I recently paid a visit to a mall here in the US. Financial and commercial real estate analysts have been telling us for some time now that malls are on a major decline. Want to see the hard facts, check out http://allthingsd.com/20121221/why-malls-are-getting-mauled/ or just go to deadmalls.com for some real doom and gloom stories. But my visit to a metro Atlanta mall on a friday night showed none of the signs of a failing model. The place was absolutely crammed full of people shopping.
Shopping… but not necessarily buying.
In strolling through the mall, I noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before (perhaps because I dont normally shop in malls very often). It was your usual light up floor ad sign, but with a little sticker on the side prompting mobile phone interaction.
This isnt new. I’ve seen these before. And this particular one looked well worn; edges peeling and tampered with.
I first tried scanning the QR code, only to come up with an error page. Then I texted the short code on the sticker and was led to a mobile website which showed me a series of trivia and bad jokes.
At the end of the 3 page, rather boring experience, I was asked about the type of content I would like to see here.
Turns out this is part of Eye Corp’s Amplify marketing network, which, based on their website marketing pitch, extending the push of display advertising onto a consumer’s mobile device.
While this interaction was not a terribly engaging one, I was happy to see that this mall and their ad space vendor was trying to gauge the public’s interest in this medium. That said, tiny stickers on the side of out-of-home boards without any perceivable value exchange is not a real test for the viability of interactive boards.
A silly 3 page mobile survey/trivia experience does not make me want to tap one of these boards the next time I visit. There’s SO much a mall with heavy foot traffic could do with these boards to engage shoppers with their the adjacent stores rather than just blanket OOH display ads. According to Eye Corp, they get 285 MILLION taps on these boards per month!
In short: the pump is primed to give consumers something better to do with their mobile devices in stores and public venues like malls. Who’s going to be the first to really engage this audience!!!??
I do a lot of research on line for pdtrcous I am interested in. I then check out what it would cost with shipping charges. I call local stores to see if they can match the prices I can get on line. I will purchase locally if the prices are good as it is easier to return something in person than to pay for shipping and waiting for a credit return.