Using Mobile to Close the Loop In-Store & Deliver Measurable ROI
Andy Smith, Client Services Director, Eagle Eye Solutions
Gavin Stirrat, Managing Director, EMEA, Millennial Media

Late last year, Eagle Eye Solutions and Millennial Media partnered to work with the UK restaurant chain Harvester, to deliver an innovative mobile coupon campaign that took advantage of the latest feature from Apple – the Passbook.

When the iPhone 5 launched, Passbook didn’t receive the press attention that many of the other new features were given. However, with the ease-of-use and clear utility in the storing of vouchers, travel tickets and loyalty cards, we believe that Passbook could have a huge impact and become a bellwether for mobile wallet implementation.

The Harvester campaign took advantage of Millennial Media’s targeting technology to serve display ads to iPhone 5 users, and those who had upgraded to the latest iOS6, with a skew towards families. Upon clicking the banner, the consumer was taken to a simple landing page that clearly communicated the offer, with the call-to-action to add this to their Passbook. Eagle Eye then pushed the individually coded voucher to their smartphone, with no additional details required. This seamless consumer experience was a major step forward and by removing the need to enter form details, such as your mobile number, we were able to reduce friction in the customer journey and improve issuance levels.

Once the voucher was loaded into Passbook, the platform, powered by Eagle Eye and Card Commerce, enabled the consumer to redeem the offer securely via the Chip & PIN terminal in participating outlets. Using this technology, Harvester managed to close the loop on their marketing campaign by measuring each customer engagement with the campaign from issuance to redemption, driving real value and efficiencies, in a way that is not possible with more traditional media.

The campaign ran in the UK for two weeks and in that time drove issuance of almost 16,000 vouchers, with over 700 vouchers redeemed within the campaign period.

Commenting on the campaign, Eagle Eye CEO, Steve Rothwell, stated: “The launch of Apple’s Passbook with iOS 6 marks the beginning of the end for paper and plastic based coupons and vouchers… More than ever, success in the retail sector comes down to being able to provide a superior service to customers. Digital, in particular mobile and tablets, are key components for this and as such is at the heart of what we’re doing here.” This bold statement is validated by OnDevice Research, who published a report that indicated 53% of consumers would prefer to redeem instore vouchers using their mobile, vs 34% via printed means.

Further opportunities with mobile couponing campaigns are manifold: these include the ability to analyse and respond to campaign metrics such as average basket size, changing the offer or creative as appropriate in real time; active audiences can be enrolled into relevant mobile CRM programmes; and the campaign can be optmised, not just to media segments where issuance is strongest, but also environments where redemption itself is seen to be highest.

The ability to put mobile at the centre of well-used sales promotion techniques, and enhance the experience for brand, merchant and consumer, is just beginning. Retail distribution remains a key value-chain partner, as technology integration, staff education and training is necessary to facilitate redemption. However, as we have demonstrated, by adopting a partnership approach between brand, retailer, technology partner and the mobile media platform, exciting results with a strong and measurable ROI are possible.

More information;
Case Study
Millennial Media 

This week saw the release of ‘Queen of Shops’ Mary Portas’s 28 point plan to save the British High Street. This has incited a mixed reaction from the retailer community, but in general there were some excellent recommendations.

Two things surprised us here at Eagle Eye.  First, what she didn’t say. And second, the idea that technology is part of the problem, rather than potentially part of the solution too.

What Mary didn’t talk about was Marketing. Surely, when a key objective is to get people back to the High Street, marketing and communication is going to play a key part? We’re now at a stage in history where for the first time High Street retailers can use the equivalent tools their online ecommerce cousins have been using so effectively for the last 15 years or so.

Why do we say that? Mobile coupons can be used to run the equivalent of Pay Per Click campaigns, with the Click in this case being the redemption of the coupon in-store. At last, measurable, performance marketing campaigns have arrived and have their part to play in bringing consumers back to stores.

When we come to a retail view of technology, we’ve certainly seen eCommerce and more latterly, mCommerce sales go via digital channels in the past decade or so. But while these disciplines are essentially a new type of mail order, it’s increasingly clear that mobile can be used in another way altogether – and that’s to enhance and support the in-store shopping experience.

We’re not the only people thinking along these lines. Mobile agency Grapple also pointed out that the apps they’re developing for their retail clients include many tools for consumers to use in-store.  For instance, apps can help drive footfall, with 1 in 10 of those downloading Grapple retailer apps using the store finders, and half of those scanning barcodes for price check whilst in-store.

Focusing on the in-store use of mobile also makes complete sense to fully engage customers in an environment where currently where 90% of all retailer transactions take place anyway.

Mobile could actually become the best friend of both the bigger retailers and the smaller independent stores. Let’s take one of Mary’s excellent recommendations – ‘Putting in Place a Town Team’. This involves having one central team to co-ordinate the strategic and operational management of the local high street to attract community (and in turn customers).

The fundamentals that make up mobile provide a perfect vehicle for the Town Team to drive people to the high street. Think of it this way. Mobile supports any media channel through the relevant calls to action (SMS, QR code, data capture and in near future NFC). So every town centre billboard, newspaper or even shop window can become a way of recruiting users to engage with town centre activity.  And it provides a convenient communication route back to the customer through one central point. Under the Town Team guidance, this gives a (co-funded) opportunity to fight back with community information and specific promotional marketing to drive customers in-store.

History has taught that technology can’t be ignored in the hope that it’ll go away. It’s also not helpful to quietly resent the changes that it causes, painful though they may be. Any successful strategy for High Street renewal must embrace technology and especially mobile, to leverage it as a powerful asset and a key part of any future success.

For anyone in retail it won’t have escaped your notice that today is ‘Black Friday’ – aka the Friday after the US Thanksgiving holiday. It signifies the start of the Christmas shopping silly season with a range of special discounts and dramatic promotions. Record figures are expected and people have been camping outside stores all night – as has become traditional in recent years.

Big UK retailer announcements this week prove there is certainly enough incentive for retailers over this side of the Atlantic to use this holiday to offer consumers promotional discounts. According to BRC figures released this week, in-store footfall dropped by 2.3% between Aug and Oct this year, and by 4.7% just in October. Obviously this has had an impact on profits, with even Arcadia announcing the closure of 250 stores along with 38% slide in pre-tax profits.

So the question is, how do we get the UK shopping again? Last weekend, we read an amazing article in the Sunday Times about the latest craze to sweep across the US. ‘Extreme Couponing’ involves ‘the extensive and focused use of coupons offering reductions or bulk purchase discounts’. And UK citizens are now flying over to the US to take classes on how to do this properly.

A key finding of the article was that over here we are a little too embarrassed to present old school paper coupons in stores.  And what seems obvious to us is that mobile coupons can mitigate this typical UK attitude – and dare we say it – make coupons cool!

From a consumer point of view mobile coupons are convenient and easy to request. For retailers, they drive footfall, are fully measureable and cheaper to manage than their printed counterpart. So it’s no big surprise that Juniper have forecast that the mobile couponing market is set to grow from $5.4bn this year to $43.2bn (800% increase) by 2016.