We are all familiar with advertisements in the form of pop-ups, banners, and posts, but there is a new type of target advertising that many companies are now taking advantage of.
The ads you commonly see on websites and social media come from digital cookies in your computer that track your usage and the sites you visit. This type of targeting is effective, but not nearly as accurate as new forms known as geofencing. According to Data-Dynamix, a company known for their digital marketing expertise, geofencing is “…a location-based digital marketing tool that lets marketers send messages to smartphone users in a defined geographic area.” For example, if you go to shop at the mall, stores within that mall can send you ads and promotions because they know you are there via your location.
“Digital marketers can take the gps capabilities to feed ads to people who are geographically ready to make sales decisions.”
The increase in geofencing’s popularity is directly correlated with the transition to social media usage on mobile devices. Although geofencing is not strictly mobile, because Apple iBeacons are in all of their devices, it is used for the majority.
iBeacons are Apple‘s bluetooth beacon technology, and are extremely accurate as they give off a 10 centimeter radius from your iPhone. Fast Company looks at iBeacons used for advertising, but also its use in social apps and apps for your home: “Innovative developers are applying Apple’s iBeacons to improve our social lives, make our smartphones more intuitive, and save us money on electric bills.”
When looking at what geofencing does for advertisers and companies economically, it has proven to increased their revenues since they implemented it. It is more cost efficient than print ads, and are simultaneously more effective. The Wall Street Journal‘s article “Geofencing: Can Texting Save Stores?” looks at the correlation between mobile device users and its influence on their shopping habits. 15% of consumers check competitors prices while in store, 8% use their phones to “check in” to stores, and 7% use their devices to learn about in store promotions or events. Although the percentages aren’t high, they also accumulated over 3.4 billion mobile coupon uses over the year.
Geofencing is a new wave of personalized and unavoidable advertising. Since its increase in usage, both consumers and companies have seemed to benefit.
Sources:
Apple Developer: iBeacon Technology
Mass Communication: John Vivian
fumediaecon.wordpress.com 
Geofencing is a totally new concept to me. It’s very interesting to see how advertisers have jumped on the digital revolution and created a way in which will encourage consumers to continue to purchase in stores via their mobile phones. While this is a very smart, innovative idea, I’m wondering whether this has violated humans’ privacy. The argument can go either way but personally, I think it’s a bit scary how smart technology is these days and how advertisers can track our geographic locations and lure us into stores with pop-up advertisements on our phones.
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Wow this blog was eye opening to me. I had no idea about this geofencing technology that is now out on the market. This is a big game changers to companies because they are able to reach out to the consumers much easier and effectively. They really are having to adapt to the times or go out of business I am all for new technology and new ways to use it but I hope that the geofencing idea doesn’t get out of hand. I can see where people would freak out about being tracked all the time. As long as companies are not creepy about it all I see this as a very effective tool! .
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