Digital in-store marketing in tobacco shops – how to reach hundreds of thousands of consumers in 90 seconds

So far research results from Hungary haven’t proven how much TrafikTV’s cost-efficient solutions can reach the customers of tobacco shops. In the following I am going to present the results of our first qualitative survey, which was conducted in partnership with the Commerce and Marketing Institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Debrecen.

Seeing is believing…

The researchers from the University of Debrecen used mobile eye tracking (Tobii Wireless Glasses 2) in tobacco shops in Budapest and Debrecen. They studied what grabs the attention of customers during the shopping process, and for how long (there were 40 participants in the study). With the research DigInStore Zrt. was trying to find out how efficient in-store advertisements in tobacco shops are, e.g. when do customers look at the TV screens, how many times they do it, how long they are watching the advertisements, etc. Basically the big question was: can we call TrafikTV an effective and innovative tool in today’s marketing communication?

If I see it, it works…

20% of retail sales are generated by impulses customers are exposed to in the shops. In the light of this, it is essential to place and use marketing communication tools in a way that they make the biggest possible impact on customers, as companies want them to generate sales increase.

The heat map in the photo makes it clear that both TV screens catch the attention of customers. They look at the one on the right when they enter the tobacco shop, and they watch the other when standing in the queue or approaching the cash register. In the study we also examined how soon customers notice the TV screens upon entering, and how many times they focus on them (this is what you can see on the 2nd photo). The numbers indicate the order in which customers looked at certain points. If we compare the two illustrations, we can see that customers quickly notice the TV screens and their gaze returns to them – and to the advertisements running on them – several times.

…and it really works!

Every second customer who enters the tobacco shop look at the TV screen, and their gaze returns later minimum 2-3 times on average. They watch the advertisements for 1-2 seconds, which is enough to take in the information. Typically shoppers discover the TV screens in the first 30 seconds, so they have time to process the impulses, and to buy the advertised products if they decide so. These facts prove that TrafikTV is an in-store marketing communication tool that really works, and represents a cost-efficient solution for businesses to reach consumers. (x)