Up, close and personal with beacon tech

Beacon technology has the potential to shake up the digital marketing sector. EGR DM looks at how egaming marketers can get in on the action

Location-based marketing has the potential to take online gaming by storm, and is already being embraced by industries outside of the sector. From supermarkets to clothes stores, restaurants to museums, beacon technology is allowing marketers to use a consumer’s location to tap into their psyche and engage them with offers and promotions like never before. And while a few egaming operators such as Sky Betting & Gaming and William Hill have dabbled with beacon technology in recent months, it has yet to be deployed within the industry.

Outside of the egaming sector, beacon usage is on the rise. In 2015, it was estimated nearly 500,000 had been installed across the US alone. By 2018 that number is expected to rise to 4.5 million. While still early days, the technology is already proving itself as an effective way of increasing sales and driving footfall. inMarket, which supplies its beacon platform to a number of big retail brands in the US, says stores implementing its technology have found product interactions at the shelf increase 19 times, with in-store app usage up 16 times and app retention jumping six fold.

And with such attractive engagement figures, it’s arguably a form of marketing technology the egaming industry can’t afford to ignore.

Opt in
The use of beacon technology, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and iBeacons, are tiny devices that can precisely pinpoint an app user’s location. Proximity, geo-fencing, iBeacons or BLE beacons have a variety of potential uses, from offering customers special offers when entering a store to even allowing fans quick entry to a venue by recognising they are at the site.

In order to receive messages from beacons, customers must have Bluetooth enabled on their phone as well as having the relevant app already downloaded. The other requirement is that the user needs to agree to receive messages.

Digital agency Rokk Media has worked directly with one event venue, developing a streamlined and unique app for Sandy Park, a rugby union stadium and conference/banqueting centre in Exeter. When the app first launched, it offered visitors, within the proximity of the beacons, the chance to submit their contact details as part of a prize draw for tickets to the 2015 Rugby World Cup games in Exeter.

As well as Sandy Park, Rokk Media has also been working with a London restaurant, which is using beacons to draw people in with special offers. Another client in the automotive industry is using the technology to improve customer satisfaction. Customers can use the app to monitor how their car service is going and it also allows the firm to find out what customers are up to while waiting. “It provides more intelligence for their marketing department,” says Achim Rohr, senior client solutions consultant at Rokk Media.

At inMarket, which has built a network of beacon-enhanced shopping apps, the concept is all about providing digital benefits to the customer’s offline lifestyle. “When we’re able to connect the locations with the devices, we can create smarter locations that are able to cater more to a shopper’s needs,” explains Dave Heinzinger, inMarket’s senior director of communications.

The company works with shopping list app ListEase where you can save regular items to your own personalised grocery list. “With beacons, we’re reminding shoppers when they get to the store about items on their list,” says Heinzinger. He also explains how mobile proximity can work not only through beacons but also via geo-fencing.

“Beacons currently provide us with the most accurate level of precision but it’s really a mix of proximity technologies that are driving the most success for brands and retailers. Beacons are another tool in the toolbox as opposed to the be all and end all.”

A combined force
Cloud location services firm LocationSmart is also seeing a trend towards businesses opting for not just one technology but more than three. Its own customers tend to choose a mobile network location solution (network-based) to pull someone to a general area. A software development kit (mobile app for customers) uses device location to pull a user to a specific place. Lastly, beacons/WiFi can be used for proximity targeting to pull a customer inside and help navigate them around a location.

“So we’re seeing a move from using one technology to using a combination of technologies to provide the best possible user experience and best possible ROI for the enterprise,” says Jeff Allyn, chief revenue officer for LocationSmart.

While it’s still early days for iBeacons, retailers are at the forefront of large scale trials and deployments. So how can egaming operators benefit from its proven potential? “For gaming operators that have retail locations such as Ladbrokes and William Hill, they’ll be running their own apps but depending on partnerships could put beacons at racecourses to offer specific odds on a particular race and entice customers to place a bet,” explains Rohr.

Similarly, Heinzinger also sees the potential use at football stadiums and horseracing events. “If we look outside the retail world it’s all about how best to engage with more people in the venue. It would be up to the stadiums and teams to understand what consumers want in that venue and make that consumer engagement relevant,” he adds.

Allyn agrees that it’s essential to have the right balance without being intrusive and the messages need to be valuable to the consumer. “Someone at a sports event would be the ideal candidate to receive messages around sports betting,” he says. In addition to sports venues, inMarket has also seen lottery boards in the US testing beacon technology around gas stations and convenience stores to entice customers to buy a lottery ticket.

Avoid intrusion
Both Rohr and Heinzinger urge more businesses to consider the benefits of beacons as the Bluetooth technology is so cost effective. It is also highly targeted so you can push messages that are relevant to people in a specific geographical location at that time.

However, Rohr warns there is a fine line between targeting consumers with relevant promotions and bombarding them with irrelevant offers. “It’s always a bit of a compromise. You want to track and do something for your customers, provide special offers and get as much intelligence as you can. But the challenge for marketers is to have a light touch on that so customers don’t feel like they’re being constantly monitored.”

As more and more companies start experimenting and trialling beacon technology, it is expected to become a popular marketing avenue in the future. With well-known brand names such as Waitrose, Coca-Cola and Marriott Hotel leading the way in beacon trials, more businesses are expected to follow in their footsteps.

And as the technology develops, the emphasis will be not just on where customers are, but when they are likely to be there. inMarket’s new Quantum Receptivity programme does just that. It uses beacon data to predict when shoppers are “due” for a store visit, and therefore most receptive to brand messaging and this is increasing spending per store trip by 14% and store visits by 8%.

So will we see the use of beacons and geo-fencing rise in the future? Heinzinger sums it up nicely: “Dollars are flowing from traditional digital into mobile, and within that proximity will be the fastest growing part of mobile advertising this year because a lot of the infrastructure is already in place.”

As the retail industry races ahead with their marketing efforts using location-based technologies, here’s hoping that the egaming sector is ready to take the baton and run with it.