Cleanup on aisle 7! Watch out for all the silicon chips!

Supermarket of the future?

A couple of things led to this post: last week’s announcement/coverage of Akoo International of its new service that allows a consumer to use their cell phone to pick the songs/videos/movies playing at a retail outlet. All they have to do in return is be willing to submit to a little advertising on their phone.

Then earlier today I had coffee with Jack Finke, a specialist in digital signage advertising. We got to talking about how soon, the deli boards at your local Kroger will be controlled from one central location using the Internet.

And my take on it was that those signs would be able to pump coupons/ads/content to customers’ cell phones in an integrated environment. How about being able to have all that data Kroger collects on you using the Kroger Plus card put to use by shooting preferences or shopping lists or the day’s specials to your phone when you walk into the store.

Those days are coming - given the advances in location-based services, RFID tags, and intelligent networks.

And then you can swipe the phone to pay for your order. Akoo might even play with this space, as you could control what you see on different signs throughout the store or what music you can have streamed to your phone while shopping. Beats the in-store “Kroger Radio” that’s pretty lame.

Come to think of it, my wife just texted me the shopping list, so I gotta go.

Making wings for dinner tonight.

Display ads - fashion or fad?

Interesting story today about how Microsoft’s main goal in getting Yahoo! is display advertising.

But I’ve got to disagree. I went to a great presentation this week by Brad King of Northern Kentucky University and he also touted that display ads are dead, or have at least arrived at the emergency room in need of a defibrillator. Firefox has an add-on to eliminate display and banner ads, and most people under the age of 25 use RSS or news readers to get their information anyway.

Sure, it is a big business now, but for how much longer? And besides, I am of the firm belief that wireless handsets are going to replace a lot of PC functionality in the future, and if you combine social networking, privacy concerns, and location-aware phones, you are going to have a much different mix of relevant messaging needed.

The Marketplace story says that rich media (sound, video) ads will replace static ads. I don’t think so. It has to be relevant to the viewer, or they will find technology to turn it off.