Brands such as Re/Max Realtor and Quality Hotel are among the marketers bringing smartphone-friendly advertisements to individuals in transit hubs, underscoring mobile?s growing role in proximity-based marketing.

ISign Media has recently teamed up with platform We Build Apps to provide mobile-enabled advertising technology to consumers using transit systems, after realizing the potential of the ultimate form of proximity-based marketing. Re/Max Realtor, Wild Wing Restaurants and Shell are among the top brands leveraging this service to better reach on-the-go potential customers.

?It?s important for consumer-facing brands to realize as the millennial generation moves out of the budget-constrained youth into their higher earning years, their buying prominence will change, but not at the expense of how they interact with the market,? said Alex Romanov, CEO of iSign. ?Text message-based advertising is dramatically losing its effectiveness as smartphone users are quicker to dismiss SMS ads as spam.

?Consumer-facing brands are realizing the best way to tap into the mobile space, is to wait for the most opportune time, when consumers are within proximity to their business,? he said. ?The paradigm is shifting, proximity marketing?not only is it perceived differently by the recipient, but it makes getting a relevant message to shoppers while they are close enough to act on it possible, which can significantly elevate sales.?

Proximity in transit settings
ISign is now bringing the ad technology to a slew of transit hubs, beginning with Cleveland, Ohio?s Barons Bus Line. The line specializes in college campuses as well as cities, and will offer participating brands an optimal gateway of reaching the thousands of commuting passengers riding the bus each month.

ISign?s mobile smart antenna feature will be powered by buses? batteries, and will allow mobile messages to be sent seamlessly via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The interactions will also help garner more valuable customer data, while ensuring that users? privacy is upheld.

The notifications sent to passengers? phones also supersede the idea of making consumers download mobile applications to receive relevant content.

?Apps are becoming an obstacle, consumers are at first averse to signing up for loyalty programs in exchange for clear, valuable benefits, but asking them to surrender personal data and credit card details to an app store just to download a store?s free app is a non-starter,? Mr. Romanov said. ?The latest research from Catalyst shows that the rate of app usage on smartphones dropped ?26 percent in 2015, and monthly downloads of apps cratered, dropping 52 percent?while the rate of apps being purged jumped by more than 29 percent. 

?Proximity marketing provides a direct-to-smartphone system that maintains user privacy since it does not need an app and does not require personal data just to use the service.?

Wild Wing Restaurants, A&W Restaurants, Quality Hotel, International News, Hi-Fi Citi, Rally/Shell gas stations and Re/Max Realtor are all tapping location-based mobile marketing in transit hubs.

Catering to travelers? needs
The transit sector is becoming much more mobile-friendly as merchants and consumers alike realize the sheer convenience it can bring them.

MasterCard?s springtime partnership with Cubic Transportation Systems points to the growing relationship between mobile payments and the transportation sector, suggesting that digital payments may soon overtake physical ones, a move that would convenience operators, retailers and travelers (see story).

However, brands must also make sure that they do not overwhelm travelers with a barrage of advertisements on mobile, especially during peak stress times such as commuting hours.

?The needs and demands of travelers are dramatically increasing as the technologies available to them continue to evolve,? Mr. Romanov said. ?Travelers want access to features and options that will make their trip more enjoyable and they want the process to be simple and private.

?There is a necessity for the transit industry to allow mobile interactive media, advertising and entertainment capabilities across a wireless broadcasting network to their nearby travelers, directly to their mobile devices.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely, staff writer on Mobile Marketer, New York