Dylan Jones, Jones Digital Media
It took several years, thousands of man hours and no doubt much tearing out of hair by President Richard Fisher, but it appears PRN have finally signed up a brand new retailer; BJ’s Wholesale Club, a kind of east coast version of Costco.
They have signed a multi-year deal with PRN to supply high definition programming, creative services and advertising sales. Why is this important? Well, let’s face it, the only good news out of PRN over the last few years have been a few mediocre press releases about another deal to offer their advertising sales team to other digital out of home networks.
With Best Buy pretty much off their radar, Studio Squared taking most of the Walmart creative, PRN desperately needed another retailer to brag about. Far from being just another ad sales deal, seems this time that PRN have bagged the full-service retailer they’ve been trying to sign for years.
While it’s good news for PRN, it’s also good news for our industry. The more retailers that embrace a digital network in their store, the better. It’s a rising tide that lifts all ships. Plus, BJ’s obviously “gets” the programming part of the equation: you can’t sell HD TV’s by showing crap content on there. If only a few more networks out there understood this, the DOOH landscape would look so much more attractive.
And, speaking of wholesale. How’s this latest deal going to affect the PRN sale, which seems to have stalled more times than the Irish Economy? It’s anybody’s guess at this point, but with a few more BJ’s to sweeten the pot, PRN may well look a much more attractive proposition.
January 31st, 2011 at 15:56 @706
Well, Congratulations.
I would not mind getting a BJ myself…
sorry guys, i just could not help it.