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McDonald's is the latest to follow the trail blazed by Tesco. Screens are set to appear in Spar, Asda and Boots, and are even in the swanky corridors of Selfridges, not to mention the swelling number in pubs, bars, clubs, at railway stations, in shopping centres and at petrol stations.

So far, the focus has mainly been on delivering the technology to make it accessible. Now those nuts and bolts have been put in place, the big question is: "What do we put on the screens?"

Can brand ads work on out-of-home networks? How will creatives have to think about outdoor screens? And as more advertisers look to exploit opportunities thrown up by digital retail media, will the in-store TV brief go to ad agencies, or DM and sales promotion shops?

Catherine Bosworth, the client services director at Portland Outdoor and a member of the IPA outdoor digital panel, says: "Content is hit and miss. Brands are tweaking their TV ads for a medium I'd define as animated posters rather than TV, and you could equate that to using the wrong creative for a poster."

What little research there is on the medium supports Bosworth's view.

The Point of Purchase Advertising Institute, with the convenience store Spar, carried out a nine-week study early this year, jointly funded by the in-store specialist IQ Group, Unilever, Scottish & Newcastle, Diageo, Weetabix and News International. In the trial, Unilever Bestfoods' I Can't Believe It's Not Butter saw sales and volume grow by 44 per cent in test stores with screens. The IQ partner David Williams attributes this partly to "the simple creative execution", which limited copy to bare details of the buy-one-get-one-free offer without any attempt at linking it to the above-the-line messages. In comparison, Weetabix, Guinness Draught and Birds Eye ran re-purposed generic ads that also helped grow sales, but on a smaller scale.

Trials at Tesco are showing that shorter commercials are more effective, David McEvoy, the group marketing director at JCDecaux, says. JCDecaux is the exclusive sales provider for Tesco TV, and has been privy to its trials, which found that brands advertising on the network saw 10 per cent better sales than those that did not. A short infomercial on how to make the perfect Pimm's was one of the best.

In pubs, bars and hair salons, people have more time to look at ads.

But that doesn't mean generic ads always work best. "Supporting on-screen ads with interactive elements such as competitions and sampling increases recall rates," Sarah Whetham, the head of advertising at i-vu, which provides interactive LCD screens to hair salons, says. Masterfoods and Audi are among its clients and, in June, it opened a US office. Whetham is unequivocal: "Content is key."

Eric Siereveld, the director of retail for Europe at Sony, agrees: "We work with a department store in Denmark and found that generic ads were seen as boring. Shoppers want a mix of ads, information and entertainment. Creating content for this format is a new skill - you need short, targeted, simple messages coupled with strong visual content. Agencies need to begin thinking differently."

McEvoy even suggests a new breed of agency will emerge to plug the knowledge gap, such are many people's lofty ambitions for the medium. Clients are already grumbling that their agencies are failing to show a reasonable understanding of how to promote brands in-store through point-of-purchase channels. Meanwhile, the work is being eyed by DM and sales promotion shops, who view digital retail as their natural domain.

Gary Sharpen, Red Cell Response's executive creative director, believes: "When the dust settles, it will be a DM and sales promotion tool since it's much more of a direct call to action than above the line is used to delivering. It's not a soft brand-building exercise - you want people to do something immediately."

It's striking that digital retail media is "relatively low on ad agency radars, as I believe it is for client and media companies", Chris Hirst, the managing director of Grey London, says. "We'll definitely have to think differently about it, but it is still in its infancy. It's all very well to say that advertisers will have to tailor content to the different environments but at the moment, that's all theoretical."

For Hirst, the practical consideration of cost, namely production budgets, is the main reason the medium is being seen as a poor relation to the glamorous business of making commercials. "Creative departments enjoy a challenge, but how often is digital retail on clients' briefs? Hardly at all - yet. And our client base - much of which includes FMCG brands - is exactly the sort that will be taking it up. When the channel takes off, we'll deal with it in the same way as we do, say, press and poster work - it will be included as another channel across which the main idea must work," he comments.

That may not be enough. Avanti Screenmedia, which furnishes pubs, bars and clubs with screens, also offers creative as part of its remit. And it's not alone. I-vu also offers a creative resource and full production facilities, as does the production house Sumners, which is working with Marks & Spencer Financial Services and the DIY chain Focus.

Stuart Gill, formerly the executive creative director of Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO's sister agency AMV Advance, has taken on the same role at Avanti.

"Advertisers are just waking up to this new medium and they're coming to companies such as us for creative advice, whether directly or through their agency," he says. "It's exciting to be playing a defining part in establishing creative standards for a new medium. We're not working to huge production budgets. You can't gloss over a weak idea by hiding it behind production, but there's complete creative freedom."

Like many, Gill believes there is an "education job to do" and says it's vital to get advertising agencies on side in understanding the opportunities available in-store. "Once creatives are writing stuff for this medium day in, day out, it will benefit everyone," he says.

It remains to be seen if creatives can be convinced by this strange new marketing channel. No-one doubts that the number of outdoor screens is set to rocket. The question is, who can deliver the best content and get the best results? Ad agency creatives, or their below-the-line rivals?

Yet another industry turf war is brewing.