Cooler Screens is turning cooler aisle doors into AI-enabled digital billboards
Hit 'em with the double entendre... Cooler Screens just raised $80M to bring interactive screens to cooler aisles. Basically, the idea is to turn your 7-Eleven fridge doors into digital billboards. While it may sound like a Facebook ad stuck on a fridge, Cooler Screens has two key differentiators:
- In-store: Most retail sales still come from physical stores, but there aren't actually ads in stores (they're all chilling on Amazon or Facebook #adparty).
- IoT-enabled: The screen knows when your Walgreens is out of Mountain Dew, so it'll showcase Coke instead. Or it can highlight the tub of Häagen-Dazs that literally just went on sale.
Cooler story, bro... If this sounds like something out of a "Black Mirror" episode, that's because it kind of is. Cooler Screens offers merchants AI-powered inventory tracking, plus real-time pricing and sales data.
- For customers: According to its CEO, you could ask the screen to show you all the vegan ice cream, or to see the calories in a DiGiorno frozen pizza (579).
- Also: In addition to flashing nutritional facts, the screen lets you make digital payments on the spot. It doesn't collect your personal info, though (thaaanks).
Point-of-Sale ads are powerful... If you're in a grocery store, you're there to buy something (RIP free samples). Cooler's ads are getting you at the exact place/time when your purchasing intent is hottest. Cooler says that products behind digital doors sell 2X to 10X more. It's already in 50 Walgreens, and is planning to expand to 2.5K more.