When you walk into a store, you might be used to hearing the low hum of background music blaring unobtrusively through the room. Or, if it’s a cool, teen-targeted jeans brand in a mall, it might not be quite so unobtrusive. From a marketing perspective, however, that audio quality can be a missed sales opportunity – and Australian company Qsic wants to change that.
And we mean here. The company recently opened an office in Dallas This will be the home base for the co-founder and CEO, Matt Elsley, who is in North Texas to support his company’s business growth across North America.
Founded in 2012, Qsic claims to be one of the world’s first “commercial music streaming platforms,” influencing over 100 million shoppers at the point of sale each month.
The company helps companies develop and market their own “brand sound.” It also helps retailers activate their retail media networks by setting up, operating and marketing their audio assets.
The aim is to reach “buyers with high purchase intent” with AI-supported audio
“Despite significant investments in digital channels, 85% of US retail sales are still made in-store,” said CEO Matt Elsley said in a statement. “In-store advertising puts a brand in front of shoppers at the point of sale to drive higher conversion rates and sales. The challenges of in-store advertising have always been infrastructure and scale, and with our advanced audio technology, we’ve been able to overcome both. Our seamless in-store setup and proprietary AI enable personalized, data-driven experiences that not only improve customer engagement but also maximize advertising impact.”
This includes providing everything from music selection to ad production and promotional materials to ad sales and price evaluation. Qsic says it has invested heavily in developing a patented method to measure the impact of audio advertising on real-world in-store transactions, harnessing the power of audio to deliver “better customer and sales experiences.”
Combination of generic AI and music about “Lucy”
Qsic said it has developed a proprietary generative AI model called Lucy that can create custom audio advertising content at scale – including “on-demand voiceovers.” Lucy dynamically creates and localizes ad content in real time, the company said, “leveraging merchant data to incorporate details such as local pricing, inventory levels and weather conditions.”
220% year-on-year growth
Qsic said it is on on track for its strongest year yet. The company closed the second quarter with year-on-year growth of over 220%, “primarily driven by strong adoption in North America.” In the past year, the number of retail locations using Qsic’s in-store audio retail media platform has tripled compared to the same period last year, the company said – the majority of which are in the U.S. and Canadatogether with an increasing presence in Mexico.
An increasing focus on in-store advertising has helped drive demand for Qsic’s services, the company added, noting that in-store retail media is expected to grow at an accelerated rate through 2025, with spending expected to 1 billion US dollars by 2028, according to EMARKETER data.
To prepare for further growth, the company says it “significantly increased hiring” last year and nearly doubled its workforce by creating new positions in development, product, operations and sales.
The company said it will continue to innovate and support the rapidly growing number of locations using its platform.
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