Rather quietly we think shopper marketing pioneer DS-IQ announced in the middle of April that it had completed the acquisition of Concept Shopping [1], in the statement on their web site they said “With this acquisition, DS-IQ offers retailers new ways to connect with shoppers to maximize marketing ROI across in-store, at-home and mobile channels”.
It went on to say that with the acquisition of Concept Shopping, DS-IQ systems will more effectively target and optimize campaigns based on individual purchase histories and real-time shopper response.
But we think they are downplaying this all somewhat. This acquisition give DS-IQ access to some fantastic data and given their advertising optimization platform we think that DS-IQ may well be trying to become the ‘Google’ of in-store media.
As they can optimise advertising across multiple in-store platforms (in store TV, direct mail and mobile) it is surely just a matter of time before they start selling ad space themselves!