Hasta La Creative!

While Apple has been making a splash this week, tech-giant Microsoft has been busy with shopping carts. They have started a nine-month pilot program with MediaCart and Wakefern ShopRite stores to display point-of-purchase ads in 220 grocery stores in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. While Microsoft doesn’t have the same web advertising presence as Google, Yahoo and other giants, they are rapidly expanding into emerging digital channels. Last year’s acquisition of aQuantive, Inc. puts them in a unique position to market via new digital channels.

Equally interesting will be the consumer reception to one more screen vying for their attention. Not to mention the cart’s abilities to check your location in the store via RFID, specifically target ads based on what items your near, and the ability to track your shopping habits. Highly effective from a p.o.p. view, and tentatively useful for understanding consumer habits and patterns, but if the consumer doesn’t befriend the machine perched at the end of the cart, results could be lackluster. Early responses to the idea from the public seem to be mixed, but the technology certainly has a good deal to offer, if utilized effectively. I’ll be curious to see how effectively (and creatively) Microsoft can handle the task of in-cart-advertising. If you’re curious about the carts, there’s a bizarrely mesmerizing video of the carts in action on the MediaCart website.

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