Media Cart trolleys are fitted with a GPS navigation system that alerts the store's database when a shopper moves into a particular area, triggering an appropriate ad.
A milk ad, for example, could be beamed to the screen as a trolley moves into the store's chilled dairy area. Alternatively, as soon as a product is put through the trolley's self scanner an ad for a rival product could be served up.
Apparently, during the average 25-minute shop, customers can expect about eight minutes of ads, each one no more than 10 seconds long. Oh joy.
Personally, I find the whole idea of having ads beamed at me while I shop repugnant. I suppose the system’s other great “benefit” - the ability to read and deliver shopping lists to the trolley by inserting a loyalty card – is marginally useful but I find a piece of paper and a pen does the trick.
The benefit of the system for marketers is that are able to reach shoppers in what they call the “moment of truth” – the split second in which 70% of purchasing decisions are made. It will also allow advertisers to assess the efficiency of their advertising by allowing them to measure how many screenings translated into sales.
The trial, starting in November, will initially be restricted to between 50 and 100 trolleys in the Doonside, NSW and Hawker, ACT Super IGA stores but Coles and Woolworths are said to be watching it with great interest... I bet they are.
Reading the article, I was reminded of the scene in The Minority Report when Tom Cruise's character John Anderton tries to escape detection in a shopping centre, only to have The Gap’s iris recognition scanners pinpoint him, targeting him with personalised ads. I always thought that the removal of Anderton’s eyes was unnecessarily gory but maybe not...
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