blisBlis, a company specialized in understanding real, human behavior by analyzing vast quantities of mobile location data, provides businesses with information about what people actually do to help them improve consumer engagement and deliver measurable sales uplift. Its Smart Platform provides unmatched transparency, accuracy and scale through three proprietary technologies: SmartPin, Smart Scale and Smart Places, which enable more effective planning, activation and measurement for marketers and business decision makers alike.

The fact is, marketers across Asia Pacific are turning to location data to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals, according to new data.

The study, conducted with 150 CMOs, heads of marketing and agency directors from travel, retail and consumer goods brands, uncovers how central location-based marketing has become both marketing and growth strategy.


In Singapore’s mobile-first society, it’s no surprise that 80% of Singapore consumers currently use their mobile phones while shopping in-store. To provide digitally connected spaces for brands and retailers, who aim to incorporate analytics and automation to transform customer experiences, mall operators like CapitaLand have recently launched NomadX, Singapore’s first “phygital” multi-label concept store, the city state’s first online and offline shopping mall. The infusion of location-based data and marketing capabilities could be a crucial next step in brands and retailers’ response to consumers’ omnichannel shopping tendencies.

“Real-world intelligence opens up a new level of understanding regarding consumer behavior – the truth about what people actually do,” says Greg Isbister, CEO, Blis. “Location data technology has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few years and we’re now seeing marketers commit more spending than ever to highly innovative and engaging campaigns.”

“But its benefits don’t stop there,” continues Isbister. “Brands also trust the business-critical information they receive from real-world intelligence, gleaned from analyzing vast quantities of location data. It allows them to better understand the customer journey, see which stores are performing well, improve attribution models and map where consumer demand is coming from.”

As consumer habits evolve, the retail industry tries to keep step by deploying omnichannel strategies to meet demands for personalized and perfectly timed experiences.

Marketers in Asia Pacific have tapped into the versatility of location data to improve conversions, analyze campaigns and provide a deeper understanding of business performance:

  • 53% of marketers directly target competitor stores through geo-conquesting
  • 51% win over shoppers with geofencing
  • 48% chart the correlation between store traffic and sales
  • 43% track return on advertising spend (ROAS)
  • 42% target shoppers based on online and offline behavior data
  • 38% gain insight into store location performance
  • 35% use location data to close the online to offline attribution gap


Location-based marketing spend is growing

Marketers are spending more of their annual digital marketing budgets on paid location-data based advertising:

 

 31% of marketers spent between $10,000 and $50,000
• 21% spent between $50,000 and $100,000, and
• 11% spent above $100,000

Of those spending more than $100,000 on location-based marketing, only website development (19%) and email marketing (15%) received greater investment.

Addressing the knowledge-gap

The survey also reveals that there are still areas where marketers are unsure how best to utilize and measure the effectiveness of location data in their campaigns:

  • 57% of respondents said that the difficulty evidencing ROI was their main challenge
  • 51% cited a lack of established standards, metrics and guidelines>/
  • 49% pointed to a lack of scale
  • 45% believed there was a lack of transparency into location data sources and methodologies


“When deciding to incorporate real-world intelligence as a key part of an omnichannel strategy, it is important that brands choose a partner who is scrupulous with its data sources. Being transparent with the veracity of the data, scrubbing it for inaccuracies and ensuring it complies with GDPR helps build certainty that the insights gleaned can be trusted,” says Isbister. “Understanding real, human behavior by analyzing mobile location data gives brands the truth about what people actually do. And it is this real-world intelligence that delivers real consumer engagement and a measurable sales uplift.”

Using location data to close the attribution gap

Another practical use of location-data is to help marketers measure relevance and attribution. 55% of the marketers surveyed shared that they are doing this already, using it for out of home buys (67%) and TV adverts (63%). Finally, 58% of the 150 marketers mentioned their preference for using a first-touch attribution model and 42% opted for last-touch.


A quick note on location-based data in travel

The traveler journey can be broken down into five phases: being inspired to go travelling, searching for providers, make a booking, the travel experience itself and sharing reviews and travel stories upon return. Travel marketers thought that the inspiration and booking phases are the two most important opportunities for location-based marketing to deliver personalized adverts and messaging.


The full report can be downloaded: Real-world intelligence: mapping human behavior to effective mobile marketing (Source: Blis)

By MediaBUZZ