Image Source: CoolerScreens
While brands may do their best to captivate their target consumers, the competition really comes down to what customers pick on the shelves. To help brands and business owners make the best choices in-store, Chicago startup CoolerScreens maximized the capability of cooler doors in retail establishments. The company modernized people’s shopping experience, improved their access to relevant product information, and simultaneously aided brands in creating live digital advertisements onsite.
With CoolerScreens, consumers can “know more” and “choose better.” Brands may have placed in-store advertisements before and provided an overview of their product on labels or posters. Studies have also revealed that while television ads possess effectiveness, some audiences are passive viewers, making the possibility of forgetting ads more likely in the future. A brand also has to spend millions to achieve its desired brand awareness. But CoolerScreens revolutionized the way brands connect with their consumers through improved visibility and transparency. In turn, consumers make purchases that best fit their budgets, taste, and health preferences by seeing the information right before their eyes.
On its website, the company said, “Cooler Screens was founded on the core idea that consumers deserve a far better experience than what is available today in brick-and-mortar retail. We call this concept ‘CX,’ and it guides all that we do. We view CX as a virtuous loop.” What the CX loop does is it attracts, engages, and connects people, “bringing the power of digital to cooler aisles.”
Co-founder and CEO Arsen Avakian leads CoolerScreens today. In an interview, Avakian shared that CoolerScreens faces a significant challenge in merging technology with establishing a consumer brand. The company is driven by the goal of “winning consumers’ hearts,” which is why it strives to create an innovative product that replaces simple glass doors with engaging digital screens, bringing advertising available in the brick-and-mortar shopping experience. To echo the CEO’s words, CoolerScreens is a “sophisticated digital marketing and contextual advertising technology.”
Avakian further emphasized that CoolerScreen is an example of “green advertising” in the sense that it is a cleaner way to reach consumers because it does not need to collect personal information. CoolerScreens is currently available in various retail establishments, including 50 Walmarts across the country. Furthermore, despite the growth in the online shopping industry, Avakian is confident that brick-and-mortar stores are still here to stay. The company is dedicated to helping them remain relevant by reinventing customer experience.
Recently, CoolerScreens raised more than $80 million in Series C funding, increasing their funds to over $100 million. The recent addition came from Verizon Ventures’ TechCrunch, Microsoft’s M12 venture fund, GreatPoint Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and other organizations. The company plans on utilizing the latest funding to expand and install more screens in over 2,500 locations nationwide, targeting partner stores such as Kroger, GetGo, and more Walmart locations.
CoolerScreens also partnered recently with Microsoft Corp. The multi-year collaboration will focus on “bringing an immersive digital experience to brick-and-mortar retail environments.” The collaboration will allow CoolerScreens to fully utilize Microsoft’s digital media and merchandising platform hosted by Microsoft Azure.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with an industry leader like Microsoft to drive innovation in retail and build the largest in-store digital media platform in the world. We are changing the way consumers shop for the better, and this collaboration not only gives us the capabilities to implement our strategy but also gives us immediate massive scale,” said Greg Wasson, co-founder and chairman of Cooler Screens.
To learn more about CoolerScreens, visit its website.
Sources:
www.techcruch.com/2020-cooler-screens
https://www.builtinchicago.org/2021/04/22/21-chicago-companies-to-watch-2021
