Mobile rules in advertising
Location, location, location has been the mantra of the real estate business for years and years, describing the most important factors in determining the desirability of a property. Nowadays it is also an important factor in marketing, especially in mobile marketing. Frida Kvarnström, Product Manager at Schibsted Sales and Inventory, gives us an insight in the new technologies.
With new technology comes new opportunities, not only for companies and products, but also for marketeers and advertisers. Keeping in mind the vast amount of functionality encompassed in smartphones along with the widespread usage, it is no understatement that mobiles can be regarded as an extension of ourselves. No matter if we are checking email, finding a route on a map or keeping pace on a Sunday run, we would be quite lost without them.
An indicator of who you are
One of the reasons why marketeers and advertisers also are falling in love with smartphones is the geo-technology they enable. Geo-technology is an innovation that allows advertisers to better understand and communicate to the right people based on their physical location. It sheds light on their actual, real-life behavior.
Traditionally advertisers have been trying to understand consumers based on their online behavior. How we behave online can tell a lot about people; what articles they like to read, websites they prefer to visit and products they like to buy offers insights about their affinities and intents. Geographic data provides information on your physical location. Looking at where you are, have been, or where you are going, is also a good indicator of who you are.
Today Schibsted offers its customers three different types of geographic targeting. Traditional geo-targeting is “real-time” and offers ads based on where people are located when consuming our services. Geo-fencing and beacon, are based on where you have been, to create customized segments for future retargeting.
Examples of geo-targeting might be special deals in a store nearby or realestate properties for sale in your area. Schibsted has successfully collaborated with a number of real-estate agents, where available property listings near you automatically were displayed in a fixed advertising space on Aftonbladet. This feature is seeing significant usage and can be next to addictive, both for house-hunters and the curious.
Virtual fences
Geo-fencing technology enable us to target users based on previous whereabouts. By mapping out places of interest, it is possible to create virtual fences that collect information about those who enter that area and build a specific target group. An airline customer wanted to reach frequent flyers – we drew a fence around Arlanda airport and segmented recurring visitors. This enabled the customer to communicate through traditional mobile banners at Aftonbladet to their audience of interest.
Beacon technology enables us to create even more niched segments than geofencing. By placing a beacon transmitter in a customer’s brick-and-mortar store, visitors can be collected when passing by the transmitter. The beacon technology is suitable for smaller areas, is based on Bluetooth technology and requires opt-in action from the user in a mobile app.
In collaboration with Aftonbladet, a food truck used a beacon to track visitors while handing out samples. This very niche segment of visitors was later targeted with a coupon banner at Aftonbladet that encouraged them to try the food sample again.
Combined behaviors
Looking ahead, the potential of additional uses of geo-technology have yet to be explored. The next step is to identify the users across devices and combine offline and online behavioral data, to create even better targeting opportunities. This technology will also improve the quality of Schibsted’s products, as we will learn more about where our visitors are and what they are doing, while consuming our services.