Advertising Company

[captainimmy]

I am a 17 and I have an idea for an advertising company!!!

1. ShopTech...shoping cart advertising...basically what this is a small maybe ipod type screen on the shoping cart at a store that I install on the shoping carts at a store and I sell advertisements every day...maybe messages or music or special that are at the store...
(I would first pitch my idea to a store owner then I would install my little machine on the handle) We split the advertising profits 50/50 or whatever...
It cost the owner nothing!!
what do you think...
any other online websites you can help me with guys!!

[sauer13]

To get a store owner on board you would likely have to avoid advertising competitive products and services; additionally, I wonder if you could further entice the owners / decision makers by offering to dynamically load advertising to products in their store that they are looking to push out the door. I like this idea, it offers a "real world value" that seems to be missing from a lot of other ideas.

Danny

[rogercbryan]

Not a bad idea... the screens are not going to be cheap.. there will be a lot of upkeep as shopping carts get left out in the rain, they get banged around... blah blah blah.. if you can solve those problems you'll have a shot.

I would guess (as this in not my business) that the screens could cost as little as $100 each... but most stores have hundreds of shopping carts... so 100 x $100 = $10,000 just to get one store up and running.

I would write a business plan for this.. price out the screens.. the software.. do a little market research to determine what kind of marketing mix you would offer on the screens and who your potential clients would be. I would wager to say that you are going to need to sell a small mom + pops store on this idea before you would ever have a shot with the bigger stores.

Give it a shot...

[sauer13]

Yeah. Pardon my French but the screens are through the F'n roof expensive: about $515/ea. link to screens here Thats for the small screens. As crazy as it sounds you'd probably be better off with larger screens, 15'' or so, on the side or front of the cart.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to switch around the business model and be an installer of the media devices and let the shop owner pay for or lease the equipment.

Either way don't be discouraged. The concept is a value added solution that is way ahead of a lot of other "ideas" flying around these days.

Danny

[captainimmy]

what about instead of a big screen i take a really small watch size screen that has just word messages...
http://www.thewils.net/dave/blog/images/timex.jpg
something the size of that screen with two rows of text advertising...wait till i get more money then expand!!

[BiGWiLL]

lol a casio watch.

[sauer13]

I'm not sure a screen that small would be an effective advertising medium. Maybe if you connected like 10-20 of them together and made a tiny video wall. You'd probably need to back-light them also, or use a different color display than the standard black on gray.

Danny

[Joshua Jones]

Since you're thinking outside of the box, by which I am both impressed and humbled, let's dig deeper into the rabbit hole...

Rather than worry about integrating an lcd into existing carts, how about building a "component compartment" for shopping carts? So every store has configuration options like static, printed ads along with digital media. Even better still, this is something that can be placed into and removed from shopping carts on the fly and must be removed before exiting the store.

Just trying to add some coal to the fire in your mind kiddo - my hat's off to you if you actually follow through with it by researching, creating the plan and presenting it again.

[sauer13]

I just found this, maybe it will interest you. I suppose you'd have to be pretty handy with small electronics though. I don't know why I like this idea so much but its got me doing homework. lol. Click here

Danny

[snowswap]

What if you could avoid using screens at all? Maybe go with audio advertisements, and have a little speaker that maybe plays a song, and then plays some ads. Almost like a radio.

[jasaunders]

What you are proposing is nothing new, there are already many companies doing this, some that are very well funded. In fact, I sat in a 15 minute pitch for a business that was doing nearly the exact same thing about six months ago.

Do you have anything that would differentiate your business from the many that already exist?

[sauer13]

I've seen many rich media advertising products, but I've never seen them used in the way captainimmy is proposing; nevertheless, I defer to jasaunders who has significantly more experience than I do. It still sounds like an exciting idea to me, and maybe it can be tailored to a smaller market that the well funded firms have over-looked.

Danny

[jasaunders]

Shopping-Cart Ads about Ready for Rollout - MarketingVOX

Microsoft bringing ads to shopping carts - CNN.com

In-Store Advertising: Coming Of Age? - Forbes.com

A Shopping-Cart-Ad Plan That Might Actually Work

The Windows Observer--Shopping Cart Ads Goal of Microsoft Partnership

Microsoft’s Targeted Shopping Cart Advertising, Innovation or an Act of Desperation?

[rogercbryan]

Shopping-Cart Ads about Ready for Rollout - MarketingVOX

Microsoft bringing ads to shopping carts - CNN.com

In-Store Advertising: Coming Of Age? - Forbes.com

A Shopping-Cart-Ad Plan That Might Actually Work

The Windows Observer--Shopping Cart Ads Goal of Microsoft Partnership

Microsoft’s Targeted Shopping Cart Advertising, Innovation or an Act of Desperation?

I always love your posts.. never about opinion.. always about facts... kudos

[rogercbryan]

what about instead of a big screen i take a really small watch size screen that has just word messages...
http://www.thewils.net/dave/blog/images/timex.jpg
something the size of that screen with two rows of text advertising...wait till i get more money then expand!!

No one would look at that... also the 'speaker' idea would not work.. that would be annoying as hell. Based on the fact that other people are offering this service you know it has some market potential. You will have to find a way to be cheaper and/or better then your competitors.

I still think you can get the screens for about $100 to $150 if you buy in volume. I know I can walk into Staples right now and buy one of those digital picture frames for $149.00 that play off of a memory card. Those should be good enough... I don't know.. this isn't my business so all of this is opinion and not factual research based information.