Tying Attribution to OOH Sampling. An Interview with Marci Weisler of Vengo Labs

Marci Weisler (no relation, though we tried to figure it out), Chief Commercial Officer, Vengo Labs, works for a uniquely situated company in the out of home space. Billed a, “retail and marketing tech company that is reimagining how brands connect with consumers,” Marci noted that this technology “bridges the gap between digital and real world experiences by combining retail with DOOH media and product sampling.”

Vengo is actually a network of over 1200 mini interactive digital vending machines at gyms, hotels, colleges and corporate locations in major DMAs. Future plans include expanding into retail stores. The company offers a consumer the ability to sample products from personal tech (headphones and chargers) to beauty and wellness, to CPG and non-perishable food. 

According to Marci, the data they collect is opt-in via consumer interactions with surveys and quizzes, also collecting emails and/or phone numbers on a campaign by campaign basis. The “cloud based Vengo Information Portal (VIP) tracks retail (product inventory, sales), all media (impressions delivered, screen interactions) and sampling campaigns (samples vended, opt-ins),” she explained. The campaign level data is shared with Vengo’s clients on a campaign by campaign basis.   “On the sampling side, Vengo is closing the loop enabling brands to understand ROI and retarget consumers in ways they have not been able to use in the past, and giving them the opportunity to connect with consumers post-sample and drive to purchase/conversion,” she stated.

While Marci believes that Vengo is unique in the combination of retail, DOOH media and trackable product sampling, their competitive set varies by product category. In fact, Vengo sees them as potential partners such as in the following categories:

Ø  Sampling--in-store reps handing out samples, sampling companies like Birchbox, sampling-only kiosks.

Ø  DOOH Media--other networks and media.

Ø  Retail/vending--Zoom Systems, micro-markets

The retail ecosystem changing, she noted, with consumers spending less time in brick and mortar stores and making purchasing decisions everywhere.  “Vengo meets consumers at contextually relevant times in their day, aligning product availability with the time they need them most.  For example, in the gym locker room they can purchase headphones or trial a new beauty product, while seeing an ad for a new wellness supplement. We are also working with retailers to enhance the in-store experience and drive engagement at the point of sale,” she added.

Vengo is also going cross platform with connections to mobile devices through geo-fencing as well as marketing initiatives such as mobile coupon codes redeemable at Vengo, or sampling opportunities that require taking a quiz and giving your email address to get a free sample which can then result in another coupon code to use for next retail purchase of the product.

But there are challenges. She explained that with a big hardware component, there are challenges expanding the network (as opposed to building traffic to a web site or mobile app), “but now that our network has surpassed over 1200, we are ramping quickly.  We also have a size constraint since our machines are compact and take only two square feet of wall space, but our ex-aerospace engineering team has maximized the ability to put a high quantity of product into a small space.”

Advantages include the ability to engage consumers digitally--whether through sampling or interactive DOOH media, collect actionable marketing data to convert “trailers” to buyers and drive product trial and calculate ROI on sampling programs. “For retailers we provide retail tech solutions that make shopping in-store fun and compelling--and provide metrics-based sampling programs that drive in-store purchase,” Marci stated.

And what she terms as, “critically interesting” is Vengo’s ability to “tie attribution to sampling which never existed before. For that reason we got a major investment from Arcade Beauty,, the world's leading manufacturer of beauty samples and are working to reimagine the space for brands and for retailers. We've got some exciting campaign results,” to be released in the possible future.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com