Online: U.S. variety retailer Dollar General is hoping that just one screen per store will provide a focus for promotions across a range of media including print and online, designed to increase sales of consumables such as colas.

Dollar General TV (DGTV), was rolled out last month to 500 stores in 13 markets but will reach some 4200 sites by September and the retailer’s full 8300-store estate by the beginning of next year. Once the full rollout by SmartPic Advertising is complete Dollar General hopes to reach 100m viewers monthly.

Unlike other chains at the value end of the U.S. retail market, however, Dollar General will not be studding its stores with multiple screens. Instead, a single 37-inch Panasonic plasma in each store, above an end-cap near the checkout, will be used to complement promotional activity also delivered by other media.

For example, circulars and vouchers will be available for customers in the same area as the screen, while placards placed near advertised products will act as reminders of the on-screen messaging. And the screens themselves will be placed close to end-caps promoting TracFone Wireless, which supplies pre-paid phones to Dollar General and has signed up as a principal sponsor of DGTV for three years.

A relaunched Dollar General Website and email campaigns will also show the DGTV content loop and allow customers to download coupons.

Pushing up sales

“There’s a clear connection from the monitor to the product,” Colby Swann, senior marketing manager for the retailer, was quoted as saying. Dollar General is hoping in particular that the introduction of in-store TV will boost purchases of consumables such as Coke – a major new addition to its stock – which, the company believes, are strong influences on the frequency of shoppers’ visits and the size of their baskets

Five-minute loops will contain two 30-second spots for the principal sponsors, and a range of five-second spots: static shots for a monthly featured supplier, short ads for other suppliers, and Dollar General’s own promotional spots. Principal sponsors and the monthly featured suppliers will be exclusive to their product categories. Brands signed up to date include Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble and Reckitt Benckiser.

Ratecard for the network at its current 500-store size ranges from $24,500 monthly for five-second static spots to $187,500 for principal sponsors, although Dollar General says the cost per store will decrease as the network grows.

Privately-held Dollar General has been working hard at overhauling its business. Last year, for example, it closed 400 stores but also opened almost the same number.

–Screens.tv–

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