• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, October 1, 2014

The road to beaconing is being extended.

Beacon maker Gimbal and app messaging service Urban Airship are teaming in a “preferred partnership” to enhance the power of beaconing.

The idea is to link the location technologies of Gimbal with the targeted push messaging capabilities of Urban Airship to send beaconed consumers even more relevant messages.

Gimbal, spun off from Qualcomm earlier this year, combines geofencing with beacons so that various locations of consumers can be linked together.

“We combined our geofencing to map out a journey,” Gimbal COO Kevin Hunter told me. “Then we can get the right notification to the right people.”

Once beaconed, messaging via Urban Airship can be based on where the person is, where they’ve been and what they like, combined with real-time and historical data.

“It’s not all about the beacons, it’s about the customer journey,” said Hunter.

Gimbal and Urban Airship recently teamed for the 2014 US Open to send beacon-targeted messages to fans at the stadium.

One interesting aspect of this is the amount of messaging that is likely to be sent to consumers based on where they are and what they’re doing.

For example, at a tennis stadium, fans may be open to receiving multiple messages based on where in the stadium they are at the moment, such as near a concession stand or a ticket window.

On the other hand, mobile shoppers may not want to receive multiple messages as they shop, seeing them as an intrusion in their shopping trip.

A recent study of 100,000 mobile shoppers by InMarket found that in-store beaconing caused a 45% interaction rate, but that more than one push message can cause a consumer to stop using or even delete an app, as I wrote about here last week (Beaconed Once: 45% Engagement; Beaconed Twice: 313% Drop in App Usage).

Another interesting aspect is the idea that a retailer’s app rather than those from third parties should be used for in-store beaconing.

“They have to own that real estate,” said Brent Hieggelke, CMO of Urban Airship, referring to the idea of beaconing being driven from a retailer’s app.

Others in the market take a differing approach, opting to leverage the reach of third party apps.

For example, Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay use SnipSnap with Swirl’s beacon platform, Macy’s uses Shopkick and the recent Hillshire Brands product launch with InMarket used a range of apps, including CheckPoints, Key Ring and Zip List (Hillshire Taps Beacons: 20X Purchase Intent Increase).

Meanwhile, the 100 stores beaconed by Autograph on London’s Regent Street all use the Regent Street app and Simon Malls, being beaconed by Mobiquity Networks, use the Simon Malls app.

Gimbal sees one of its advantages as the actual beacon hardware developed over the years by Qualcomm and already used in Apple stores and at large scale venues, including Major League Baseball.

The combined entity should provide additional insight into what message might be best to send to someone.

The final say, of course, will be literally in the hands of the consumer.

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Check out the MediaPost conference on beacons, being held Nov. 3 in New York (IoT: Beacons), which I’m currently programming.