I run AdSpot — we put smart digital screens inside retail stores in Thunder Bay and sell rotating ad slots to local brands. A few things I've learned putting this together that most small business owners don't think about:

Foot traffic converts differently than scroll traffic. Someone standing in a checkout line for 90 seconds with nothing to do will actually watch a 15-second ad. You can't buy that kind of captive attention on Instagram at any price.

Local retail has almost zero DOOH competition right now. Big out-of-home ad networks focus on highways and malls in major metros. Small and mid-size cities like Thunder Bay are wide open — which means early advertisers get premium placement for a fraction of what they'd pay in Toronto or Winnipeg.

Rotation beats a single big campaign. We swap creative monthly instead of locking businesses into a static billboard-style buy. It keeps the ad feeling fresh to repeat shoppers and lets smaller brands test messaging without a big upfront commitment.

If you're a local business owner wondering whether foot-traffic advertising actually works — happy to talk through it. Building this out one store partnership at a time.