With the economy officially in a recession, an increasing amount of storefronts are going dark in malls and shopping centers across the U.S. A couple of upstart outdoor companies are capitalizing on this opportunity for both advertisers and property owners by creating engaging street level advertising that crosses into the world of digital.

Companies such as Inwindow and WindowGain are offering interactive digital experiences for pedestrians with 3D video clings, pedestrian triggered audio, holograms on the street and Bluetooth that can ping customers with coupons or sweepstakes offers.

These new outdoor companies negotiate a lease fee with property owners for the use of their storefront while it is vacant. This is a win for both the landlords and advertisers. Property owners can earn a little extra rent and advertisers get memorable outdoor impressions for a discounted cost.

Audience Data Capture is a great program from Pearl Media to provide advertisers with detailed metrics on who is interacting with storefront ads. They are even using face recognition technology to count how many people stop to view the ad, for how long, and whether they are male or female. Which means video ads can be served by gender!

In the interactive displays below the dog barks at you as you walk past. Check out more video examples here.

This type of advertising can also be used for event marketing and PR by creating Flash Stores. This is an opportunity for advertisers that do not have a retail presence, which allows consumers to interact with their brand. This is an unexpected format to initiate trial among a new consumer base. In my opinion, it is the outdoor equivalent to a radio remote.

Storefront advertising is an alternative outdoor option that I would definitely recommend in future branding campaigns. It is unexpected which draws attention in the cluttered outdoor media landscape that most consumers try to escape. If paired with engaging, value added content for your target, I think the media value would over-index.