Consumers walking on busy streets in major cities are likely being beaconed, though most likely have no idea. Since their inception, beacons have been an insider sort of technology that just makes more accurate the location information of an individual for a brand or marketer. Most of the beaconing implementations involve fixed locations, like in stores, shopping centers and stadiums.
Last summer, Vector Media, the outdoor moving media company, teamed with beacon-maker Gimbal to install beacons in 500 of the double-decker buses where Vector places advertising from major brands. The buses tend to roll in retail-heavy markets, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago.
When a consumer gets within about 50 feet of the bus, they can get a text message relating to an ad on the side of the bus.
Interestingly, consumer reaction is one more of surprise rather than intrusion, since the message is extremely relevant to what most of the pedestrians are viewing, according to Leonard.
As to results, 7% of people messaged click through and once inside after that click, 48% engage more, according to Greenstein.
For example, in one campaign for Sprint, of those who clicked through, 48% clicked to find a store near them.
