New high-street app service allows ads to target customers as they pass

Mobile marketing agency Digitonic is to offer a new handset-based service, which will allow high-street retail chains to send information and offers to consumers as they pass their physical high street locations.

The technology will use a company’s app to notify customers of new products, offers and services, via messages which will appear as notifications within iPhone and Android handsets.

Using geolocation technology, similar to that used by Google maps, Digitonic’s technology will be able to detect when a user’s app is within 200 metres of a given premises, and send the handset a message.

Digitonic will use the technology to send rich content such as vouchers, videos and games, which it has pioneered using SMS messaging for clients including Coral bookmakers, Blockbuster and consumer lifestyle data provider DLG.

Customers will have to actively opt-in via a business’s app to agree to receive the messages, ultimately preventing the marketing of unwanted products and services.

Iain Wilcox, marketing director and co-founder of Digitonic, said the technology could eventually be used to send enticing offers to customers about to enter a competitor’s premises.

“There’s massive potential in businesses being able to send incredibly targeted and relevant content to customers using this technology, and the beauty of it is that allows them to engage directly with existing customers via the handset and then in-store,” Wilcox said.

“With mobile increasingly blurring the lines between online and the high street, we believe this is a powerful tool to drive targeted footfall into high street chains.

“With this service, we’re taking the rich media content abilities we’ve developed for SMS and using them in another very immediate, personalised and powerful way. Businesses can then access very detailed information about the impact on sales.”

Digitonic has pioneered the use of rich media text messaging in the UK, which uses SMS messages tailored for iPhone and Android handsets. Customers receive a text message with a link to handset-specific rich content – such as videos, games or vouchers – and companies can track interaction rates, leads and sales from each rich media impression.

A recent rich media text campaign delivered to more than 5,700 customers and resulted in £1.1 million of online mobile customer activity.