Retail Experts Discuss Strategies to Drive Foot Traffic and Sales Through Mobile Marketing as Moderated by Jayne O’Donnell of USA Today

Retail Experts Discuss Strategies to Drive Foot Traffic and Sales Through Mobile Marketing as Moderated by Jayne O’Donnell of USA Today

Full webinar now available at blog.placecast.net.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 23, 2009 -- Retail marketers, strategic agencies and mobile vendors have access to a webinar aimed at new approaches to increase brand affinity and drive repeat traffic into their stores. The location-based marketing platform, 1020 Placecast, hosts the webinar featuring experts in retail marketing and the mobile space,.

Moderated by Jayne O’Donnell, Retailer Reporter for USA Today and co-author of the book Gen BuY, the webinar, available free of charge, includes insights from panelists Jeff Montgomery, Chief Revenue Officer for 1020 Placecast; Kathryn Koegel, President of Primary Impact Research; and Dustin Jacobsen, Technical Director for Barkley. These experts offer answers to critical questions surrounding location-based mobile marketing as it applies to physical retail environments, including:

· Why has mobile become increasingly important in the retail space? And how are retailers breaking through the clutter?

· How do consumers view mobile marketing and what appeals verses detracts from the experience?

· What mobile marketing options are working at scale today for retailers how does it fit into the overall marketing mix?

· What are some real examples of successful location-based advertising that are happening right now? Who is doing it right?

· With minimal experimental ad budgets, why should brand marketers explore location-based advertising?

· What are some best practices for brands and agencies to get started?

The webinar highlights several examples, including mobile campaigns with The Weather Channel, Home Depot, Pizza Hut, Best Buy and Starbucks. In particular, The North Face snow report application on the iPhone uses content tied to their brand as a hook to get consumers to engage with the app.. REI, for example, provides content and information via mobile messages based on location to accentuate the experience their customers have with the great outdoors.

“Consumers are looking for that one-on-one engagement,” said Dustin Jacobsen, Technical Director for Barkley. “We see a higher level of engagement among consumers with mobile, and we also see a big spike in the last year or so in mobile and social together, and location [adds context to the conversation.”

“One of the key advantages for us as an agency is experimenting with the level of comfort that users have with providing [personal data,” said Jacobsen. “We’ve seen a lot of recent movement around companies such as Facebook and Twitter [that have started to add in more location components to their services. Users have been willing to provide that level of data to organizations, agencies and ultimately retailers, if the value proposition is significant enough. They want the advertising to be more relevant as well.”

“There’s nothing more frustrating than receiving advertising that is completely out of context and irrelevant. That’s why we see the banner ad click through rates so low; that’s because they’re not in context. Mobile, especially location-based, provides that level experience in context. We know where they are; we know when they’re at that location. That’s why we’re so excited about some of these emerging technologies. One of the things that gets us excited as advertisers is being able to provide context to those conversations that we’ve never been able to provide before,” said Jacobsen.

“Among the retailers we’ve talked to, there is a lot of interest in driving foot traffic,” said Jeff Montgomery of Placecast. “If you think about all the retail commerce that is occurring in the U.S., less 4% is happening through ecommerce and 96% of their business is from people coming into their stores. If you’re inside someone’s store, location is a great opportunity for the retail brand to connect on a different level.”

“The phone is going to be a relationship-based medium. If you can improve the relevance, you make the messages more valuable to the consumer,” said Kathryn Koegel, President of Primary Impact Research. “The phone is considered an extension of how people communicate with the world. The majority of consumers agree that the phone is their lifeline. Consumers do see the location-basis of messages as relevant.”

To experience the entire webinar, please visit: http://blog.placecast.net

About 1020 Placecast, Inc.

1020, Inc.is the developer and owner of Placecast, the first location-based platform specifically designed to use digital marketing on mobile to drive consumers into physical environments.

1020’s groundbreaking Placecast service recently earned the company the OnMedia Top 100 Award, given to game-changing companies in the marketing, branding, advertising, and PR industries. Current partners include NAVTEQ and Alcatel-Lucent, and marketers include FedExOffice, Avis and Budget Rental Cars and Hyatt Hotels. 1020 is funded by ONSET Ventures, Quatrex Capital, and Voyager Capital.

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Contact Information Alisa Davis

3105085678