4 Best Beacon Marketing Campaign Ideas Brands Should Try in 2016

Devika Girish
Last Updated: May 10, 2018

According to a recent Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) study, 66% of marketers agreed that location-based advertising is the ‘most exciting’ mobile opportunity for 2016. And it goes without saying that a significant part of this opportunity lies in beacon marketing. According to reports beacons have helped brands increase their in-store mobile app usage by 16.5 times while timely in-store messages and ads have lead to 20x increase in purchase intent.

[Tweet “66% of marketers said that location-based ads are the best mobile opportunity for 2016”]

Therefore, it comes as a surprise that marketers all over are gearing up to leverage Bluetooth Low Energy beacons in staggering force this year. According to Proxbook’s Q4 2015 report, there are currently 4 Million beacons deployed globally, indicating that the proximity marketing industry is well on track to deploy 400 Million beacons by 2020. However, even with a good number of consumers having opted in to receive beacon-enabled notifications, sometimes it can be challenging to think of creative and conversion focused iBeacon campaigns to run.

To help you at this, we have listed four best beacon marketing campaign ideas that will allow you to engage your increasingly mobile, ‘on-the-go’ customers in fresh and innovative ways.

1. Leverage beacons on buses to target commuters with engaging content

Buses are a great place for advertisers to connect with and influence commuters’ buying decisions. Keeping this idea in mind, last year, Exterion Media, an advertising firm, outlined its plans to fit some 500 buses with beacons in London, in order to give brands the chance to target around 300,000 bus riders every day with relevant content. The project was given the green light after a successful six-month beacon trial on 110 buses in Norwich, England, that lead to more than 2,000 app downloads. The trial backed by 20 businesses also saw 30% of the Loka app users click through the notifications.

Image Source: brandchannel.com

Taking cue from this, Entertainment company Fox, recently announced its plans to leverage the same beacon network in buses to push Kung Fu Panda 3 content to commuters via Shazam, a popular music streaming app, as part of a promo campaign for the movie. Starting next month, commuters will be prompted to open the Shazam app on their smartphone by ads posted on the interior of the buses. Once a user presses the Shazam button, the app will listen for beacon signals on the bus. When the signal is detected, the app will display movie content such as the trailer and will also allow users to book cinema tickets directly via their device.

[Tweet “How 20th Century Fox plans to leverage beacons on buses to push Kung Fu Panda 3 content via Shazam”]

One of the primary things that Fox is looking forward to achieve via this campaign includes gathering accurate data on the kind of audiences that are engaging with the campaign. According to Chris Green, Marketing director, Fox, this kind of data will go a long way in helping the entertainment company make better data-driven decisions for campaigns ahead.

2. Use beacons to WOW your customers with an interactive showroom display

Beacons have primarily been known for their ability to send push notifications on coupons or discounts to shoppers in-store. However, of recent, brands across verticals have been busy racking their brains over new ways in which beacons could help enhance customer experience. One such brand being Rovio Entertainment, a global entertainment media company that is the mastermind behind Angry Birds.

The company runs an Angry Birds Store that showcases Rovio’s favourite larger than life characters in a bold and playful way, making shopping a joyful experience for its customers. And in their efforts to take in-store engagement level a notch higher, Rovio leveraged beacons to run an interactive showroom display. As a part of this beacon marketing campaign, six selected plush toys with beacon stickers (also called nearables) attached to their price tags, were placed on the sales desk. When a customer picks up a certain plush toy, the radio signals broadcasted by wireless motion sensors in the beacon sticker are interpreted by smart devices placed around. As a result, a video about the character in question is launched on a nearby screen and the colour of the in-store spotlights are changed to fit the color scheme of the video.

[Tweet “How Angry Birds store leveraged beacons to take in-store engagement level a notch higher”]

3. Enable pull messaging by making beacons prominently visible to your customers

Contrary to how beacons are currently installed, far from shoppers’ view at the store entrance or on the ceiling of a particular section, brands have started installing beacons more prominently in stores. For example, Herning Centret, a shopping mall in Herning, Denmark, requires users to ‘ask’ to be beaconed. Instead of pushing coupons to shoppers based on their location in the mall, Herning Centret created two ‘Coupon Zones’ where shoppers could walk in with their phone to receive coupons from nearby retail outlets.

Image Source: emplate.it

In order to capture the attention of the visitors, these Coupon zones were marked with yellow circles on the floor with a banner above. As a part of this campaign, retail stores in Herning Centret provided their customers with some special, time-limited coupons, which were shown via the app at the Coupon zone. As a result, the app saw 1392 downloads over a period of nine days, out of which 665 users viewed at least one coupon thus attaining an engagement rate of 48% among customers. All in all, the campaign ended on a good note with 96% of customers mentioning that they would recommend the ‘Coupon Zones’ to others.

[Tweet “How Herning Centret used pull messaging to attain 48% app engagement rate via beacons”]

4. Use beacons to make it easier for customers to personalize their gifts

Beacons work best when they are leveraged by brands to strike a personal note with their customers. And this is exactly what Medea, a leading Vodka brand, is trying to achieve with its innovative beacon use case. The vodka brand, which has had manually programmable LED strips on its bottles since 2010, launched a mobile app last year that uses iBeacon technology to wirelessly set and display personalized messages to LED strips on vodka bottles.

Image Source: nbcnews.com

The app can easily determine when a bottle is available for customization. Once a buyer registers a particular bottle using the app, only those who are invited by him/her, will have the access to post messages to the bottle. Adding on to that, the app is also being used by Medea to gain insights into the demographics of its customers.

[Tweet “How Medea Vodka leveraged beacons to make it easier for users to personalize their gifts”]

Have you come across any other interesting beacon marketing campaigns? Let us know in the comments below.

If you are planning a beacon pilot, take a look at Beaconstac, that includes everything you need to get started. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!