Just to set the scene, let’s turn to Hollywood’s take on personal advertising in the future:
In the film Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, holographic billboards that use retinal scanners make sales pitches to him as he walks past– an ad for Guinness beer even asks him if he’d like a drink!
This (for now) is pure fantasy – but SKF’s very real technology uses big data to tailor advertising that drives sales and reinforces customer loyalty – no holograms or retinal scanners needed!
Let’s say a woman in her mid-twenties goes to the shopping mall and logs on to the SKF Free Wi-Fi network. Her retail behaviour while in the store is tracked and collated – and the next time she comes back SKF and their clients have an idea of what she likes to do.
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That predictive information can be sold to an advertiser who can place a push promotion on her smart phone – maybe she goes to Coles regularly to get cheese and the store offers her 25% off the purchase price of a grater.
Or, a major mall property owner can bundle together a group of retailers who push offers to the customer when she gets within reach of their stores. No more scattergun approach, this is targeted advertising with no wasted effort, controlled by SKF.
This element of SKF’s technology – the ability to push advertising in real time to customers whose habits have been mapped with big data – could be a revolutionary change for the retail industry.
SKF can make money from retailers who adopt its technology AND from advertisers who use the system to access the customers it tracks.