Hypermobile marketing - what you need to know

Have you heard of hyper mobile marketing? Few people in the UK have, although that is about to change. The concept has been around for over a year – it’s an import from the US – and its UK advocates call it a new wave marketing technique. I think that’s fair rather than hype and that it justifies your attention.

So what is it? Hyper mobile marketing is a method of placing adverts on ad-supported mobile apps or websites while a smartphone user is using their phone in a specified geographical location. That translates to being able to send marketing messages to people who are in places where you can persuade them to buy from you rather than your competitors.

Since 70 per cent, and rising, of the UK adult population have a smartphone this has real reach.

Many of these smartphones have mobile apps installed that have advertising in them such as games like Angry Birds, the Daily Mail app and so on. Similarly, many websites such as telegraph.com, Amazon. com, have adverts and it is possible to use real-time bidding to place adverts on these apps and websites, when they are being used in a specific geographic location.

The leading UK player in this market, 3wise digital, has 95 per cent coverage of UK internet users. Their platform will optimise a campaign to achieve the best results based on one of three criteria:

1. Reach – This is brand awareness where ad impressions are delivered to as many smartphones as inexpensively as possible.

2. CTR (Click Through Rate) – The platform will optimise adverts and bid to deliver the most clicks, based on the best performing ad on the best performing ad network.

3. CPA (Cost per Action) – Using a conversion tracking script, othe platform will optimise adverts and bids to deliver the most conversions, based on the best performing ad on the best performing ad network.

Due to the targeted nature of these campaigns, the conversion rate averages around 0.5 per cent. This is significantly higher than the industry average for display advertising of 0.07 per cent.

Hyper Mobile Marketing comes in two variations, namely HyperLocal and HyperProfile.

HyperLocal Mobile Marketing

HyperLocal Mobile Marketing is where a geo-fence (think of this like a spotlight) is set up around a specific geographic location, which can be right down to one building. Once the geo-fence has been set up 3wise bid to place adverts on mobile apps or websites that are already installed and being used on the smartphones that are inside that geo-fence area.

Uses for this have been the following:-

1. Targeting the customers of competitors in the hospitality sector by geo-fencing the competitor’s premises.

2. Recruitment agencies have geo targeted particular employers to lure talent away with job ads.

3. Geo-fencing trade shows at venues such as Olympia and the NEC, businesses can raise the visibility of their brand more effectively than if they attended the show as an exhibitor.

4. Target potential customers by geo-fencing their premises and running an ad campaign.

This method is very effective when you know where your potential customers are going to be in a specific location.

HyperProfile Mobile Marketing

HyperProfile Mobile Marketing is an alternative method of targeting where you don’t have a very specific location for your target audience.

In this instance, a larger geofence is created say to postcode district level such as SW1, GU21, etc

Once the geo-fence has been set up a socio-economic profile of smartphone users would be chosen to target such as by:-

Gender
Eating habits – fine diners or fast food diners
Dog or cat owners
Business owners
High worth individuals

Once the geo-fence have been set up, again bids can be made to place adverts on the smartphones that are inside that geo-fence area and fit the selected profile. This method is very effective to achieve the following:-

Targeting high worth individuals for wealth management companies
Targeting diners for the hospitality sector
Targeting sportsmen and women
Targeting managing directors to attend a local business exhibition

This method is perfect for targeting customers over a larger geographic area and who fit a specific socioeconomic profile.

Case study

Mercedes Benz World, in Weybridge, has three main marketing objectives. They want to get more bookings on their track days, sell more cars and target Deloitte to use their conference facilities.

Using a HyperLocal Mobile Marketing campaign they are able set up a geo-fence around the track and main building to market upcoming events.

With a HyperProfile Mobile Marketing campaign, they are able to set up a geo-fence of postcodes in wealthy areas close to the centre and target high worth individuals with adverts for Mercedes cars.

One such area is St George’s Hill, a very exclusive residential estate on their doorstep, which they have never been able to market into due to it being a strictly controlled gated development.

Finally, with another HyperLocal campaign, they are able to target the London office of Deloitte and advertise their conferencing facilities to Deloitte staff in the building.

The Mercedes Benz World marketing team said that they have not been able to achieve this level of targeted advertising.