Promotions and advertising have always been at the core of retail marketing, taking up a large part of every retailer`s budget. US retailers spent $113B on developing and executing their Advertising, Marketing and Promotions plans in 2004, according to AMR Research.

Most retailers still create their advertising, marketing and promotions materials using error-prone manual processes that are highly time-consuming and resource-intensive, thus significantly impeding their ability to get promotions in front of customers in a timely manner. Their work is still performed on desktop systems using standard design applications and other tools such as Excel, both of which are not connected to the main corporate systems and databases.

Two major retail trends have influenced the Advertising, Marketing and Promotions market over the last few years. First and foremost is the move from mass marketing to segmented, highly targeted marketing.

The increasing difficulty retail marketers face when trying to capture customer attention and retain profitable customers has pushed them to find ways to reach the right customers via the right channels at exactly the right time.

Retailers have realized that more precise marketing brings better results by creating demand through timely, targeted and effective messaging. Deloitte & Touche reports that by identifying and incorporating measurement at the planning stages of a marketing or promotional campaign, retailers can achieve savings of 7-20%, boost sales by 2-4%, and improve overall sales margin by 1-2%.

Another major retail trend that has affected the Advertising, Marketing and Promotions market has been the move towards multi-channel distribution. It has been proven that properly synchronized multi-channel campaigns generate the best results. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau,
a well-executed cross-channel marketing campaign generates a sales lift ranging from 7% to 34%.

Retailers are finding it hard to fully capitalize on this trend because of the difficulties they`re encountering when trying to coordinate and execute cross channel marketing promotions simultaneously across all media channels.

Universal Ad provides retailers, wholesalers, advertising agencies, and printers with highly innovative enterprise-class advertising, marketing and promotions software and service solutions that automate the planning, management and production of consumer advertising and promotions campaigns. Customers include Alpha 1 Marketing, Office Depot Israel and Shufersal (the largest retail chain in Israel). The company has two offices in the US and its international headquarters is located in Israel. The company, which was founded in 2003 by a highly experienced advertising and publishing executive, is privately held and venture-backed by the Walden Israel VC fund. For more information about Universal Ad, please visit www.universal-ad.com.