Christian Spinillo Flash Development Strategist PointRoll

Consider this: Home Depot spends $600 million a year (!) on print circulars. Obviously, that’s a lot of money for something that has a short shelf life. But thanks to PaperBoy, retailers can now take maximum advantage of their circulars online by marrying time-sensitive product messaging to consumers’ and prospects’ geographic locations.

With PaperBoy, companies can spend considerably less on multiple creative development and better target customers by delivering locally targeted circulars via a PointRoll ad unit. Thanks to this innovation, retailers can now tailor local inventory, financing, pricing and product information on the fly, saving time and money; all while cultivating brand experience and generating brand equity.

How does PaperBoy work? Basically, it pulls dynamic data from strategic third party partners and publisher-provided geographic information and/or IP Lookup. Due to this simple syncing up of information, residents of Los Angeles can get information about on-sale surfboards, while New Yorkers can find out which retailers have available snow shovels when that blizzard hits. The true beauty of this, though, is that advertisers can deliver relevant, timely messages to consumers, while buying media at a national level.

This month PaperBoy celebrates his first birthday and he is giving his advertisers the gift of great metrics, an incredible 9% click through rate and 20 second brand time. With a number of successful PaperBoy campaigns behind us in 2006, we know the possibilities moving forward are endless. The same, basic functionality of PaperBoy can easily be applied to other industries such as real estate, automotive, entertainment and more. Applying the same level of local targeting to other verticals becomes immensely powerful and flexible, and can significantly increase the life of previously perishable messaging. Since the dynamic content of the ad is controlled externally, retailers can make larger buys over longer periods of time and employ one creative with several dynamic pieces, versus developing multiple ad units.

Take the PointRoll Powered by Fandango offering where locally relevant movie showtimes and theatres are dynamically supplied in real time based on a user’s location. In addition to a video trailer with downloads and other engaging interactivity, this ad unit creates an urgent and action-oriented environment that closes the gap between intent and ticket purchase at the point when consumer consideration and awareness is highest – significantly shortening the online ticket buying process and generating sales.

The possibilities don’t stop at vertical applications; however, they also extend into creative applications. To date, PaperBoy campaigns have been extremely flexible and effective, but they have been applied in a traditional circular fashion. Being that the content is dynamic and reliant upon the simplest form – text – it can be applied in virtually any creative execution. Perhaps it’s applied via a Chinese menu of sorts, or even placed within an online “newspaper” for browsing. It could even be applied in a kiosk manner. Ultimately, it’s not just about the use of data. The application is equally as important because at the end of the day, true engagement is a key goal of any successful rich media campaign.

Combine all of the above with additional features like shopping lists or store locators, and retailers can begin to create hugely successful and cost-effective campaigns by capitalizing on existing content that is of utmost relevancy to consumers and prospects.

PaperBoy- Local Delivery is turning one! In his first year, he has surpassed one year performance benchmarks and has powered online circular campaigns for some of the nation’s largest retailers, helping companies like Wal-Mart, Staples, Home Depot and CVS deliver relevant, local offers via national rich media buys on major portals.

In his first year, PaperBoy has achieved average brand times of 20 seconds, while his interaction rate, at 9.03%, is 30% above the PointRoll Benchmark. Additionally, PaperBoy brand time bested both the PointRoll Benchmark and the PointRoll Retail Benchmark by upwards of seven seconds.

PaperBoy’s ability to pull in localized dynamic content and make changes on the fly sets him apart in the marketplace. Inventory, financing, pricing and product information can be tailored automatically, while leveraging the power of a national media buy. It saves time and money while further cultivating brand experience and equity. The power of PaperBoy is especially relevant for retailers across a host of industries, including – but not limited to – automotive, consumer products, entertainment and real estate.

For more information about PaperBoy’s capabilities, visit http://www.pointroll.com/products/paperboy.asp

PointRoll is Expanding to Meet Your Needs
full rich media operations team is now based out of our Los Angeles office
In order to better serve our clients, PointRoll has doubled the size of the company wide operation staff and now has a FULL operations team on the West Coast to quickly and efficiently meet your campaign needs!

Our dedicated West Coast team can now complete creative services, campaign and account management, production engineering, traffic and quality assurance out of our LA office ensuring you get what you need, when you need it! We are committed to have the best and brightest resources, professionally and technologically, to ensure that we can continue to offer the best services to our clients.