DailyDOOH

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

In-Store Broadcast Network, which operates an in-store digital network in 13,500 grocery and chain drugstores in 200 markets throughout the US and Canada, has joined forces in a 50-50 partnership with PRISA, leading Spanish and Portuguese media company, to build a retail media network throughout Spain and Latin America.

In addition, Talos Partners, a New York-based Merchant Bank that provides capital to firms that have shown consistent operating profitability with a management team capable of capitalizing on opportunities, announced that it would purchase up to 10 million shares of PRISA’s treasury stock, representing a 4.5% stake in the media giant and has requested an option to buy up to 1,000,000 shares at EUR 6 per share.

IBN reaches more than 150 million people multiple times each month at point-of-sale. The company has foundation intellectual property rights in the areas of in-store marketing technology, shopper identification in the store, and shelf-based interactive video systems, among others.

IBN is also highly involved in the development of interactive touch-sensitive shelf-based media. Its proprietary technology automates store-level programming and allows for multi-channel (audio and video) synchronization and comprehensive remote control, operation, and component health monitoring. The IBN platform integrates multiple consumer ‘touch points’ within the store to present seamless, relevant, customer-oriented content as an informative, educational, and entertaining enhancement to the customer experience in-store.

PRISA, with more than 1,200 radio stations in 10 countries and market leadership in Spain, Colombia and Chile, will provide expertise and experience in radio programming tailored to regional preferences, a broad news gathering organization with seasoned editorial experience in 22 countries, and high quality audiovisual production capacity in Spain, Portugal and the U.S.A.. PRISA reaches 43 million users through its global brands El Pais, 40 Principales, Santillana and Alfaguara. Its presence in Brazil and Portugal and among the growing Hispanic community in the U.S. has given the group an Ibero-American dimension and has opened up a potential global market of 700 million people.

With the new partnership, PRISA will benefit by having a new distribution channel for all of its radio and television content and by increasing its presence in the U.S. in partnership with a company that shares its ‘Customer Centric’ vision.

“PRISA is committed to expanding our customer reach beyond the traditional limits,” says Juan Luis Cebrian, PRISA CEO. “We feel that retail media is the perfect fit for PRISA assets, as we can leverage our radio and television production, content, and sales infrastructure into a new distribution channel. We also like the fact that it increases our presence in the U.S. market.”

IBN through its technology and delivery channels will facilitate contact with consumers at the point-of-sale, where many purchasing decisions are made.

Robert Brazell, Talos Partner’s CEO – who is also IBN chairman – says, “PRISA is the first intelligent, diversified, customer centric, device agnostic, media group I have seen in 10 years. PRISA has successfully transitioned in the new media model and will continue to dominate the modern Spanish speaking media for the next 20 years.”

“This PRISA partnership has moved all over our firm during the past few months,” says Brazell. “It began as a strategic partnership, then migrated to our structured lending people, and finally ended up with our capital group. When our team presented the in-store media partnership, we became more interested in PRISA’s core business. The more we drilled down past vision into technology and asset integration, the more we wanted to own part of this business.”

Jim Hyde, IBN’s COO, says, “Our strategy has always been to partner with a like-minded media giant who would provide the programming and sales power to leverage our knowledge, technology and massive reach.”

And Scott Anderson, IBN’s executive vice-president interactive, says, “We have created over US$500 million in measured media inventory with initiatives to reach well over $1 billion. We reach consumers where purchasing decisions are made – where it matters most – and we have done this with fewer than 40 people. With PRISA, we can expand quickly by selling into its network instead of building a network like we did in the U.S. and Canada.”

“It’s a perfect fit,” says Brazell. “PRISA provides the critical elements of local programming, as well as national and local sales in 22 countries; it has a sales staff of over 1,000 and the ability to provide retailers with local, relevant programming. The partnership provides for immediate implementation, execution, and scale with almost no additional cost to either firm.”

“In-store media and shopper marketing will soon be the foundation of every brand media plan, with other media supporting the final, most important message delivered at the point-of- sale,” says Rob Wolf, IBN’s executive vice-president research. “The store is the ideal research environment, allowing marketers to measure, evaluate and optimize their advertising effectiveness almost in realtime. The media company that controls and integrates both in-store and traditional advertising will stand alone atop the media world.”

Talos Partners owns and operates several subsidiary companies including Talos Capital,Talos Pacific Real Estate, and various Talos Special Opportunity Funds. The company has offices in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles and investment partners in Latin America and Europe. Talos is currently establishing offices in Hong Kong.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 20:26 @893 and is filed under Scuttlebut. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.