As retail media ad spend soars, move looks to honor power of small business store windows to provide impact and authenticity to advertisers

PMD Media, a “hyper-local” OOH advertising company, that provides street-level window billboards and digital integration to advertisers through its network of 45,000 small businesses, has rebranded as WNDW.

The fifth largest U.S. OOH network operator by number of audited locations, WNDW is changing its brand in recognition of the role that small businesses play in their communities, as well as a nod towards new technology and a digital future.

“We are re-branding to WNDW to acknowledge that storefront advertising offers a higher degree of engagement and authenticity than most any other form of advertising”

“We are re-branding to WNDW to acknowledge that storefront advertising offers a higher degree of engagement and authenticity than most any other form of advertising,” says Dean Stallone, Founder and CEO, WNDW. “Much like storefront windows themselves, these street-level ads are an expression of the small business owner, who plays a critical role in defining the character of a neighborhood. Storefront advertising is an extension of those individuals – a window into them as people and what they hope to communicate to their community. Our rebrand is a celebration of this and of the importance of small business retailers to the fabric of the neighborhoods they serve.”

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WNDW’s new name and logo are also a realization that the OOH industry is moving towards an exciting and new digital era: “As we were delving into new electronic storefront technology, we wanted to create a brand that boldly communicated our product. But the more we dug in, the more we realized that WNDW spoke not only to this new technology, but also to our core offerings.”

WNDW, launched as PMD Media 31 years ago from a dorm room at NYU where Stallone was a student, offers WindowPoster™ Display storefront billboards, Digital Integration that enable outdoor campaigns to be boosted through targeted mobile ads that appear on a user’s device, and Small Business Direct, which offers brands a way to engage with the small businesses themselves.

Recent advertisers participating in WNDW storefront advertising include Facebook, Brooklyn Museum, Amazon, Nike, Northwell Health, Google Fiber, MoMA, and Walmart, among others.

The move comes as retail media ad spend – for both digital and physical platforms – is increasing significantly. According to Group M, global advertising revenue for retail-based companies will grow from $88 billion in 2021 to $101 billion this year and will reach $160 billion by 2027.

To support the re-brand, WNDW is launching a program to help small business owners communicate to their community, and convey to their customers why they have chosen to serve it.

The company is soliciting responses from small businesses to this end and will send back a designed ad incorporating their statements into storefront window signage that store owners can display.

“The program is designed to help small businesses utilize their ‘WNDW’ as a way to further humanize their business and communicate a message of connection to the community they serve,” says Stallone.

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