CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SIM Partners (www.simpartners.com) today announced a strategic partnership with mobile marketing leader Vibes (www.vibes.com) to integrate mobile wallet campaigns, including Apple Passbook offers supported by iBeacons, with its local marketing automation platform, Velocity. The relationship will help national brands create online and in-store offers to convert shoppers into buyers based on a customer’s search intent and proximity.
The partnership integrates mobile wallet offers via Vibes’ Catapult Wallet Manager™, which supports Apple’s iBeacon technology, with Velocity’s Publishing solution. This integration allows marketers to drive search visibility for location pages at scale with Velocity, as well as in-store transactions via mobile wallet offers featured on location pages. Once the offers are saved to Passbook, consumers can receive helpful reminders when they are within 100 meters of a location based on the latitude and longitude of the business. iBeacons can also be used for more precise notifications based on a customer’s proximity to -- or position within -- a location. Offers downloaded to Apple Passbook can also be redeemed via Apple Watch.
For example, if a consumer is using her mobile phone or Apple Watch to search for “drug store near me,” a national drug store chain would use Velocity not only to display its location information in search results, but also to offer a discount coupon to be redeemed in-store via Apple Passbook or Google Wallet. Once the consumer is near or in the store, the retailer could offer more relevant content, such as a seasonal offer to create an incremental purchase or loyalty program information to encourage repeat transactions.
“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, SIM Partners. “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,” said 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 formation of the partnership comes at a time when local search behavior is surging. According to recently released Google data, “Words like ‘near me,’ ‘closest,’ and ‘nearby’ are increasingly common across the billions of queries” on the search platform each month. In fact, Google search interest in “near me” queries has increased 34 times since 2011, and nearly doubled in the last year. Google reports that the vast majority of “near me” searches come from mobile devices – 80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
In September 2012, Vibes was first to market with a mobile wallet marketing solution – Wallet Manager. Since then, Vibes has run more than 400 mobile wallet campaigns with Passbook + Apple Pay and Google Wallet for several leading retailers. The metrics collected from these mobile wallet campaigns demonstrate that the non-payment side of the mobile wallet is an effective tool for driving foot traffic, increasing average order value and building loyalty.
About Vibes
Vibes is a mobile marketing technology leader that helps some of the world’s biggest brands unlock new revenue by arming them with the technology and guidance they need to succeed in mobile marketing. Vibes’ Catapult Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) platform enables marketers to manage all mobile communications, including text messaging, push notifications, Apple’s Passbook, Google Wallet and mobile web campaigns — all from a single interface. Vibes has delivered more than 5 billion mobile experiences since 1998 on behalf of customers such as Sears, Home Depot, Verizon, Allstate, The Gap, Pep Boys, Men’s Wearhouse, Gannett, Imagitas and Excentus. Vibes is a Tier 1 aggregator with direct connections to all U.S. wireless carriers. To learn more about Vibes, visit www.vibes.com or connect on Twitter.com/Vibes.
About SIM Partners and Velocity
SIM Partners’ local marketing automation technology, Velocity, maximizes digital marketing results for enterprise brands at a local level. By making location data actionable and local content scalable, Velocity drives customer acquisition for national brands across thousands of physical locations. With Velocity, national brands can create location-based offers to turn “near me” mobile searches into offline conversions. Velocity includes a powerful local data management tool to drive listing visibility, a content management system that automates the creation of location-based content and experiences, and a robust insights platform to inform local content strategies. SIM Partners has offices in Chicago and San Francisco. To learn more, or request a demo, visit www.simpartners.com.
