TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) has today released its inaugural Global Location Trends Report. Launched at SXSW during the largest annual gathering of brands and LBMA members, it reveals that connecting people, places and media is a key priority for marketers in 2016.
The LBMA’s report shows how 253 top marketers from across the globe, including Coca-Cola, Mondelez International, BMW, Tesco, Starbucks and Starhub are currently using location based marketing, what investment they’re making in it and what their future plans are for implementing this technology. The online study was conducted by Fresh Intelligence in the five most important and innovative global markets for location based marketing – US, Canada, Germany, UK and Singapore - and offers a detailed market by market analysis. Key overall findings from the report include:
- 75% of marketers believe location based marketing is an important business issue for 2016. But while 77% of them agree location based data is valuable, only 65% think it's currently accurate. A healthy 3.3% growth in spend is planned in 2016, but for the sector to really take off and fulfil its potential, the key will be verifying, standardising and anonymising the data so it's usable.
Thomas Walle, CEO and co-founder of Unacast, the world’s largest network of proximity data said: “This report proves that location data is of huge value to the world’s biggest advertisers. The issue to date has been using it due to the fragmentation of the proximity industry. Unacast has spent the last 12 months solving this challenge, successfully aggregating, standardizing and tagging it from independent providers around the world so its full potential for marketers and consumers can now be realized.”
- While current use is focused on targeting consumers with offers to drive sales, location based technology will become much more pervasive in 2016. 66% of global marketers plan to use the technology in non-marketing areas of operations, such as customer services or public safety.
Walmart Labs Director, International Mobile Product Management Brendan Wright commented: “Increasingly we are turning to mobile location technology to help solve key customer problems in our stores. A great example of this is our 'check-in' functionality, which utilises mobile location services to allow a customer to 'check-in' via mobile to save time collecting their online order from a store. This new research from the LBMA supports the work we are doing.”
- All location technologies - beacons, NFC, GPS, and wifi - are set to grow by double digits, with 63% of marketers planning to invest in wifi, 57% of marketers planning to invest in GPS, 46% NFC and 41% in beacons in 2016.
- Social location services tops the areas of interest for marketers, with 48% saying they're interested in using social apps and location technologies to drive customers in store. Location based advertising and the Internet of Things follow in second and third place, with 43% and 36% respectively
“As tech becomes more visible and integrated into every part of our lives, shoppers will expect greater engagement, personalization and convenience in our shopping experiences. Location based data is critical to engineering relevant “shoppable” moments or "buy now” opportunities. This research is extremely valuable for retail agencies like TPN,” said Manolo Almagro, Senior Managing Director Innovation + Retail Technology TPN Retail
Asif Khan, Founder & President of LBMA concluded: “Our report validates the importance of looking at location as the “cookie for the physical world”. It’s the only piece of data that enables us to see the effectiveness of mobile, DOOH, TV, radio, IoT and more all at once.”
The full report will be launched today at RetailLoco, a one day event held at SXSW in Austin, Texas on Sunday 13th March hosted by the Location Based Marketing Association. It is the largest annual gathering of brands and LBMA members and delivers insights and trends on the latest in mobile and location-based tools and techniques for retailers. The event features keynote speakers, panels on indoor location, proximity-based payments, in-store digital signage, push notifications, metrics / analytics, augmented and virtual reality, and more.
About LBMA
The Location Based Marketing Association is an international not-for-profit group dedicated to fostering research, education and collaborative innovation at the intersection of people, places, and media. Our goal is simple: To educate, share best practices, establish guidelines for growth, and to promote the services of member companies to brands and other content-related providers. The more than 700 members of the LBMA include retailers, restaurant chains, agencies, advertisers, media buyers, software and services providers, and wireless companies. For more information, visit www.thelbma.com
