Author: Julie Campbell

Geolocation based mobile marketing tech unveiled by Mood Media

| May 5, 2013

Geolocation Mobile MarketingThis newly launched tech provides a capability for recognizing when customers have entered a store.

Mobile marketing technology provider, Mood Media, has just announced the launch of its Mood Presence technology that applies the size of its considerable music network and geolocation in order to be able to connect marketers and retailers directly to consumers who are using smartphones, tablets, and other similar smart devices.

The Mood Presence technology is a form of intelligent networks that allows for more personalized marketing.

The way that the geolocation based technology works is that it sends an inaudible cue through the music player of the Mood Media app, as well as through the existing sound system in the physical store location. When the mobile app registers this signal, its presence in an iOS or Android device is immediately detected through geolocation technology.

The geolocation detection allows the system to automatically connect with that device for targeted marketing.

This way, a retailer can seamlessly and conveniently send relevant and targeted marketing to consumers the moment they enter their store locations, because the geolocation technology lets them know exactly when that is. This means that the ads, promotions, offers, coupons, and other forms of marketing will be presented to the user at the time that he or she is most likely to be interested.

At the same time, Mood also announced the launch of a second geolocation technology, called Explore In-Store. This is the first product from Presence that uses its technology to integrate with the app of the retailer. The goal is to improve the interactivity of the mobile marketing solutions.

This geolocation technology identifies when a consumer has entered a store location and develops a form of VIP connection with that individual. It enhances the overall shopping experience by providing targeted content that is specific to the store location that has been entered, as well as the offers and product information that is most relevant to the unique user, including in-store offers and information about the products on the store’s shelves.

The goal is to use geolocation technology to allow retailers to combat the struggle with showrooming and use it to their advantage, instead.

NFC technology determined not to have value by Tesco

| May 3, 2013

Tesco - NFC Technology

The contactless tech took a big hit when the global retail giant declared it not to be worthwhile.

Tesco, a supermarket giant, has been making some heads spin with its latest announcement that it feels that NFC technology doesn’t have any real value, when speaking at a recent conference.

Many in the industry felt that near field communication is the next up and coming thing.

That said, they may be thinking twice about NFC technology now that the Tesco, a company based in the United Kingdom, gave such a poor assessment of it. The mobile payments industry had been under the impression that this could be the technology that would be used in order to accelerate the drive toward a cashless society.

NFC technology allows information – such as payment transactions – to be exchanged between two devices.

It works by holding the two devices close to one another, or tapping them together. The use of NFC technology also includes a security chip to make sure that data remains encrypted and cannot be read by the wrong recipient. It has been promising to become the best way to offer a range of different mobile wallet services, such as for payments, ticketing, and other similar purposes.

Many industry giants have been banking on NFC technology, including Google Wallet and Isis. However, Tesco says that this isn’t quite what it has been chocked up to be. In fact, it was suggested that it has actually come and gone, and that it won’t be progressing beyond what it has already achieved.

The company has no plans to implement the near field communications and feels that any attempt to try to use NFC technology would simply complicate things. They cannot see that it will take off in any realistic way.

In its statement at the conference, it drew attention to the fact that contactless credit cards already exist, so using mobile NFC technology based payments would not be adding any level of value. Moreover, it suggested that it would not provide any beneficial consumer experience and would simply add complexity to the checkout process. This is in direct opposition to much of the mobile payments industry that is continuing to drive forward with this tech.