IDG Contributor Network: Coke's movie theater trial shows beacon potential

Retail beacons have huge potential, but it can only be met when chains move beyond seeing beacons solely as tiny ad broadcasters. Coca-Cola is starting to get creative about beacons, with a trial in Norway movie theaters to not merely communicate with moviegoers but to remember them for re-targeting later.

Coke offered a free soda to get that initial click — from 24% of moviegoers — and then used the mobile app to find those people later to offer a free movie ticket if they returned. That re-targeting effort delivered a stunning 60% click-through and an almost-as-impressive 20% redemption.

The trial was done with VG, which is Norway's largest newspaper. A mobile advertising vendor "collected data about these users so that, a week later, when any of them opened the VG news app on their phones, they would receive a Coca-Cola ad offering them a free ticket that could be redeemed at the movie theater," according to a story about the effort in Mobile Marketer.

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