Will Beacons Finally Break Out This Year?

In a world where startups seem to be working out of garages one day and throwing out billion-dollar valuations the next, it can be difficult to believe that a technology that’s been hanging around for a while is about to suddenly take off. However, one digital marketing agency is pushing that exact point.

According to a new report from global media agency Maxus obtained by Forbes, Director of Technology Tom Kelshaw couldn’t be more bullish on beacons. After years of laying a foundation, both in brick-and-mortar stores with actual hardware and in a more figurative sense with software developers and retailers willing to give them a shot, beacons are poised to insert themselves into the retail experience in subtle ways, such as helping guests at Apple Stores book Genius Bar appointments as soon as they walk in the door and facilitating cross-promotional activities between brands looking to get a message out and app platforms that have the reach to do it.

Kelshaw pointed to a particularly poignant example of how beacon use has become much more sophisticated than just bombarding customers with coupons. In 2014, a Knorr food truck equipped with beacons drove around a wintry Stockholm delivering free samples, but instead of trying to get customers to use an app from a food brand, it partnered with a popular newspaper and piggybacked on its reach. Knorr opted not to act in the moment, though, preferring instead to collect information and bide its time until a retargeting campaign suggested intervention. It was only then, once customers had time to process and reflect on their Knorr samples, that they were delivered coupons through the newspaper’s app.

“It’s this blend of physical and digital marketing that highlights how differently beacons can be used,” Kelshaw explained in the Maxus report. “It also points to a more refined use of the technology. Instead of pushing a coupon as soon as the user sets foot into a beacon-equipped area, as many geolocated scenarios have envisioned, the location identifier saves the marketing move until later in this example.”