Proximity beacons use Bluetooth Low Energy technology to detect nearby mobile devices and extract meaning from offline interactions. Beacons can provide location data at different scales, from whether someone is within a retail park to precisely where they are within a store. Beacon data includes the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) which indicates distance from the beacon. Implementing beacons requires overcoming challenges such as device compatibility and managing large numbers of beacons. Early solutions are being developed to make sense of proximity data and apply it to use cases like understanding customer journeys and improving offline messaging.

1. David Wright
David.Wright@kantar.com
Using Proximity Beacons to extract
meaning from offline interactions

2. What are they?
Mostly Battery!

3. Where do they fit into the Proximity Toolkit?
Cell ID – in retail park – several large department stores
GPS – Upmarket Department Store within retail park
WIFI – On second “fashion” floor
Beacon – Dwelled in Handbag Section
Beacon or NFC – Made a Purchase
100m – 1k
10-50m
20-200m
30cm-3m
<20cm

4. How do they work?

5. -90
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
RSSI
What does beacon data look like?
RSSI = Received Signal Strength Indication

6. Wrist sensor compared to pocket
-74
-72
-70
-68
-66
-64
-62
-60
-58
-56
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
RSSI

7. Start-ups making sense of sensor noise

8. Beacon’s are already evolving
Stand-alone/battery
USB plugin Solar Power Stickers

9. Sensor Stickers!
Location/DistanceMotion Air QualityTemperature

10. Proximity “Listening” Flow
GEO-FENCE BEACON
ZONE
NFC
OTHER SENSORS
> X Seconds > X Seconds

11. Why this Rapid Evolution?
Indoor location = $10 billion in 2020
ABI Research
Beacon engagements
= 5 x more interaction
Over-saturation and irrelevant messages
= Decline and Delete

12. Lots of challenges
• No-one has your app!
• 8-18 % Have Bluetooth Turned on
• Large Retailers – tentative In Pilot Mode...
• Android >= only .... 4.4 kitkat above and lollipop....
• iOS 7.0 and above
• Getting the numbers to measure OOH uplift -requires huge listening
reach
• Security Issues.... i.e. third parties mapping your beacons
• Managing all those beacons!

13. Early Solutions
Gimbal
InMarket.com
Swirl (Twitter just invested
$18M in them)
APP Listening Networks Beacon Networks

14. WPP View – Beacon Hotspots

15. APAC - Greater merger of Social with E-Commerce?
WeChat “Shake Nearby” WeChat’s Wallet

16. Path Tracker – Use Case China
Path tracker gives an holistic picture of high traffic area
vs low traffic and high stopping vs low stopping.
*312 BEACONS

17. Path tracker can capture the distribution of time spent for every
shopper in the store
5%
20% 25%
17%
14%
9%
4%
3#
1% 1% 1%
Time in store (mins)
Average time
in store
41 mins
Average spending
(RMB)
105.3

18. Implementation Summary
• 327 Beacons
• Respondents – pre-recruited and handed phone
• The app triggered a survey on store exit
• Heat maps and data analysis was done in-house
• Initial set up was expensive
• Expect cost and time to come down for subsequent projects.

19. Smart-Cart .. Philippines

20. Time Location Movement Reaction Action
Purchase Survey
Proximity + Sensors = holistic picture of a shopper

21. Screenshot from batch.com (provides aggregated reporting on mobile notifications)
List Ease provided by inMarket.com
Proximity + Mobile Messaging

22. Privacy

23. 1. Understanding key moments up to the
moment of purchase
2. Easy to do small scale experiments
3. Multiple uses for beacons - be
creative!
Final Points – be creative!

24. David Wright
David.Wright@kantar.com
Using Proximity Beacons to extract
meaning from offline interactions