Unibail-Rodamco & NUMA Accelerator program

On Friday 19th of February, Passworks applied to the Unibail-Rodamco and NUMA Accelerator program. You can find more about at the retail accelerator program.

Unibail-Rodamco is the Europe’s leading listed commercial property company specialised in managing shopping centres in the main European capital cities. They partnerships with NUMA, which is the first french incubator for technology startups. The program will last for four months and the six chosen startups that will be selected will have access to the team and portfolio of Europe’s leading commercial property company. A great opportunity!

At Passworks, we believe that tour technology can help Unibail-Rodamco clients to do on-going communication in real-time and based on location with their customers through mobile wallet content, such as discounts, loyalty cards, event tickets without the barrier of having to install an App.

Passworks HomepageWith Passworks, clients can Improve the customer experience in-store while creating a direct communication channel with customers enabling visibility gain, store traffic and increase sales.

Wish us Good Luck!
 
#Unibail-Rodamco #NUMA #retailaccelerator #mobilecontent #UR-link.fr

 

3 Tips to have in mind when defining a mobile strategy

In October 2014, the newspaper The Independent stated: “for the first time ever there are more gadgets in the world than there are people”. There are more than 7.2 billions of mobile devices in the world, which means that “mobile penetration has now risen above 100% in most developed markets, because many people have more than one live connection”. The acquisition of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are rapidly increasing per user, creating a bigger opportunity for brands to engage with their consumers.

It is important to have in mind that mobile isn’t only smartphones, so here are some important tips topics when creating a mobile strategy:

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  1. Social media 

Smartphones allow people to stay connected to the world and social media has been the fundamental driver of this connectivity. That is why social Apps are among the most installed, in the UK. According to App Annie’s: 4 out of 5 free downloaded Apps for iPhone users in the UK are social.

Social influence is also a gamification technique. Being part of a social community and the act of “shareability” allows driving engagement with other users using psychological influences, such as, acceptance, competitiveness, companionship or even desire.

There are many social Apps and tools that brands can use to interact with users. Since social is a personal contact, consumers feel more involved and are driven to a stronger relationship with brands, which increases the engagement and ultimately increases sales.

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  1. Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets are apps that allow to store cards, coupons, boarding passes, credit cards and much more in one single space. The most known mobile wallets are Apple’s Passbook and Google Wallet.

Passbook is a pre-installed app, which means that every person with an iPhone has automatically access to Passbook. Since 2013, Apple has already sold more than 200 million iPhones, this means that more than 200 million of consumers has direct access to Passbook (which will be rebranded as Wallet).

Google Wallet, on the other hand, is an App that has to be downloaded on the Google Play Store and is only available for the US market. Nevertheless, it has around 20 million users. Google Wallet is on the process of being rebranded as Android Pay and will be available globally which will allow to grow faster.

3 technologies you should use when creating a mobile strategy-04

  1. Beacons

Beacons are small Bluetooth devices that act as a dynamic geo-mapping tool by emitting signals, and are currently a trend that keeps growing across industries.

Beacons empowers the brand’s App, because it allows to makes the content more dynamic and relevant since it is delivered according to the consumers’ location, without being to much intrusive for the consumers. This means, that a brand or retailer can send web links, discount promotions and notifications to the consumer, depending on its in-store location.

The hype around beacons is because they allow brands to create a richer, contextualized and personalized in-store consumer experience while getting to know better their customers.

For retailers or brands without Apps, Facebook just released their own beacons for retailers to use that integrates with Facebook App. This is an interesting solution for brands or small retailers without their own App because it takes advantage of Facebook and their social engagement since most users already allow Facebook App to send push notifications. In addition to this, Facebook links its own geo-located ads to the brand’s content, which minimizes the risk for brands.

Individually, each of the above tips explores mobile marketing as a channel to increase engagement with the consumer and to drive store traffic. Combined, the results are exponential, resulting in a much stronger mobile strategy to acquire, engage and retain customers.

Why is mobile at the center of the new commerce and how can we help

Digital is becoming at the center of nearly everything we do”, said Joe Megibow, Chief Digital Officer at American Eagle to Open Mobile Media.

Nowadays most of consumers are digital enabled and, with it, their attention is much shorter and divided across multiple brands at the same time. The shift to the digital world put the highlight back onto the consumer, pushing brands to go further in order to not become obsolete.

Brick & Mortar stores provide a physical experience that communicates with the emotional side of the brain of the consumer. People feel and touch the product. That feeling creates the identification between the product and the person necessary to a purchase and in the digital world it’s not so easy to create that emotional bondage. Brands need to think how much are consumers willing to wait and pay for the comfort of access to a certain product and, also, how further are brands willing to go to retain consumers? With digital technology it’s not a question of brands crossing to online stores, it’s about how to make sure that brands leverage the digital in the right way in order to really engage with the consumers.

More and more brands want to communicate with their customers at the moment and place when they are ready to make a purchase. Hence, the most efficient way to communicate is through mobile however the most appropriate tools weren’t available until now which changed with rise of the Digital Wallet.” said Francisco Belo, Passworks’ founder and CEO to Energy of Portugal. So how to scale 1:1 marketing? How to promote and, above all, how to reward consumer loyalty? That is where the concept of omni-channel kicks in.

Omni-channel is how brands explore the different aspects of the business and of the brand personality, bringing all different available media together, in a seamless way in order to engage more effectively with the consumer. That is why lately the center of commerce is mobile. Mobile is the closest way to reach a consumer because mobile marketing allows brands to empower consumer mobility and to communicate at the most relevant time. With the launch of Passbook, an iOS native app that gathers digital consumer-interested content, from mobile coupons, membership or stores cards and tickets, product marketing went mobile. But it was only with the launch of Apple Pay, with the introduction of the payment capability, that the whole commerce interaction and business changed both retail and consumer experiences.

In practice, everyone can create content for Passbook. However, this is a market that is still rising and already raises many questions from the consumer side and, regarding the brands, it takes awareness, knowledge and practice to work with the platform.  This is where we come in. Passworks acts as an intermediary between brands and the targeted audience, without retaining the brands consumer information. But why should brands use Passworks? We allow brands to create, distribute and manage mobile content through all the major mobile wallets platforms, such as Apple Passbook, Google Wallet or Windows Phone Wallet campaigns (all three major available OS), which means that basically every person that has a smartphone can be reached and impacted with content created by our platform. Furthermore, in just one platform, a brand can not only design and create content, but also specify a targeted audience and share it through different distribution channels and manage each campaign results.

For brands that previously developed their own apps or want direct integration with their systems, Passworks has an API solution. The API can serve as a link between the online platform, either web or app and the mobile campaigns creation SaaS, which allows the brand to keep control of everything they already do, integrate with their existing solution and let us empower the brand in a more vertical audience-based way.

In addition to opening the path to mobile for brands, Passworks platform also allows brands to integrate with iBeacons technology. Due to its low but more precise range, Beacons outweigh GPS by improving consumer experience with very accurate 1:1 communication. iBeacons can be used as a strategy to drive consumers into the store which, as a consequence, increases the chances of purchases and sales because they act as a communication channel between the brand and the end consumer through relevant push notifications. Nevertheless, since the consumer needs to identify with what’s at stake, the crucial piece of the puzzle is the mobile content itself and the brand’s strategy to guide the customer into the store plus the in-store consumer experience.

In the end, Passworks acts as a powerful mobile marketing tool, creating a new distribution channel for brands but also aims to empower consumer experience and mobility. From developers, to retail marketers or communication agents it is possible to create mobile content to promote a specific brand, no matter the business market, directly to the consumers.

12 Readings to start 2015 up to date!

2014 is gone and what a year, it was! To start the year fresh, we selected 12 articles for those who are interested in hot topics as mobile wallets, the mobile marketing revolution or mobile payments and mobile coupons!

  1. #GoogleWallet : Make your phone your wallet
    In May 26, 2011, Google launched the first mobile wallet. Google Wallet is an native app for Android users to store cards, coupons and tickets into their smartphones whilst a mobile payment system. It works with NFC – Near Field Communication that allows users to interact with their stores only using their smartphones. From seeing an offer to using a coupon and adding points to its store card it can be a great tool and strategy for retailers.
  1. #Passbook : Apple’s Passbook
    In September 19, 2012 Apple introduced Apple Passbook: a native app for iOS that serves as a mobile wallet to substitute all cards and paper coupons. However, while Google allowed payments —which raised the first wuestions about mobile security and privacy issues — Passbook wasn’t related to payments and opted for a different strategy: create a better product integrated with Siri and Maps while improving a service that could end consumers’ doubts.
  1. #ApplePay : Apple Announces Mobile Payment Solution
    In September 9, 2014 Apple launched its first mobile payment service for the United States. A system that connects with Apple Passbook and, instead of using safety pin codes, it using touch ID to bullet proof payment security and it doesn’t collect any payment history, in order to ensure its consumers. With over 800 million registered users and a good partnership based network, Apple moved to the top list of competitors in the banking businesses.
  1. #Mobile Wallets : A Recap in the World of Wallets
    With the emancipation of the mobile wallets as Google Wallet and Apple Pay, the payments market raised and developed a mobile payment ecosystem, all of them fighting to be part of this innovative channel. Samsung created its own wallet for Samsung devices. Paypal and Visa started a race for partnerships. Third party apps emerged to act as easy-in distribution channels such as Loop Pay and CurrentC.
  1. #ConsumerEngagement via Mobile Wallets: There’s No Way It Won’t Become a Norm
    “Consumers prefer to have a unified mobile payment app that can be used in multiple stores while integrating individual store coupons and loyalty programs among millennials (55%) and users 35 years and up (46%) alike, the report says. But, 34% of consumers weren’t even aware if their favorite stores offered mobile payments or not.”
  1. #Omnicommerce : The Best of Omnichannel in 2014
    The news aboutApple Pay in September generated an unusual amount of mainstream media attention. Since it was announced, it has already changed the way we talk about mobile payments and has unlocked (and will continue to unlock) new sources of value for consumers and merchants. Apple also has a unique ability to mobilize an entire ecosystem – and that prompted Karen Webster to ask: Can Apple Pay shape the future of omnicommerce?”Now, omnichannel is no longer a trendy word but a requirement for all sort of businesses. Now it’s not just about what you do. It’s about how you communicate, how you reach the end consumer and, most importantly, when and where you reach them.
  1. #iBeacons : 15 Companies from Airports to Retail Already using iBeacon Technology
    With the introduction of iBeacons — One end, Low Energy Bluetooth devices — to the mobile payments world, a new form of marketing was born: Mobile marketing. The concept of mobile marketing allows brands to empower consumer mobility and communicate with them at the most relevant time opportunity, with the most relevant content considering timing. Displaying only the information that particular consumer wants at the most convenient time is one of the best way to drive store traffic and increase consumer engagement.
  1. Google Wallet won’t let you buy digital goods on the web past March 2015
    With the rise of mobile wallets and the crushing power of Apple Pay, Google Wallet announced in November 2014 that in March 2015 it would no longer allow the payment for digital goods. However, it can still be used for physical goods since last month Google Wallet announced a partnership with Disneyland in Orlando.
  1. Do people really use Apple Passbook?
    Mobile wallets bring a lot of innovative thoughts and interactions. However, it is normal to stop for a bit and ask ourselves: Do people really use this? Yes, technology is fast and the market goes 360º everyday. Nevertheless, when playing with consumer — people — interaction, it’s a totally different thing. We’re talking about mass movement and mass cultures and it takes time for people to adapt and adjust, to learn new concepts (that are in constant change) even if they’re here to help.
  1. Apple Pay Might come to the UK in early 2015
    Finally, Apple Pay is coming to Europe! UK is already aware and prepare to take in Apple Pay and, like every Western Country in Europe, it can’t wait to put the hands on it to see how much it will change the economy, specially because now Mesh Beacons are on the table.
  1. #MeshBeacons: Move over iBeacons, here come Mesh Beacons
    Instead of receiving and sharing information from one end to another, mesh beacons allow to track information once shared with the end consumer. So when entering a store, a mesh beacon can guide you within the store until you reach the specific product that you wanted to buy because it can receive the GPS signal of your smartphone and use it to give directions to point X.
  1. #Passworks: Passworks raises 1M for Passbook Campaigns
    We were born.
    Passworks is, like Passk.it or Passwallet, a third party platform that allows brand to create, communicate and distribute mobile marketing campaigns using Passbook of Google Wallet.Since the beginning of 2014 we are here to be part of this mobile ecosystem. To make it easier for users to connect better with their favorite brands and to allow brands to become relevant for consumers, to penetrate in a new channel and explore mobility as it’s only being discovered to achieve the best of omnicommerce.

    2014 was a great year that allowed us to learn more about this world, to develop with new achievements and to be prepared for what’s next. With a new year, new challenges are ahead. We are excited to be here for 2015 and we can’t wait to share our next projects we have stored for and with you.

 

Here is to 2015! Happy New Year!

Just imagine what you can do….!

Yes, there is a lot that you can do with iBeacons technology! And it’s all about you.

Every minute is an opportunity to evolve the business and innovative thinking. The retail concept no longer depends on printed marketing ads nor the eventuality of consumers passing by. It’s about new in-store experiences. It’s about reaching everybody and being everywhere.

New medium, new concepts are welcomed by retailers and consumers, specially with the recent developments on mobile payment systems such as Apple Pay so, why won’t you give it a whirl?

The importance of Mobile Marketing for Brands

Consumers have a strong relationship with mobile devices because they empower freedom while maintain the user completely connected. There isn’t a single day that passes by without checking the mobile phones regularly — even if it’s only to see if there’s a new notification or to check the time. (Hopefully with the new iWatch we’ll stop using our phone to check the time).

Mobile phones are no longer just communication means and started to become distribution channels. Mobility became the status quo of attention span from consumers, creating an opportunity for brands to be nearer the mind and hearts of their target audiences.

With mobile marketing, a brand creates access for its own content, asking the consumer for permission to receive that same content. “Mass marketing”, however, involves “permission marketing”, which requires personalized information that comes with a counterpart: a commitment and investment (too high) to match consumers’ high expectations on quality content and the ability to scale.

Considering the mobile context, there is a shift on consumer’s habits, motives, and consumption that changes the focus from the product to the consumer because ultimately it is he that decides to share or to be contacted by brands. Luckily, with mobile marketing there are many ways to engage consumers, such as push notifications, messaging, e-mail, passbook campaigns, apps and social media. However, in order to do so it must always be highly relevant because we’re talking about a media that is much more personal and intimate. One that stands in a world where the attention time frame is very short. Also, it has to be thought as a strategy and not just as a communication plan that uses mobile marketing as a mean because competition in the mobile context is for interested attention. With the stimulus that populates the audience’s mind the goal is to fulfill consumer’s goals at specific moments.

46% of consumers think that brands don’t provide relevant content and 54% think that mobile websites just aren’t enough. However, they all agree that it is easier to find information. Why does this happen? Despite what you might think, it’s not about what mobility allows you to do – which is to provide information at any given time and moment to any consumer – it’s about what it means: the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. Adaptability. Flexibility. Versatility.

The ability to move or to be moved:
In order to engage with a consumer a brand must know how to be the most relevant, especially if we live in the Era of “2-Second-Attention” generation. Every second is a chance to engage and it only takes a glance to be on top of mind or to be ignored. The consumer needs to be moved by the brand while he has the freedom to be on the move and to feel that particular bit of information is going to change his life.

Mobile marketing is redefining commerce and retail:
In the end, the biggest challenge for a brand is to know how to manage all this scalable messaging into a sustainable relationships — in a time where mobile marketing control depends on the consumer — while keeping its own identity and maintaining a personal 1:1 connection (which makes every marketing strategy even more fleeting).

Nevertheless, it’s possible. And an amazing opportunity.
A brand just needs to know how to use the right channels for this new “opt-in” consumer and to understand what is the exact content consumers’ look for to be relevant for them.