Cross A Boundary, Get A Text

While savvy marketers have been using geotargeted strategies for years, they might be surprised about the many ways they can fine tune and better pinpoint marketing efforts with “goefencing” tactics.

Geofencing adds an interesting weapon to the digital marketer’s arsenal, capable of making a serious impact on competitors in a local market tug of war for customers. The tool lets digital marketers identify prospects’ locations, using GPS or RFID to tailor customized texts and emails. A marketer can track its prospects’ location either by the use of a downloaded, branded app on the smartphone or via software that is capable of identifying location based on the customers’ visit to the brand’s website.

Geofencing helps retailers create virtual targeting boundaries

A marketer can also deploy an unlimited number of tactical executions using geofencing. It could deploy a defensive strategy to ward off competitors’ attempts to siphon off their existing customers or it can use the strategy to conquest new prospects.

For example, a local retailer who is using a geofencing platform, like Cloud Engage, can draw a virtual fence around a competitors’ location so that each time a user crosses the virtual boundary he or she can be served up an incentive promotional text aimed at steering the prospect to the marketing retailer’s establishment instead.

Not only can the marketer trigger a text when the prospect enters the virtual fence, but he or she can also customize the message based on a weekly or daily merchandising offer and/or a specific demographic, such as seniors visiting the website or using the app who have been identified as living in a retirement community area.

After several years of mobile check-ins, geofencing appears to be taking location-based marketing to the next level.

Live Moment Social Media Experiences

As brands look for more and more ways to ace consumer engagement, luxury brands too must find innovative ways to provide digital extensions to their onsite events. Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer recently used the latest live-streaming technology to stage a live digital ‘in-the-moment’ social media experience for its luxury clientele who couldn’t attend its live event in Paris. Tag Heuer hosted a tennis match outside its store on the Champs-Élysées, pitting brand ambassadors Maria Sharapova and Nei Nishikori against each other in a lighthearted game. By streaming the event on the mobile app Periscope, Tag Heuer ensured that consumers around the world would have real-time access to the event as it unfolded.

The match was part of Tag Heuer’s “Don’t Crack Under Pressure” campaign which highlighted the achievements of professional individuals with stressful careers. Both Ms. Sharapova and Mr. Nishikori are global tennis sensations who have won many tournaments and frequently face intense competitive situations.

The informal tennis match was staged on the street in front of the Tag Heuer store on the Champs-Élysées, a highly trafficked tourist destination in Paris, where many luxury brands have storefronts. The location attracted a large crowd, which Tag Heuer amplified by leveraging social media. The brand posted regularly about the match on Twitter, sharing pictures and links to the Periscope app live feed.

Tag Heuer concluded the integrated offline/online experience by sharing images of the two players on its Facebook page, giving consumers the opportunity to engage on a variety of social media platforms. The Swiss watchmaker’s “Don’t Crash Under Pressure” video, which featured celebrities and highlighted accomplishments of the brand, achieved viral results in the five weeks post release earlier this summer.

But this initiative wasn’t just about impressions, as the brand was able to effectively grow its customer database and hence its pool of potential new leads.