SIM Partners And Vibes Add Marketing To Local Searches

A new partnership is looking to turn searchers into buyers based on their location.

Local search technology company SIM Partners announced yesterday (May 13) that it is collaborating with mobile marketing solutions provider Vibes to integrate mobile wallet campaigns with Velocity, SIM Partners’ local marketing automation platform.

As described in a press release, the integration of mobile wallet offers via Vibes’ Catapult Wallet Manager — which supports Apple’s iBeacon technology — with Velocity’s Publishing solution allows marketers to drive search visibility for location pages as well as in-store transactions by means of mobile wallet offers featured on location pages. Related offers are saved to Passbook and, when consumers are with 100 meters of an applicable store location, they receive reminders on their mobile devices.

Ergo, were a person to search on his or her mobile phone or Apple Watch for (as the release gives as an example) “drug store near me,” a national chain could use Velocity not only to display its location information in search results, but also to offer an in-store coupon via Apple Passbook or Google Wallet. Once the consumer is at — or even just near — the location, the company could then offer additional content (such as a seasonal offers or loyalty program information) in an attempt to generate future business.

“By turning ‘near me’ moments of local search into ‘in store’ moments of purchase, this partnership accelerates the velocity between consumer discovery and transaction for enterprise marketers,” said Jon Schepke, CEO of SIM Partners, in the release. “Our goal is to make location data actionable and content scalable to solve for the last mile, ultimately making locations matter for enterprise brands.”

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with SIM Partners and bringing together two extremely effective marketing tools — location and mobile wallet technology,” added Jack Philbin, co-founder and CEO of Vibes. “SIM Partners is just one example of how Vibes’ mobile wallet APIs can give technology companies seamless and instant access to the leading mobile wallet applications in Apple’s Passbook and Google Wallet. We are seeing in-store redemption rates of 30 percent once offers are saved to Passbook and Google Wallet, so partnering with SIM Partners’ location marketing platform is a natural and smart fit for both of us and our customers.”

The press release shares recent data from Google stating that “Words like ‘near me,’ ‘closest,’ and ‘nearby’ are increasingly common across the billions of queries.”