US-based Creative Realities Laying Groundwork To Expand Reach Into EMEA Region

May 17, 2024 by Dave Haynes

One of the numerous panels I am moderating next week in Munich at the invidis Digital Signage Summit includes Creative Realities CEO Rick Mills. It is a session intended to look at the state of the North American market, and help European companies understand the opportunity and challenge of cracking the busy but crowded U.S. market. So it’s a bit ironic that CRI has just announced his US-based company is looking to expand into Europe and the Middle East.

Solutions provider CRI, based in Louisville, has announced plans to develop a channel program tailored and targeted to the EMEA marketplace.

As the global digital signage and IT market is generally moving to a predominantly SaaS business model, Creative Realities is well-positioned to appeal to EMEA digital signage integrators in need of enterprise-level CMS platforms to capitalize on key growth verticals such as Retail, Convenience Stores, and the Food Service/Restaurant Segments. “Our enterprise-ready CMS platforms are purpose-built specific to these verticals and will be of value to integrators seeking robust, scalable, reliable and cloud-based solutions,” says Mills.

The company has CMS software platforms aimed at QSR and retail, and the AdLogic in-store advertising platform picked up in its acquisition of Reflect. I must admit it seemed weird to me when Reflect, a bunch of year ago now, developed AdLogic, which was all about endemic advertising in stores. Now, with retail media networks super-hot, it was a platform ahead of its time.

Mills says CRI’s established ops in North America give him a good sense of what will be important and appeal to large-scale EMEA integrators, like exclusivity, territory-protection, special pricing, and volume incentives. “We’re hopeful this program will resonate with the EMEA community and provide a value proposition both to their customers and their go-to-market business model.”

My session on North America, next Thursday, includes:

• Rick Mills, Creative Realities Inc, CEO
• Johanny Payero, Lenovo, Director, Global Advanced Solutions Marketing
• Jeffrey Weitzman, Navori, Managing Director

The two-day summit starts Wednesday at the Munich Airport Hilton.