Croydon's Whitgift Centre has pioneered mobile marketing
Going mobile
Published: 01 March, 2007
Our prime methods of communication have changed massively over the past century. There are not many people these days who would happily leave the house or office without a mobile phone, a BlackBerry or a wireless laptop in tow to ensure that they are easily contactable.
It is unsurprising then that shopping centre management teams have realised there are revenue-generating opportunities stemming from society's dependency on communication technology.
The mobile phone is one of the world's most popular sources of communication. As a medium it also has a higher response rate than any other form of advertising in the UK. It is a great way for shopping centres to communicate, engage, stimulate and interact with customers.
Promotion Space has launched a new concept in the shape of CentreMobile. The product allows the centre to not only generate additional income by charging shoppers for entering competitions by text, but also allows the centre to target specific communications to its growing database of subscribers on behalf of its retailers and to communicate messages in a bid to increase footfall.
The concept works by attracting customers, by well-designed and targeted advertising, to enter competitions for a small text fee. Once the centre has the customer's information, it can continue engaging with the consumer by sending additional messages to validate their interest and then keep them informed about upcoming events or new competitions they can enter.
CentreMobile was launched at the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon where it is already working successfully. The first competition cost 50p to enter.
Promotion Space's Guy Soar says: "We intend to run 12-month campaigns for them. We make the platform fit what they want.
"It shouldn't be judged solely as income generation as it is more about talking to your consumers. The income generation comes once you have built your database so the aim is to build your database as quickly as possible and do competitions throughout the year."
Indoor Phones install telephone kiosks free of charge in busy shopping centres, offering another source of income generation.
The company is currently planning a major upgrade of its telephone sites to 'multiple service points' so that the units will incorporate wireless internet, touch-screen terminals, a phone and a number of other services suitable for each site.
Centres can install these points and earn money in a variety of ways. If they charge a small fee for wireless internet access they will earn a commission from this and also benefit by attracting business customers into the rest-stop areas in the centre.
Shopping centres can also earn additional money through selling advertisement space on the units and also on the screen, with tenants paying for free access to their own sites so that shoppers at one end of a shopping centre can make an order at their store, which may be at the other end of the mall.
At the same time, interactive games related to the shopping experience and created for the retailers can be put on the units with a share of all the revenue generated going to the shopping centre. And music retailers could also display their top 10 albums on the screen, allowing customers to listen to tracks and make the purchase at the multiple service point with a share of commission going to the centre.
"The key is to get the retailers themselves involved and sharing the benefit," says Adam Fahn, managing director of Indoor Phones. "While the centre needs the extra revenue streams, they will maximise them by working with the shops to develop a new channel in marketing.
"We give people access to the virtual world. What goes on afterwards is for discussion."
Advertisers also favour high-tech methods of communicating to their audience. Television and radio advertising has been commonplace for many decades but more recently, brands are communicating to shoppers through digital screens at shopping centre locations.
Dynamax Technologies has launched the National Advertising Network to provide retail asset managers and property companies with the technology and infrastructure required to turn empty space into an advertising money-making machine.
The National Advertising Network will provide the hardware required to set up a digital screen network, running either large-scale LED screens, such as those Dynamax provides to Titan Outdoor's hugely successful Transvision network, or other forms of digital signage. It will also provide shopping centres with access to a national media sales force dedicated to selling space on the network to major advertisers.
Chris Frampton, Dynamax's head of sales and marketing, says: "By linking up individual screen owners around the country into one network, we believe we can create a new force in the advertising world.
"This is the perfect way to overcome the problems which screen owners doing this individually have encountered in making a compelling sales case to the media planners and buyers who spend big brands' advertising budgets.
"By banding together, we can aggregate audience data over a national network to create an evidence-led sales pitch, guaranteed to push media planners' buy buttons."
Individual screen owners will have the option to buy screens outright or to lease them, with membership of the Network netting them a proportion of the overall advertising revenue generated by the Network.
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=== Red-M ===
It is not just the visible space on the malls that can generate additional income, but the airwaves can also be a source of non-rental income through wireless technology.
This could include providing customers with the ability to log onto the Internet wirelessly in the malls and then taking a percentage of the wireless provider's fee, or by providing a more flexible platform for plasma screens, increasing their appeal to advertisers. Additionally, tenants can be charged for access to WiFi for their business critical applications, such as wireless tills.
What Red-M brings to the party is airspace policy management.
"Airspace policy management is about managing the radio environment within the shopping centre to ensure all those systems can co-exist," explains Mike Kennett. "If a particular tenant wants to use WiFi, we can ensure it doesn't interfere with other stores, which is important from a security point of view.
"It's not direct revenue, but a shopping centre that has a well-managed airspace is a much more attractive place to do business."
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=== Contacts ===
Indoor Phones: 01827 262300
Dynamax Technologies: [http://www.dynamax.co.uk]
Red-M: [http://www.red-m.com]
Promotion Space: 0870 755 0770
