Street dating is product distribution at its most intense and most challenging. It's also the future. In a world where product lifecycles are shortening, and the fight for a consumer's attention is ever more difficult each day, street dating is becoming more and more essential. Already, it's the only way of doing business for many producers of promotionally-intense products.
In street dating, a product is made available to all consumers on a specific date and, in some cases, at a specific time on that date.
Street dating requires an exacting delivery strategy to ensure simultaneous availability of a product in all retail outlets. In many cases, there is now additional complexity, as such products arrive pre-packed in a variety of point-of-purchase displays.
This delivery method is used primarily for a coordinated nationwide or worldwide product release, in which a costly marketing campaign has been built around the release date.
Street dating is now commonly used by manufacturers of such promotionally-intense products as DVDs, game consoles, video games, CDs and software.