Detractors of using the bluetooth technology in out-of-home advertising should reconsider the opportunity, writes Ged Weston
“I don’t like Beacons”
“Why?”
“I just don’t like them”
This genuinely happened to me in a client meeting last week.
This week’s launch at the Transport Museum with Mediatel for the Presenz Beacon Network however reinforced why this initiative is worthwhile pursuing. Beacons and out-of-home are going to be big.
I have been fortunate enough to work with Proxama and a few other proactive OOH media owners on a collaborative project to bring the Beacon proposition to life. We have been working together to build a national integrated network of OOH based media beacons. The objective being to enable brands to engage consumers with messaging that is specifically tuned to time and place. Hitting consumers at ‘meaningful moments’.
Mungo Knott from Primesight and Gavin Talbot from Proxama successfully positioned the opportunity represented by Beacons. Clients still think Beacons are complicated and that there are too many hurdles to overcome for them to be relevant. You need to have Bluetooth turned on and getting the SDK code into an App has led to this perception.
The launch of the physical web has overcome the app challenges and the exciting news that the new Apple IPhone 7 will have Bluetooth permanently on are game changers. This means for location-based marketing that we are at a tipping point where the ‘I don’t like Beacons’ people should now be starting to reconsider the opportunity.
After the conference a number of clients mentioned three positives from the session.
1. The accuracy that Beacons provide – 0 to 50m. You know exactly where the interaction or data has happened.
2. Action does not have to happen there and then. Neustar’s Seamus McAteer talked about the data that could be collected from Beacons and how excited this is making clients. It goes beyond an immediate interaction.
3.The scale that is already in place. The Presenz Network already represents a significant footprint in the Beacons market. Clients do not need to wait to test and learn. They can do it today.
For the last 5 years everyone has banged on about OOH and mobile. Not just the OOH industry but also mobile companies like Weve. We all have had minimal traction. Beacons represent the opportunity to join up the dots.
So maybe the clients’ opinion should move on:
“I am not sure about Beacons and OOH.”
“Why?”
“I would like to test how they can work for my business first?”
Ged Weston is commercial director for Airport Media
