allows us to accelerate that journey.”

With Mood Media’s advanced on-premise digital solutions for display and audio, this new-to-market turnkey solution creates a simplified ad-buying experience for advertisers while enhancing the management of the customer experience and the associated return-on-investment for retail owners. It’s a single point of integration for retail media platforms to access, deliver, measure and evaluate on-premise digital impressions. Retailers will be equipped to maximize and measure the impact of on-premise digital messaging via multi-touch models and omnichannel strategies, as anticipated to be outlined in the 2023 IAB’s retail media categories, definitions and buyers guide.

“As champions of innovation, we believe that retail media networks represent the future of on-premise digital experiences for brands, retailers, and consumers, and they are an important component of any marketer’s digital ad campaign,” says Brent Oakley, CEO at Vibenomics. “Joining forces with Mood is an important step toward innovating retail media. It allows Vibenomics to massively expand our reach and that of our advertising partners and media networks, while delivering a greater level of sophistication to the retail marketplace.”

Mood suggests retail media networks are booming, with U.S. retail media spend increasing from $31B in 2021 to a projected ad spend of $61B in 2024. This spend represents 17.2% of total U.S. digital ad spending – indicating the important role of retail media in the next generation of on-premise advertising and consumer engagement.

It’s important to note that while digital screens in stores are included in the definition of retail media networks, there are other components – some that quite probably represent a big chunk of that spend – like websites and apps.

Just about everyone in digital signage chases retail, but the ones most focused on it are probably STRATACACHE (which owns PRN), Creative Realities (which picked up in-store advertising software in buying Reflect), and Spectrio, which has a suite of services that include visual, audio and scent marketing (Disclosure: Spectrio owns Sixteen:Nine).

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed in PR.

Leave a comment