Doodle Inspirations – October 2
At NDP, we pride ourselves on staying on top of the industry – what’s new, what’s trending, what’s surprised us. Here are a few things that caught our attention and got us talking this past week:
Samsung has joined the self-serve game by launching their own ConnectedTV ad platform for advertisers. Competing with the likes of Roku and Amazon FireStick, this CTV offering appears to be the kick-off beta test for a larger future platform that includes ads across connected TVs, mobile phones and computers which they feel will put them into the leagues of internet giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook. This is definitely an interesting new step for Samsung’s holistic evolution as they work to combine the power of all their different hardware options into a singular data software solution.
While Irish coffee has been an adult beverage staple, PBR is hoping to break into the arena with the introduction of their new Hard Cold Brew coffee. While the Hard Coffee brand from PBR launched last year, the introduction of the Hard Cold Brew came on National Coffee Day. Featuring 4.2% alcohol and 30 mg of caffeine, the caffeine content for an 11-fluid ounce can is about half of a small can of Red Bull and about a third of a traditional cup of brewed coffee. A few of us are curious about the taste of this new product, but we’ll have to take a road trip to purchase as it’s currently only available in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Movie theater news continues this week as many theaters announced reductions in operational hours. Responding to lower than hoped for attendance numbers, many studios have decided to delay tentpole releases that theaters hoped would drive attendees back indoors. Responding to the news, many chains including AMC and Cinemark have begun limiting the number of shows while others including Marcus Theaters have opted to go further and close theaters three days a week. Regal announced on Monday that they will be closing their theaters for the foreseeable future. While some releases have been pushed later in the year (i.e. Wonder Woman 1984 moved from Oct 2 to Dec 25), others have pushed to 2021 (i.e. Black Widow from Nov 5 to May 2021). While many in the film industry are hoping that reopenings in LA and NYC in the next few weeks will help turn things around, we’re watching to see the impact on a more local level as more layers continue to be added to the challenged medium’s current situation.
Some of us realized we’ve reached #peakadulthood when we know our local Walmart’s floor plan by heart helping make shopping trips efficient and effective. Unfortunately, it seems those layouts will be changing as Walmart has unveiled a new store design. Affecting 5,500 stores over the next year, the new design leans on technology to help customers finish their shopping trips faster by labeling aisles with numbers and letters that will correspond to the Walmart app and help users find the exact location of a desired product. Beyond the app usage, shoppers will see new signage at the entrance of the store that reminds them of an airport helping point them in the direction of the main sections of the stores. Additional changes will be made to the store exterior as the number of shoppers utilizing curbside pick-up has increased. Working to align itself more with Amazon’s business proposition, we’re waiting to see how much these changes actually affect the current store footprint versus optical changes in the store’s appearance as well as how it will affect their in-store marketing efforts that currently are limited mainly to the pharmacy section.