10 powerful holiday season beacon marketing strategies for 2018

‘Tis the season to be jolly because beacon technology is taking off and you may want to take some inspiration from holiday seasons gone by.

NRF reported that sales during November to December was up 5.5% in 2017 from 2016. 66% of consumers shopped because a deal was too good to pass up on.

More than 174 million Americans shopped in stores and online during the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, crushing the 164 million estimated shoppers from an earlier survey. 64% of those shoppers used a smartphone to make purchase decisions. Black Friday was the most popular day for in-store shopping for 77 million consumers which was followed by Small Business Saturday with 55 million consumers.

Without a doubt, big-box retailers use beacons to push frenzied consumers to buy products as is the case when the holiday season rolls out but there a lot of other verticals that have used and are using beacon technology too.

Let’s find out, shall we?

RETAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES

1. Macy’s Black Friday and Thanksgiving

According to this Leanplum’s report, 2 out of 3 people Black Friday shoppers planned to use their mobile phones for discounts, sales, and other coupons in 2017. On an average 40% of users opted in to enable push notifications. Data showed that 2.7x as many mobile push notifications were sent on Black Friday. Shoppers interacted with Black Friday push notifications much more frequently, engaging 2.6x as often.

Macy encouraged its consumers to install the app and scratch a digital card to stand a chance to win a wide variety of products. Before this, they had a ‘Walk in and Win’ Black Friday campaign offering gift codes and prizes worth $1 million.

From sending customers a welcome message right up to providing relevant promotions, Macy went all out last year. This was not limited to Black Friday with them adopting a similar set-up during Thanksgiving.

2. Sephora’s in-store engagement

Sephora is known to keep adding new ways to reach out to their customer base. Their approach is simple. Trigger relevant and personalized messages when a consumer passes by a product or walks into the store. Their beacon technology ties with their Sephora To Go app that offers mini makeovers, birthday month offers and several other discounts. During the holiday season, sparkly makeup and mini product sales go up, and according to NPD, they grew by 58% in September 2017. Again, consumers respond better to personalized recommendations which is why Sephora’s adoption of beacons makes so much sense and is also the reason why it’s thriving during the retail crisis.

3. Target’s beacon Bluetooth light fixtures

Another big name in retail, Target purchased light fixtures with beacons in-built in them to provide indoor-mapping. So, a customer can click on an item on their list and see where the item is located along with information such as Aisle number and availability. They planned to deploy beacons in about half of its 1800 US stores by the holiday season. Their plan to pump $7 billion into their business paid off well during the holiday season last year. Of course, they did more than just include beacons in their stores but it had a huge hand in their remarkable sales.

4. Lord and Taylor and the iBeacon technology

Lord and Taylor rolled out beacons to ALL OF ITS STORES in 2014 just before the Black Friday sales. What was unique about their approach is that they tied in gamification, technology, and mystery by using SnipSnap, a third party app, that sent a notification if someone was 500 meters from a store about a discount that would only be revealed once the user was in the store. Lord & Taylor witnessed a 60 percent engagement rate with customers due to the beacon technology from one of their Boston locations according to a MobileBridge report.

Here are some other retail beacon marketing campaigns to draw inspiration from – Retailers nailing it with their proximity marketing strategies.

HOTEL BEACON MARKETING STRATEGIES

As per the survey done by Generali Global Assistance’s Travel Insurance division, 40% of Americans planned to travel during the 2017 holiday season. Out of which 48% were millennials, more than any other demographic. 98% of millennials own smartphones and are active spenders. This is all the statistics hotels needed to and use beacons to provide a much smoother experience.

5. Marriott’s expansion of its LocalPerks programme

Using beacon technology, it sends push notifications to guests at the hotel deals on food, spa, entertainment as they move through the resort. They plan on expanding the use of beacons to include VIP treatment and tickets to special events based on a guest’s rewards profile. Marriott expanded the use of beacons to 500 of its hotels by 2017.

6. IHG’s Stay(dot)com app

In 2015, IHG adopted the iBeacon technology and rolled out an app called Stay.com that sent travelers tips, insights, and recommendations from hundreds of local influencers around the world. They already had other mobile phone strategies in place such as mobile lock to unlock or lock the room. IHG made 24 billion US dollars in over 4800 hotels worldwide that year.

Are you a hotelier, looking for more beacon campaign inspirations? We got some more coming your way!

SPORTS – DELIGHTFUL BEACON MARKETING FOR FANS

Super Bowl may be an unofficial holiday and not part of the holiday season, but this beacon use case is particularly compelling.

7. Levi’s Stadium App to improve logistics

The Levi’s Stadium adopted the use of beacons in 2017, to give the Super Bowl goers an even better experience. 2000 battery powered beacons were installed at 100 feet intervals that sent notifications to people about unused parking spots, redirecting them to a shorter line at concession stands, pre-ordering food, beverages, and merchandise.

Looking to run a nail-biting beacon campaign at your stadium? Look at ways of enhancing fan experience at stadiums.

TRANSPORT– LEVERAGE BEACON TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE TRAVELLER EXPERIENCE

The one thing that holiday season inevitably brings is travel and confusing airports and train stations do not help. A lot of inaccurate details creep in using WiFi which is efficiently solved by using BLE which is what the Swiss Federal Railways and Frankfurt airport have done.

8.Swiss Federal Railways App

Designed to be a digital companion, the app makes use of BLE and beacons to help customers find shops and services, meet friends using turn-by-turn navigation, receive special offers, and chat with employees.

9. Frankfurt Airport’s Indoor Navigation and Indoor Positioning App

The app is designed to make the life of the traveler infinitely easier. It gives them real-time information about flights, translates signs, helps them find shops with an ‘Around Me’ function, and helps them navigate the airport.

10. Google deployment of 2000 beacons at Railway stations all across India

In India, Google and WiFi provider Railtel have been using Beaconstac’s platform. When travelers cross a beacon, they are notified how to access the free WiFi. The CTR is 15% making this truly an ingenious idea.

If you want to be in the same league as these brands and many more who have adopted beacons, join forces with Beaconstac. Get your beacons and the beacon platform and enjoy all the rewards with none of the code.

Author Details

Sneh Ratna Choudhary

Sneh is a Content Marketing Manager at Beaconstac and has a penchant for all things tech and startups that improve human lives. She adores dogs, Radiohead, and Michael Gary Scott.

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