• by Fern Siegel , September 4, 2008

Trying to reach additional shoppers, Wal-Mart has launched the Wal-Mart Smart Network, which supplies information via in-store TV. The company invested $10 million in the project billed as "shopper-intelligent network at retail." Powered by Internet Protocol Television, the new net will appear in more than 2,700 stores nationwide.

The Smart Network rolls out this September and will be completed by early 2010. It's programmed to deliver messages at the entrance of Wal-Mart supercenters on welcome screens and in departments that enjoy the most consumer traffic: grocery, health and beauty and electronics. Encap screens will advertise items displayed throughout the store.

The goal is to customize product information to customers at critical points, when influencing a buyer is key.

Says Kim Miller, vice president of marketing at Kellogg, "advertising at the point-of-sale will become increasingly important to win the market. The results we've seen during tests of the new Wal-Mart Smart Network have been impressive."

"We've built a network tailored to the way consumers shop our stores--delivering helpful, custom, content closest to the point of decision--that helps them shop smarter," says Stephen Quinn, CMO, Wal-Mart Stores, U.S. "We will be analyzing point-of-sale data on an ongoing basis to deliver a shopper-centric communications platform."

Network operations, implementation, advertising sales and HDTV wall programming will be provided by Thomson's Premier Retail Networks.