Exterion Media, Europe’s largest privately held Out-of-Home advertising business, has announced that it has equipped 500 London buses with beacon technology.
Beacons play a vital role in the company’s Urban Activation strategy to connect consumers with brands via innovative technology. Exterion is already working with leading brands to deliver welcomed information and entertainment to 300,000+¹ London bus-riders every day.
The solution, developed in collaboration with Proxama PLC (AIM: PROX), the international mobile proximity marketing company, uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon technology to send targeted in-app messages to London commuters’ mobile devices. This creates an opportunity to deliver highly contextualised messages at moments when they’re most receptive, which when combined with Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising, can prompt immediate action.
Jason Cotterrell, Managing Director UK, Exterion Media told us “We are continually seeking new and innovative ways to connect brands with consumers and this solution will engage audiences on the move in a way that builds meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships. We believe the future of OOH engagement is the ability to deliver a truly personal experience; and, with so many of us keeping our smartphones handy during the bus trips we take every day, it makes sense to combine the two. Our ultimate aim is to deploy this technology across our portfolio nationwide, with a long-term vision of providing full connectivity across buses in the UK.”
Jon Worley, CEO of Proxama Marketing Division added “The trial in Norwich and our partnership with Exterion Media showed us that consumers are open to receiving content via their mobile devices while they travel, so we expect to experience a similar level of success once we roll out across London. By ensuring that content pushed to users is relevant, personal and received at the right time, beacons are set to enhance Londoners’ commuting experiences.”
This announcement comes after a successful six month beacon trial on 110 buses in Norwich [1], which saw 30% of users clicking through from receipt of notification and 2,000 app downloads. Exterion’s online urban community work.shop.play. recently found London to have the highest penetration of smartphones (94 per cent) in the UK. Coupled with this, the average journey on a bus in London is estimated to be between 17-19 minutes³ (with some journeys taking considerably longer). This provides passengers the time and opportunity to respond, interact, view or redeem offers delivered direct to their mobile phones. This mobile popularity and the lengthy journeys makes beacons on London buses an attractive channel to deliver extended consumer engagement to audiences on the move.