What is a beacon?
A beacon is a small wireless device that uses Bluetooth LE, also known as Bluetooth Smart, to constantly broadcast radio signals to nearby smartphones and tablets. The beacon transmits what is called a UUID (universally unique identifier), which is picked up by a compatible app or operating system. The beacon signal allows the smartphone to determine its physical location, and triggers an action on the smartphone such as a personalized and localized push notification.
To make it very simple, think of a beacon as a lighthouse. A lighthouse constantly emits light to help navigate boats. A beacon emits signals to a compatible smart device to understand its location.
How does a beacon work?
When a shopper walks into a mall property that is part of Mobiquity’s Network, they receive real-time, personalized and contextually relevant experiences on their compatible smart device – all enabled by the beacon network.
For example, if a shopper has a specific retailer app that is on our network installed on their compatible smart device, that retailer can send the shopper a special localized and personalized experience – and this experience can be triggered by a beacon when the shopper just entered the mall or is even near the retailer’s store. Also, the more demographic, psychographic and behavioral information you know, the more relevant and personalized the experience can be for the shopper.
What makes Mobiquity Networks unique is that beacons installed in common areas become part of our “public” network, which means they are available for all of our clients to utilize for campaign deployment. We have the additional capability of creating “private” networks that are only available for campaign activation by a single client. Beacons installed inside a client’s store would represent an example of a “private” network – only that client could utilize the in-store beacons to trigger campaigns.
Through your app or our select 3rd party apps, you can provide your customers with personalized and localized experiences via their compatible smartphones.
We hope the information we have shared with you has helped you in understanding beacon technology and how beacons work on our network. Do not hesitate to Email Us, Tweet us or chat with us on LinkedIn.