SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - December 15, 2010) - JiWire, the leading location-based mobile media company reaching the on-the-go audience, today launched Compass, a new location-based advertising platform that provides mobile app and public Wi-Fi users with interactive location-related ads. Until now, location-based advertising has largely been limited to companies with physical venues, such as retailers and restaurants. Compass unlocks location for all companies by providing product availability and real time in-stock information, directing consumers to any place where a brand's products are sold. Location-marketing pioneers Clinique, Groupon, HP and Ritz & Wolf Camera & Image have all signed on as launch partners for the new platform.
Compass reaches an audience of more than 40 million on-the-go users, connecting them with brands beyond the check-in:
- Provides real-time inventory on what's in stock
- Geo-locates products and service catalogs from more than 200,000 retailers and product manufacturers
- Offers more than 3 million unique product SKUs across the U.S.
- Provides both walking and driving directions
- Enables users to call or text the retailer and get text message responses
- Puts products on hold and make online purchases that will be ready for pick up
- Allows users to set appointments to learn more about products
- Schedule a sample trial for a new makeup line
- Book an appointment to try on a wedding dress
- Book a test drive
- Make a reservation
How it Works
Compass provides a highly interactive consumer experience. A Compass ad -- viewed on devices such as an iPad, smartphone or laptop -- first appears as a standard digital or mobile display ad. But unlike standard ads, at launch it pulls in location-specific data about the advertiser, providing key information to the viewer about the brand as it relates to that user's proximity. Once the customer selects the ad, it expands to display a full-screen app-like experience that clearly shows the nearby locations, which are either physical store locations for a retailer or locations where a product is sold.
Additionally, Compass will inform a consumer if a particular product is in stock at a specific location. Consumers can take it one step further by performing one of the following: contact the store, retrieve driving directions, or find out more information. The latter option allows advertisers to create customized tabs so the users can interact and learn about their brand through videos, promotions and product demonstrations.
Bringing Scale to Location-Based Campaigns Nationwide
Compass Geo App-in-an-Ad technology provides a highly interactive experience typically only available by deeply integrating with an individual publisher or mobile app. Most popular location-based apps have less than 2 million monthly users, limiting the scale of the marketing campaign. By recreating that app experience in an ad unit, Compass can run anywhere with JiWire's public Wi-Fi and mobile app location media channel, reaching an audience of more than 40 million monthly uniques. With the proliferation of devices, this audience has connected to JiWire's media channel with more than 160 million unique devices in the last year. The combination of Compass' capabilities with JiWire's national footprint enables brands to apply effective location-based advertising across a broad area, engaging a much bigger audience, from five miles out all the way down to the storefront.
"The digital world and the physical world are merging, which is driving the birth of location media," said Kevin McKenzie, founder of JiWire. "Consumers are demanding location content and our advertising partners are adopting new ways to locationize their brands. In fact, we have closed seven-figure deals with Fortune 100 companies who understand how relevant location-based advertising is today. Compass is delivering on the next evolution of how this industry is going to monetize location-based advertising."
"Major brands, specifically retailers, are seizing the opportunity to engage mobile consumers using location-based advertising strategies," said Heather Way, research analyst, Parks Associates. "The ultimate goal of a media campaign is to draw the consumer to the point-of-sale. Localized branding efforts are the natural path from consumer awareness to actual purchase," Way said.
Location-Based Advertising for Brands without Storefronts; Real Time In Stock Inventory
Compass allows all brands to be locally relevant, including the 75 percent of the Fortune 500 brands without their own storefronts. Allowing them to highlight where their product is available nearby in any store, even providing real-time location details on in-stock inventory down to the product SKU. As what's in stock changes in real time, the brands' ad changes in real time too. In effect, Compass combines location-based advertising across iPads, smartphones and laptops with brand-specific local search, display, and video all-in-one and centered on the consumer's location. Most location ad solutions are in-store or near-store. With Compass, brands now have the opportunity to extend impulse buying from the storefront to the entire neighborhood with the largest location-based media platform. Companies with and without storefronts planning to use Compass' unique solution include banks, business copy and shipping centers, auto dealers, retail outlets, nationwide electronics stores and consumer packaged goods.
Compass Platform
The Compass platform brings the location capabilities of traditional place-based media into a digital and mobile advertising channel. By knowing the context of a person's location, JiWire provides the most relevant information for understanding a brand's on-the-go consumer. Location "context" goes beyond a mere point on a map identifying a person's GPS coordinates to specifying the type of venue and environment a person is in and even the brand of venue where they are connecting. It's this unique location detail that gives brands the ability to understand their audience from a deep location perspective.
About JiWire
JiWire is the leader in connecting advertisers to today's On-The-Go Mobile Audience, using the world's largest location-based interactive media channel. JiWire's platform enables advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person's physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account. JiWire also allows wireless broadband network hosts advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access and mobile application publishers a unique advertising revenue stream. With a goal of engaging users however they connect to the Internet while on the go, JiWire provides a cross-channel solution that extends location-based targeting to multiple devices, from laptops to smartphones across content channels from Wi-Fi to the Internet to mobile. In 2010, JiWire announced its international expansion into the UK, partnering with British Telecom to extend its media channel to more than 4,000 locations.
For more information, please visit www.JiWire.com or call (415) 877-4711.