• by Wayne Friedman , November 5, 2007

In-store TV network company Channel M has a basic challenge that many out-of-home TV networks have--to get beyond its endemic advertisers as well as to get better research.

Channel M has been around since the 1990s, first providing content at video arcades. Since 2002, its main business has been devoted to video gamers--providing a 20-minute in-network show, GameStop TV, in some 3,700 GameStop video stores as well as selling advertising time.

But gaming publishers have not rushed to buy advertising on Channel M --they don't really need to. Since Channel M provides tons of content for the likes of the "Halo 3" and other titles, publishers don't need to spend media dollars, since the content acts as a promotional tool itself.

"Getting non-endemics to embrace us is our primary focus," says Eric Hebel, chief operating officer for Channel M.

One of Channel M's biggest categories is theatrical movies and other entertainment marketers, whose main target audience is virtually the same as the video gaming industry, men ages 18-34.

Recent entertainment deals included ABC Family's "13 Nights of Halloween;" Warner Bros.' "300" and Sony Pictures Entertainment's "Resident Evil 3," a movie that was based on the video game.

"For many years, the only non-endemic companies to embrace this non-traditional media were the movie studios," says Hebel. "But in the last few years we have seen a huge trend in other categories embracing this media."

Channel M has made recent deals with governmental agencies, such as Office of National Drug Control Policy, as well as running campaigns for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Post Office. "They had a new Star Wars stamp coming out. Who is the best audience for them? It is gamers," says Hebel.

Channel M also did some advertising/promotional deals with car companies--Toyota Yaris, Mazda, and Dodge Charger.

The chief concern for relatively new out-of-home platforms is getting better research in determining the size of audiences and their engagement with the content. Right, now Channel M offers up traffic and other market data for those young men who visit GameStop locations.

"We have a pretty good track record as far as effectiveness goes and recall," says Hebel. In one bit of recent research for an armed forces advertiser, 43% of GameStop consumers recalled seeing the commercial in store rather than at home.

But Channel M doesn't have all research it needs, or the research standards it would need right now to compete with other media. Channel M, among other companies, recently helped start up the Out of Home Video Advertising Bureau to help this process along.

Says Hegel: "Our big challenge as a company, and as an industry, is coming up with standards and metrics that the entire marketing community can use--so they can put advertising into an line item for our space."