EnVision Ads Belt Shoppers

Joe Molinaro had a good idea. He just couldn’t make it stick.

Curious customers kept peeling up the corners of the ads Molinaro had stuck on conveyer belts at the check-out counters of Kroger stores in Little Rock. The static-cling vinyl was held in place with a tiny charge of electricity, like the windshield sticky notes mechanics often use to remind motorists to get an oil change.

“People wanted to stick their finger under it,” Molinaro said of the tenacious but temperamental vinyl. “When they did that, they would break the charge. We would experience some bubbling.”

Molinaro shelved his idea for a decade until trucking magnate J.B. Hunt of Lowell took an interest in it in 2000. Hunt and Phil Phillips, who owned Phillips Litho in Springdale for 26 years, joined Molinaro as partners in 2001 in what is now enVision Marketing Group of Rogers.

They fixed the sticky problem by coming up with a digital printing process and patented white belts that readily take an inking. EnVision tested the belts in 11 Kroger stores in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi during the past year. Now, they’re ready to roll them out on a larger scale.

“We’ve done all our homework,” Molinaro said. “We’re ready to move it out to the next level … We have a tiger by the tail. All we have to do is finish taming it. That’s what we plan to do in the first quarter of next year. We see good things for 2005.”

Sticky Business

Molinaro came up with the idea for the belt ads in the early 1980s while working as a “courtesy clerk” at a Kroger store in North Little Rock. Initially, he thought it would help with impulse buys at the register for things like Cokes and candy bars.

Molinaro patented the concept and got the ads on belts at 15 Kroger stores in the Little Rock market. The belts were used at those stores from 1984 to 1987. Advertising Age magazine published an article on Molinaro’s belt ads in 1985 and got him a considerable amount of attention. But he couldn’t find a practical way to make the ads stay put on the rubber belts while customers piled canned goods and frozen foods on top of them.

Although Molinaro shelved the project for a decade, he kept working on it during that time. Mark Witcher and Greg Wren, both of North Little Rock, joined him as partners in what was then called Service Media Inc., a research and development company.

With Hunt’s financial backing and Phillips’ expertise in printing, it was time to take the idea to another level in 2001 and change the company’s name.

Digital Printing

“At that time, they were looking at silk screening the belts,” said Phillips, who sold his Springdale printing company in 1999 to Master Graphics of Memphis.

But silk screening was too expensive and time consuming. EnVision wanted to change the belts out every six months so it could change the advertising. So Phillips recommended digital printing.

With help from Mindy Peck, a former employee of Phillips Litho, enVision found that an XL Jet 5 press from Scitex Vision would fit its needs. They purchased two of the presses from the Israeli company, which has its U.S. operations based near Atlanta.

The press allows enVision to run three 900-pound rolls of belt material at one time. They also came up with an ink that would adhere to the belts.

White isn’t used in digital printing, however, because the pigment is thick and clogs the jets. So the white of the belt material serves as white in the design of the ads, most of which are on a black background printed onto the white belt.

EnVision patented the belt material, which is a multilayer composite of polyurethane and rubber. They’re made by Siegling America of Huntersville, N.C. The coating technology was developed by Slocum Adhesive Corp. of Lynchburg, Va.

“It’s like the finish of a finely waxed car,” Phillips said. “Water beads up on it, so you can just wipe it off.”

Phillips said supermarkets have anywhere from six to 20 checkout lines with conveyor belts for customer products.

The belts are printed at enVision’s plant in Rogers. Kroger’s customer-unload belts are 22 by 148 inches and can accommodate seven to 10 5-by-9-inch ads. Molinaro said enVision may soon go to 8-by-8-inch ads instead.

The belts are being used at Kroger stores in Conway and Cabot in Arkansas; Germantown and Collierville in Tennessee; and Oxford, Olive Branch and Jackson in Mississippi.

Molinaro said Kroger cash registers also have 12-by-122-inch “bagger belts,” which move products to the sacker, but enVision isn’t using those for ads at this time. The bagger belts aren’t as visible to customers who are waiting in line or checking out at the register.

Delta Test

Molinaro said the belts are a great deal for the store as well as advertisers. EnVision provides the belts to the stores for free, and advertisers pay to have their companies promoted on the belts.

“This program costs the retailer nothing,” he said. “They can save money on it by eliminating the cost of the belt and offering space on the belt for sale.”

Molinaro said enVision’s main target is still impulse buys, but space is also leased to businesses outside the stores, like real estate agents, auto dealers, mortgage companies and banks.

Beginning in November 2003, Knowledge Network of Chicago conducted an eight-week study of 20 Kroger stores to determine if the belt ads increased product “awareness.” Customers were quizzed about the products as they left the stores. Of the 20 test stores, 10 used the enVision belts at cash registers and 10 didn’t.

The study showed that awareness of the release of the Disney film “Pirates of the Caribbean” increased from 16 percent to 83 percent because it was advertised on the enVision belts. Molinaro said that means the majority of customers leaving the store remembered that the movie was due to be released in three weeks, indicating they had read the ad for it on the belt and it had stuck in their heads at least until they were outside the store.

“[Knowledge Network] said, ‘Your numbers are good. On awareness, you went through the roof,'” recalls Molinaro.

Awareness of a particular candy bar that was advertised increased by 56 percent when compared to the other 10 Kroger stores. And awareness of Lander’s Auto of Little Rock increased by 43 percent because of the belt ads.

Molinaro said enVision has talked to Kmart Corp. about using the belts, and he hopes other retailers will be interested.

Currently, the belts run with particular ads for six months. Then they are replaced.

“As we get further along and we perfect this, we’ll shorten our ad times,” Molinaro said.

“We wanted to test all of the facets of the business: the actual belt itself, the printing, the customer response and retention,” Phillips said. “We thought if we could be successful in the Delta, we could be successful anywhere.”