Video Journal publisher (SHINJUSHA Co., Ltd.) has decided to use the PressPad Reading Lounge, a venue marketing feature, powered by Kontakt.io Smart Beacons, in order to attract more visitors to their booth during the Tokyo based video and broadcasting technology annual fairs, known as Inter BEE.
The visibility problem is that visitors to a technology fair of this nature are rather focused on the hardware side of the event. They want to see and play with new stuff, so attracting them to visit a publisher’s stand becomes a real challenge.
The Solution
PressPad Lounge is a mobile application that enables users to read for free on their mobile devices, as long as they are within range of a Smart Beacon. Video Journal chose PressPad Lounge to stand out from the crowd and get noticed on the venue.
A free reading zone has been established at the Shinjusha zone to enable passers-by to connect with Video Journal for free. The publisher made this promise at the entrance to the Inter BEE venue.
Reading on digital devices, enabled by iBeacons, built up curiosity amongst the visitors, who then went to check what it was all about at the Video Journal’s booth. This is what we call a smart venue marketing enabled by modern mobile devices.
Installation
Installation consisted of two parts:
Kontakt.io Smart Beacon.
This Bluetooth device was set up in such a way as to cover a range of about 4 meters around the booth. This set up allowed the publisher’s staff to actively engage with visitors.
Printed leaflets
Brochures about the iBeacon Reading Lounge were available at the Video Journal location. These brochures were distributed by the hostess at the entry to the venue.
Thanks to this spreading of printed materials, the publisher won the attention of the visitors.
Successful Venue Marketing
The goal was clear. To lead more visitors to the publisher’s booth, and thereby build up brand consciousness among them.
Video Journal’s booth turned out to be very popular. Many people visited their stand and they were also checking the publications, not just the Video Journal, but the same publisher’s other related titles as well.
There were over 3500 free samples of the magazine handed out to visitors during the three-day event. At the same time, Inter BEE recorded 35646 visitors.
Conclusions
Mr. Noboru Tateishi, president of Shinjusha Co., Ltd., Video Journal publisher, said that
“Using iBeacons technology during Inter BEE fairs was good for us. It’s been a real success because we’ve noted the biggest sales made during this fair for several years”.
He added that:
“almost every tenth visitor to the fairs has not only visited the booth but also taken a free copy of the print magazine during the Inter BEE. So it’s been a real measure of this success”.
PressPad Lounge was a conversation enabler, people were curious, they were asking questions. That lead to building relationships.
Trevor Longino, Kontakt.io Head of Product said that:
“Mobile is an incredibly powerful channel for publishing companies today. Thanks to beacons and proximity, publishers can distribute their content on more platforms and reach larger audiences with content tailored to their preferences. The key takeaway here is what SHINJUSHA was able to achieve with proximity: they wanted to increase their visibility, and they used beacons to identify customers who were at the event and change their behavior. This kind of real-time context sensitive marketing is invaluable for an organisation trying to reach out and change behaviour, and that’s what makes beacons so attractive to businesses all around the globe.”
Smart Beacons based Reading Lounge technology, powered by PressPad, proved its capability and its power to attract people during this event, together with its ability to promote the particular brand that decides to use it in order to speak up in their own voice.
Yuichi Murano, COO of PressPad Japan, said that
“Kontakt.io’s Smart Beacons technology implemented on top of our digital publishing solution enables PressPad to support publishers of all sizes, venues, and retailers willing to use location-based mobile marketing. This gives us a unique position in Japan in the mobile technology digital publishing market”.
About PressPad Lounge
PressPad Lounge is an IOT product of PressPad, a digital publishing platform bringing magazine brands to the mobile world. PressPad Lounge as an “Internet of Things” product turns venues into the iBeacon driven digital reading zone. Whether it’s a hotel lobby, a shopping mall or other venue, PressPad Lounge enables a slick marriage of digital publishing with location marketing. People located within the range of the PressPad Lounge’s reading zone can read free content and even receive promotional coupons on their mobile devices.
About Video Journal
Video Journal is one of the best-known publications about professional video creation technology in Japan. Published biweekly by SHINJUSHA Co., Ltd. both in print and digital circulation. Thanks to PressPad Japan, it is now available on App Store and Google Play. The magazine has been on the market since 1968. It covers everything video, from professional camcorder equipment to post production topics.
About InterBEE
A multi-media industry exhibition organized on a yearly basis into four exhibit categories: “Video and Broadcast Equipment”, “Professional Audio Equipment”, “Professional Lighting Equipment”, and “ICT/Cross Media”. The Broadcast Equipment Exhibition, the original name of Inter BEE, was first held in 1965 by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB-J).
This event is utilized as an opportunity to become a hub for information dissemination and exchange by bringing together, under one roof, a wide range of stakeholders involved in the media industry from Japan and overseas, including broadcasters, telecommunication carriers, and production/post-production operators. The 2015 edition was held in Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe from November 18th to November 20th.
About Kontakt.io
Kontakt.io provides the most secure and configurable beacon hardware and software, enabling brands to build reliable and scalable proximity-based solution.