Gloss Media and inMarket Deploy Beacon Proximity Solution in Top US Salons
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
inMarket, which promotes itself as the world’s largest first-party beacon proximity platform, has teamed up with Gloss Media, believed to be the largest national digital nail salon network, to create the salon category’s first mobile proximity engagement solution for brand advertisers.
We talked this week to Kevin Hunter, president of InMarket, based in Venice, California, who discussed the new Gloss Media beacon proximity solution to engage with customers, and to learn more about inMarket itself.
“There are about 50,000 nail salons across the US, and Gloss Media has about 20,000 of them,” Hunter said. “Gloss Media, which operates the industry’s only national, Nielsen-rated salon video network, will initially outfit over 1,000 U.S. nail salons with beacon proximity hardware. This will give access to inMarket’s industry-leading scale of 44.5 million active app users (or 23% of U.S. Smartphone owners) across over a dozen top apps.
A pilot program in 100 stores with Gloss Media revealed an 18% higher mobile engagement in salons versus other retail categories.
“This is in large part due to the long dwell time in the salons, which usually averages about 60 minutes per visit,” said Hunter.
Salons facilitate heavy mobile usage by patrons – 90% of whom are female, and 65% of whom are moms – and this in-venue down time, coupled with the fact that most women are in ‘errand mode’ while getting their nails done, creates a tremendous opportunity for brands to reach this highly coveted audience through their mobile devices. US nail salons receive over 1.9 billion customer visits per year. App scale is critical for beacon success — particularly in a salon environment where scale is fragmented and most individual locations don’t have their own app properties.
“Most women with Smart phone in the salons have several apps and have at least one app that is meaningful and relevant for advertisers – and at a time when they are receptive,” said Hunter.
“The salon environment is the perfect combination of factors for brands who want to reach affluent, receptive women at scale,” said Perry Kirk Parkes, president, Gloss Media, in a press statement. “We’ve helped some of the world’s largest brands to reach this valuable audience through Gloss TV. Now that mobile has presented such a huge opportunity, we’re excited to extend our offering for major advertisers to the small screen. With inMarket, we’re driving mobile proximity efforts across the industry’s largest beacon-enabled app audience.”
“inMarket has been scaled up across retail categories for a while now, and here’s what we know: The salon environment is a natural place for mobile proximity success,” said Hunter. “Brands that target women have a tremendous opportunity at hand, to engage this audience in one of their nearly two billion salon visits per year, as they’re hyper-receptive and in ‘errand mode.’ During their dwell time, eg., they might be looking at recipes on an app like Epicurious for ideas of what to buy for dinner when they leave the salon, or an app like list ease, to make out their shopping list, and would be interested in a reminder of a personal care product – or maybe even a discount offer or coupon. This is how brands can really engage with shoppers.”
Gloss Media operates the only national, Nielsen-rated salon video network – Gloss TV – where a variety of video assets can be delivered ranging from ad spots to long-form segments; while also allowing an array of program enhancements including influencer events, product displays and sampling, social media drivers, couponing and more. Gloss Media also offers over 50 different marketing and media networks and tactics that target consumers throughout their daily routine, driving them on their paths to purchase.
inMarket’s beacon proximity platform, operates in tens of thousands of locations. Since 2010, when it was founded by Todd Dipaola, CE, and Mark Dipaola, chairman, inMarket’s proximity platform has driven millions of purchases in brick-and-mortar stores. Over 100 brands and major retailers have leveraged inMarket to engage target audiences at their most receptive moments: before and while they shop.
Its Native Proximity product connects brands with shoppers via mobile in locations like the grocery store or nail salon. It also offers a Quantum Receptivity product which enables offline brands to pretarget shoppers when they’re most receptive to messaging, based on their store visit cycles.
“We are not focused as a technology company,” said Hunter. “We are focused on proximity.”
inMarket is headquartered in Venice, CA with offices in NYC and Chicago.
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