Although the industry is settling on a few practical uses for beacons, primarily as a helpmate for attribution, they’re just one marketing data point among many – a tactic. “Beacons are only one piece of the equation, a component of a larger effort,” said Chris Cunningham, CRO of proximity and location data aggregator Unacast. “There are […]
Beacons started out as a solution in search of a problem. And now some beacon providers are companies in search of a home. On Monday, mobile ad platform The Mobile Majority acquired geolocation beacon company Gimbal, a spinoff of Qualcomm. In June, location data company Verve Mobile bought beacon provider Roximity almost exactly one year […]
Location data newbie Unacast is looking to help mature the still nascent beacon market. The Norwegian startup, which aggregates beacon and sensor data across proximity solution providers, announced its $5 million Series A on Tuesday led by Open Ocean Capital and Investinor, bringing the company’s total funding to $6.6 million. Unacast will double its headcount […]
The promise of location data is one thing. The undeniable issues around scale and inaccuracy that come along with it are another. “No one disputes that the accuracy and quality of physical data is way below average,” said mobile tech vet Chris Cunningham, who on Wednesday took the reins as CRO of beacon and proximity […]
Brands are experimenting with proximity marketing, but consumers aren’t always willing to give up their location data. As Pew noted in a recent study on privacy and information sharing: “Location data seems especially precious in the age of the smartphone.” Spam, the risk of data breaches, overdone customer profiling and data being collected for one […]
The same rules in life apply to beacon advertising programs: Don’t be annoying or people are going to leave the party. “You’d just delete the app if you got seven push notifications in one place,” said Rachel Pasqua, practice lead for mobile and emerging technology at MEC Global, North America. “We’re speaking as an agent […]
A few years ago, industry observers wondered if retailers would survive in the face of ecommerce competition. Now it’s become apparent that brick-and-mortar companies have not only weathered the storm, they’ve emerged as a kind technology platform for vendors to build on. But despite numerous startups catering to retailers, there aren’t any major players like […]
A year after embracing programmatic technology, Live Nation is planning another major expansion of its ad tech capabilities, this time by connecting its many online and offline properties into a holistic marketing platform. With its “Fan Connect programmatic platform,” the entertainment company is continuing its evolution into a “digital publisher” – not in the sense […]
Driving foot traffic is retail vet Julie Bernard’s passion. “That’s what converts the casual window shopper into a loyal customer,” said Bernard, who took the reins as CMO of location-based mobile ad platform Verve Mobile on Monday after more than seven years at Macy’s in several exec roles, most recently as SVP of customer strategy, […]
GameStop isn’t playing around when it comes to omnichannel, and here’s why. Roughly 60% of GameStop’s customers first engage with the video game retailer online. Of that number, 26% show up at one of its more than 6,600 brick-and-mortar stores within 48 hours and make a purchase. About 40% of its traffic comes from mobile. […]
Boston-based in-store beacon company Swirl revealed its $18 million Series C round on Thursday. Led by Twitter Ventures, Hearst Ventures and SoftBank Capital, with participation from Longworth Venture Partners, this latest capital injection brings Swirl’s total funding to $32 million. It’s evidence that beacon technology is reaching maturity, said Hilmi Ozguc, CEO and founder of […]
You don’t need a physical store location to try beacons on for size – but not everyone thinks that’s such a great idea. In December, fashion e-retailer Dafiti – Latin America’s answer to Zappos – started placing little Bluetooth-enabled devices in public places around São Paulo, Brazil, as part of an experiment in location-based contextual targeting. Think […]
In December, JUICE Mobile spun off its beacon network into a standalone ad tech company called Freckle IoT. Already the largest beacon network in the Canada marketplace, the company describes itself as “a testing ground for the activation of next-generation connected devices.” The Toronto-based firm’s goal is to build a platform capable of talking to […]
Adobe’s having a good couple of months. Following Forrester’s high ranking of Adobe’s enterprise marketing suite last month, the software company unveiled a series of mobile enhancements to the Adobe Marketing Cloud on Tuesday. Adobe customers can now tap into in-app messaging capabilities and send personalized follow-up emails and other messages based on a consumer’s […]
You’re walking down the shoe aisle of your favorite department store. You’re browsing. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Do I really need another pair of shoes?” Your phone buzzes. You take it out of your pocket to find a push notification from a shoe brand with a discount offer. It’s a brand you like. You […]
Mobile app analytics just got a bit meatier with the release of expanded functionality within Adobe Marketing Cloud’s Analytics application. The product includes enhanced support for beacons, app acquisition analytics, customer lifetime value (LTV) reports and what Adobe is referring to as retention analysis – the ability to track and understand how newly acquired customers […]
