SignStorey Closes Round of Funding from Golden Gate Capital and New Fortune 1000 Investor

09/26/2006

SignStorey, a leading provider of in-store media networks to the grocery industry, today announced that it successfully closed an expansion round of financing with a Fortune 1000 asset management company with more than $50 billion in assets under management. This new investor joins Golden Gate Capital and other existing investors in funding SignStorey’s expansion of its grocery media networks and sales and marketing initiatives. The funding comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind grocery study, conducted with Nielsen Media Research, which confirmed that SignStorey content engages and influences consumers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SignStorey’s groundbreaking study underscores the effectiveness of its offering and importance of in-store media for brand advertisers. With this research, the company pioneered the measurement of this medium in grocery and is enabling advertisers to better understand and quantify the opportunity to reach key audiences. Highlights from the study include the following:

• SignStorey’s 1,124 grocery store network (the network today consists of 1,350 stores) attracted a gross potential audience of 57,050,000 adult shoppers over the course of a 28-day flight, spending an average of almost 24 minutes shopping.
• More than three-quarters (76 percent) of those people shopped or walked through the meat and/or produce sections, specifically where the SignStorey screens were placed, and spent an average of nine minutes there.
• Nearly 22 million shoppers (38 percent) actively looked at, watched or listened to SignStorey screens.
• More than three-quarters (77 percent) of all the viewers agreed that SignStorey was an easy way to learn about new products.
• Two-thirds (68 percent) agreed that SignStorey would influence their decision to buy the advertised product in the future.

“This new investment enables SignStorey to further expand our grocery network and our sales and marketing efforts,” said Virginia Cargill, president and CEO of SignStorey. “The results of the Nielsen study support what we have seen, and will continue to see, in the field – that consumers are engaged and energized by our content, which drives value for the retailers, advertisers and content providers that work with us.”

SignStorey executives will be available at the In-Store Marketing Expo in Chicago on Sept. 27-28 where another major industry study will be announced by a leading CPG manufacturer. For an appointment please contact Jennifer Gilbart, jgilbart@signstorey.com or 203-255-7850.

About SignStorey
SignStorey is a leading provider of in-store media networks for grocery retailers, installed in more than 1,300 stores and six retail chains nationwide. The company’s approach enables grocers, advertisers and content providers to capture the interest of an increasingly difficult-to-reach audience, combining brand marketing with relevant content that consumers want, to reach grocery shoppers at the point of decision. SignStorey delivers valuable information to shoppers within the supermarket perimeter, where 98 percent of consumers shop, through key partnerships with content providers like CBS, Epicurious.com and Meredith Publishing, publisher of well-known titles like Better Homes & Gardens and American Baby. Leading brands rely on the SignStorey network, which is proven and tested to be effective at helping consumers make more informed decisions about the products they buy.