Lois Weiss

Lois Weiss

Real Estate

Retailers look to storefront digital ads to target passersby

Talk about Big Brother.

Soon vacant storefronts may be filled with interactive digital ads that not only pitch products but also switch the offerings depending on who’s looking.

The high-tech ads will then collect the raw data on the demographics of those who stop to gaze.

Outernets, a company founded in New York by former Israeli multimedia artists Omer and Tal Golan, works with advertisers to provide digital ads that will enliven windows of shuttered stores by promoting products and availabilities — and even sell products right from the display.

Already, Dylan’s Candy Bar is using Outernets technology on its own windows to provide experiential marketing and to show off sundaes. It also delights pint-sized clientele with digitized balloons that appear to stream out of exiting customers’ shopping bags.

Married for 15 years, the Golans began using digitized videos and images for their art, but have now integrated their tech knowhow into Outernets’ click and brick offerings.

“Landlords pay nothing; I only give them money,” explained Omer Golan, speaking on his cell phone from Four Times Square, where Outernets displays are mounted for Advertising Week AW TechX.

On Monday night, Outernets was dubbed the Retail Experiential Marketing Company of the Year.

The prize is a coup for Outernets, which already has investors that include the founders of WeWork and clients such as McDonald’s and Westville.

“Advertisers pay me money for the time and space, and the data we collect, and I share the time, revenue and data with the landlords,” he said.

One of Outernets’ digital displays at McDonald’s.Outernets

Using “very sophisticated AI” that encompasses computer vision and machine learning, the Outernets display analyzes passersby in real time.

“We don’t take or save anyone’s picture or video,” he insisted. “We just get the raw data on how many people pass by, their age group, the times, and how long they pay attention. This is very valuable to advertisers and was lost up till now.”

If, for example, a 30-year-old woman walks by, images of cosmetics or high heels may be projected onto the windows — while the same age man could be shown a suit or tie.

The entire set up consists of a projection box that is hung on the ceiling and focused on an extremely thin film that is easily attached to a window along with a tiny camera.

Already, Golan says he has deals with a handful of the City’s largest property owners who control hundreds of storefronts.

Building owners are allowed 30 minutes per day for their own promotions and can receive revenue of around $10,000 or more per month.

Outernets sells seven time slots through an advertising service for each display at $5,000 to $15,000 per month — but only where there are a minimum of 50,000 to 500,000 passersby per day.

“It’s a lot of eyeballs, at a fraction of the price of a billboard but at eye level and on a smart billboard,” Golan said.

And if you decide you want to buy those high heels, your cellphone can capture a QR code that will lead your cell to a private shopping screen.

Added Golan, “We don’t want anyone else seeing what you buy.”