New DOOH Network Hopes Stretched Screens Atop Grocery Ice Boxes Excites Media Buyers

February 27, 2024 by Dave Haynes

I dunno when I last bought a bag a bag of ice at a grocery, but obviously there all kinds of people who do – as iceboxes are pretty much standard in groceries and convenience stores. So it was inevitable that someone would look at those big old units and decide they’d be enhanced by adding an ad screen.

There is now an IceBox Network, an ad-based network that puts stretch LCD header displays on top of the big freezer units that tend to sit at the front of stores.

It’s a long way from here to there, but operator Digi Point Media suggests the addressable market is 85,000 end-points in US grocery chains, hardware stores, pharmacies, and liquor stores.

The network is rolling out using Creative Realities’ ReflectView CMS and its companion AdLogic retail media network-focused ad planning and placement platform.

“We’re seeing a significant shift in advertising expenditure from traditional broadcast and online channels to in-store point-of-purchase,” suggests Paul Calce, President/Founder at Digi Point Media. “This means there are more ads in need of locations than there are available in-store placements in high-traffic areas. We’re addressing this challenge with Creative Realities by creating unique, high-impact placement opportunities for advertisers, effectively expanding the advertising landscape in an increasingly competitive market.”

The standard build is 48-inch stretch LCD displays, and cellular-based connectivity. Interestingly, Creative Realities’ “media sales team” (I don’t think I knew such a thing existed”) will “also play a supplemental role in connecting advertisers to the IceBox Network.”

The network is in early build-out and the goal is 6,000 locations within the next three years. Most of the stores so far installed are in Dallas, where IceBox is based, as well as Houston and other large Texas cities.

There is a long, carcass-riddled history of media start-ups putting screens on all kinds of things in the entries and front areas of big box environments – from ATMs and phone charging systems to various types of vending machines. Few have built out to anywhere near the scale that was envisioned.

However, the costs and complications of putting this sort of thing in are nothing like they once were, and the people who control and manage the dollars for media placements are a lot more open to putting budget into non-mainstream media like this than they were 5, 10 and 15 years ago. Retail media networks are also getting a lot of attention right now. So maybe …