Digital signage lifts advertiser’s spirits

Whiskey ad

Photo courtesy CODACAN

The Canadian Out-of-Home Digital Association/Association Canadienne de l’Affichage Numérique (CODACAN) has released a study crediting digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising with lifting sales of Grant’s Scotch Whisky.

CODACAN partnered in late 2010 with ad agency MacLaren Momentum and spirits importer PMA Canada on a six-week trial campaign. A series of Grant’s ads ran exclusively on CODACAN member companies’ digital signage networks within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

After this period, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)—which holds a monopoly on selling spirits in the province—reported an overall sales increase for Grant’s of 10.7 per cent above the previous year. Given a number of limited-time discounts offered during the campaign, which were estimated to account for approximately two to three per cent sales lift, PMA weighed all factors and concluded the DOOH ads were ultimately responsible for eight per cent lift.

“We were quite surprised and pleased at the immediate and directly correlated lift in retail due to the campaign,” says Lindsay Prociw, senior brand manager at William Grant & Sons, which makes the blended whisky.

The participating networks included screens in restaurants, bars, malls, convenience stores, subway stations and hotels.