BreaktimeTV Creates New Store Revenue With Minimal Operator Involvement
Creating a positive consumer experience with revenue-generating add-ons is what many of today’s progressive laundry operators are doing to help increase store revenue. One such add-on is placing monitors with video programming and advertising on otherwise empty walls to provide something for consumers to watch other than the time remaining on their spin cycles.
One vendor providing such an opportunity is BreaktimeTV (BTV), the technology brainchild of automated retailing veteran Patrick McMullen. With minimal investment from an operator, McMullen places monitors in the laundry common areas and handles technical support. In exchange for providing monitor space, the operator receives recurring revenue from BTV, which posts news, weather, advertising or other items of interest on a ticker on the bottom of the monitor.
Advertising on the monitor could include information about products available in the vending machines in the laundromat, laundry specials being offered by the store, details about a new coffee shop around the corner, highlights of upcoming events at the high school and more.
Operators do not need to worry about selling advertising, creating ticker copy or maintaining equipment, as BTV manages that end of the business. According to McMullen, all the operator has to do is harvest roughly a 50/50 revenue split with Breaktime TV for allowing the monitors to be placed in the store.
“We do 95% of the work,” McMullen said. “We want this business to be on autopilot for the laundry operator,” he added.
While the system can operate off of an internet signal, McMullen said BTV prefers the operator have a hard-wired connection as according to McMullen hard wire provides the best connectivity.
Operators can install the monitors and wiring themselves, or BTV can handle it for an additional fee.
“Wherever anyone is taking a break today, such as at the laundromat, the detail waiting area at the car wash, or a business breakroom, the opportunity is there to provide something for the consumer to watch, and the business to make additional revenue,” McMullen said.
Founded in 2023, BTV is a digital media platform dedicated to enhancing the experience in the common waiting area of a business for operators and their clients. BTV delivers engaging, high-quality content that informs, entertains, and connects audiences while providing operators with a reliable and frictionless source of passive income.
While others struggled to monetize common area screens, BTV succeeded by bridging two worlds — digital media and break and waiting room operations. “We proved there’s a real audience, we built ad-safe, HR-friendly tech that advertisers trust, and we deliver measurable sales lift and recurring revenue for operators,” McMullen said. He added typical BTV users see a 5% average same-store sales lift and zero client complaints across 8,000-plus screens. “This is real advertising revenue, not theory,” he added.
The appeal for BTV to a national advertiser is that BTV delivers household-name ads to a captive audience — repeat consumers in locations such as laundromats. “These are the same TV ads people see at home, now in an environment such as at the laundromat where buying decisions for products and services are happening,” McMullen said.
McMullen has been an investor, advisor and board member for a wide range of businesses.
Prior to joining Breakroom Choices, one of the largest independently owned convenience services company, and creating BTV, McMullen for 12 years headed Three Square Market, a micro market vending company, and TurnKey Corrections, a commissary and communications services provider for the corrections industry. Prior to that he was a successful real estate entrepreneur and division president of a Fortune 50 company. That experience is what is driving BTV as a growth opportunity in laundromats.
For more information about BTV and its potential for laundry add-on revenue, go to https://breaktimetv.com, call 480-690-6000, or email patrick@breaktimetv.com.
Article written by Jeff Adair, Editor & Sales Director