A partnership between entertainment rewards platform Viggle and beacon platform inMarket will inform shoppers at thousands of retail establishments throughout the United States when they are in the vicinity of relevant offers while underscoring beacons? value in building consumer engagement through micro-targeting.

Starting next month, inMarket?s proximity platform will send special offers and branded messages to opted-in Viggle users based on where they are and what they are doing. The partnership points to beacons? ability to micro-target offers based on an audience?s preferences and media consumption patterns. 

?Providing relevant, location-based offers makes native sense for Viggle because it fits with how people already use the app: to interact with media and earn rewards,? said Dave Heinzinger, senior director of communications at inMarket.

?Viggle is connecting the dots here and expanding the consumer opportunity from the couch to the store, while creating a new opportunity for brands and retailers to reach the rapidly growing audience of people who use their phones in-store.?

Viggle?s app rewards members for watching TV shows and discovering new music. Its platform had an average monthly total reach of 26 million for the three months ended December 2014, including over 7.9 million Viggle registered users. 

Members can use Viggle?s store, accessible through the Viggle app or on Viggle.com, to redeem their Viggle Points for TV show, movie, and music downloads. 

InMarket is the world's largest beacon and native proximity platform, reaching over 40 million verified shoppers per month via top beacon-enabled apps.

Marketers have been looking for ways to get the most out of the low-energy, low-cost beacon transmitters.

Contextual engagements triggered by beacons receive interaction rates of five to seven times higher than traditional push messages due to their relevancy and timing, according to inMarket.

In-store app usage was 16.5 times greater for users who received a beacon message, while shoppers who received a beacon message were 6.4 times more likely to keep an app on their phone, versus those who did not.

In 2013, Viggle acquired Wetpaint for $30 million, expanding its capabilities in second-screen marketing and enabling it to increase its audience and provide content 24 hours a day.

As time spent with applications is increasingly relegated to a choice few, narrowly focused offerings such as Shazam and Fandango are racing to broaden their appeal and leverage their initial success for a more meaningful role in consumers? lives. 

Shazam and Fandango have both realized that recognizing a song and purchasing a ticket occupies mere seconds of consumers? time spent on their devices. 

Therefore, these online services are trying to provide additional, unique content to interest users.

In December, Shazam broadened its capabilities by partnering with Digimarc, a digital watermarking technology provider, and adding new content and in-app listening experiences.

The Shazam app now features personalized music news and trending songs from users? friends and artists that have previously been Shazamed. Users can also check out exclusive Shazam Sessions, interviews and expanded charts.

Fandango now offers exclusive videos to keep users engaged in the app.

Offerings include a video of the Fifty Shades of Grey cast talking about their roles and favorite scenes, a printable Oscar Awards ballot for users to cast their votes and compete between friends, a link to purchase a Fandango gift card and a video of the upcoming SpongeBob movie to let parents choose whether or not it is appropriate for their kids.

?We know that beacons ? when used properly ? have an enormously positive impact on the consumer experience,? Mr. Heinzinger said. ?With context-based engagements, Viggle can wake up and help its users at the perfect time ? and research shows that consumers love that.?