5 Impressive Beacon Success Stories

Though beacons have been generating a substantial amount of buzz since 2013, the excitement around them has been especially significant this year. Unacast’s Proxbook Q1 2016 report demonstrates a steady growth in the number of proximity marketing sensors, which is now close to 6.2 million. It is remarkable that 5 million of these 6.2 million sensors are beacons. This complements the ABI research forecast that predicts deployment of 8 million beacons by the end of 2016, with a steady growth to 400 million beacons by 2020.

It’s no news that increasing number of businesses are now jumping onto the beacon bandwagon. They are moving ahead with proper planning, attention to detail, setting campaign goals, following success metrics, and what not. Not only that, businesses that have already embarked on their beacon journey are witnessing some remarkable results and forming cherishable beacon success stories too. Here are a few of beacon success stories that will leave you impressed.

1. Heineken drew shoppers to its interactive displays via beacons

Image source: wearebulletproof.com

Campaign - Heineken’s beacon project aimed to drive purchase intent, in-store sales, and brand awareness in conjunction with the release of the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre. The brand leveraged multiple collaborations with mobile leaders and roped in beacons to ensure that its products were top-of-mind for grocery shoppers. Heineken drew in-store supermarket shoppers to an interactive display via beacons.

Results - Heineken had an estimated revenue of $320,000 from the campaign with 200,000 in-store and points-of-sale engagements. The purchase intent of customers increased by 7 times, with an increment in revenue on investment by 6.2 times. The alcohol marketer received nearly one million shopper impressions as a result of the beacon implementation.

2. Screenvision used beacon ads to drive in-store purchases

Image source: marketingland.com

Campaign - Screenvision, which runs advertising at roughly 2,300 movie theaters, worked with a range of tech companies to experiment with proximity marketing. They launched Project Lynx which debuted at Screenvision’s 2015 Upfront. The project allowed retail marketers and agencies to connect with their consumers via geo-targeted, beacon ads at and near movie theaters. The aim of the project was to drive in-store purchases.

Results - Screenvision Media’s use of geofencing and beacons has driven an average 15 percent lift in store visitation rates for its retail partners. In Screenvision’s VP Christine Martino’s  words, “When you place an ad in cinema, we can then connect how many of those people who saw the ad went to a retailer. And over the last four months of testing, we saw a 15 percent lift in the amount of foot traffic involving people who went to the movies and then went to a retailer within the next seven days.”

3. Notify Nearby leveraged beacons to target its customers better

Image source: techcrunch.com

Campaign - This beacon-enabled app asks you to choose your favorite fashion categories or brands to follow. Then when you’re out shopping, you receive location-based notifications about anything from new product lines to special offers in the vicinity.

Results - 52% of shoppers passing by a store decided to enter the store after receiving a notification from Notify Nearby triggered by beacons. 28% of people entering the store made a purchase. Additionally, the engagement rate for notifications saw a sixfold increase over average push notifications and was recorded as 67%.

4. Proxama tapped into a captive audience via beacons

Image source: proxama.com

Campaign - Proxama tested beacons in Norwich and thereafter announced the launch of UK’s ‘largest beacon experience’ with beacons installed on 500 London buses. This was done in an effort to reach out to an estimated 300,000 passengers who commute across London using these buses. The aim was to tap into a captive audience within a ‘dwell time’ of 17 minutes on average and send out real-time travel updates & contextual in-app ads to them.

Results -  The Norwich beacon trials were highly successful for Proxama. The proximity marketing specialist witnessed click-through rates (CTRs) of 30% following commuters’ receipt of targeted notifications.

5. Qpony delivered special high value beacon-triggered coupons to its users

Image source: my-mobile.pl

Campaign - Qpony, the biggest coupon app in Poland, tested their first beacon campaign last year at Factory Poznań, a major clothing retailer. Fashion brands located at Factory prepared 67 deals that were delivered as coupons through the Qpony app. When users of Qpony were in the vicinity of Factory Poznan, they would receive a notification prompting them to turn Bluetooth on, with explanation on how this will help unlock more value and get better offers.

Results - In the duration of two weeks, nearly 30,000 offers reached 10,181 users of Qpony who visited Factory during this time. The users also received special high value beacon-triggered coupons. Over 90% of those coupons were redeemed and 78% of users shared the special deal with friends, by sending them a unique link.

There are more than a dozen such accounts of successful proximity marketing campaigns that can help businesses gauge the success of beacons and try iBeacon technology to tweak their business marketing strategies.

If you know of any such exciting beacon success stories, please share them below in the comments section!