Beacon-enabled indoor navigation makes mark on trade show experience
Fashion trade show Panorama Berlin is the latest large event to leverage beacons to help navigate the experience via a mobile application, which 70 percent of users leveraged more than once.
Panorama Berlin, which takes place twice a year, boasts more than 20,000 square meters of exhibition space, 8 hall, and 600 fashion brands. Hoping to help attendees navigate the show that took place several months ago in July, the organizers updated the existing show app with a beacon-enabled feature to help attendees find the booths they were interested in.
?For the past 2 years many of the world?s largest events including CES, Mobile World Congress, and SXSW have used beacon technology successfully to provide an interactive and seamless experience to their participants,? said Szymon Niemczura, CEO at Kontakt.io. ?Compared with GPS, beacon-based indoor navigation is cost-effective, easy to implement, accessible even without a Wi-Fi-connection, and even more reliable.
?Thanks to beacons, participants don?t have to look for information. Proximity guides them through an event, making sure that they don?t miss any great opportunities.?
One direction
The Panorama Berlin show app already offered an agenda, list of exhibitors and other useful information.
By leveraging beacon technology, the show organizers were able to provide attendees with the ability to see what was available, where to find it and how to get there.
The trade show partnered with LabWerk, which developed an SDK and integrated the new feature in the app.
The venue also added approximately 200 beacons from Kontakt.io.
The new map app showed a user?s position, his or her selected destination booths and a possible route.
Without the use of push notification or app-triggered incentives, 70 percent of the app users used the beacon-enabled navigation more than once.
Panorama Berlin?s beacon-enabled experience is adjustable for future events, including different exhibitors, new arrangement of booths and a different venue.
Beacon marketing
Beacon-enabled navigation is gaining in other industries as well in addition to the broader use of beacons to deliver hypertargeted offers and contextually relevant content.
For example, KLM airline created a navigational tool for its passengers to ensure that customers find their gate, make it on time, making the traveling experience less stressful.
Additionally, retailer Carrefour is showing its clients the way to navigate from the store entrance to products from their shopping lists.
?We have seen hundreds of examples with Kontakt.io beacons over the past months which prove that with the help of beacons, marketers are able to enhance the experience of the app users in a real-time context-sensitive way, regardless of the industry,? Mr. Niemczura said.
Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Marketer, New York