• by Philip Rosenstein , July 27, 2016

SITO Mobile on Wednesday announced the addition of video ad formats to its Real-Time Verified Walk-In (Real-time VWI) products, providing real-time targeting, and data on video advertising campaigns.

“Location is the highest indicator of intent,” said Jon Lowen, SITO’s EVP of product. “By aggregating location behaviors over time with other data, we can both tailor campaigns more precisely and measure how successful specific creatives are at driving foot traffic to brick and mortar locations.”

While the product does not track actual in-store transactions, the one-to-one device-matching technology is able to track whether a device that was served a particular ad ended up at the store being advertised.

The significance for retail locations is clear, but in an election year geo-fenced targeting could also prove crucial to candidates up and down the ballot that are looking for an extra push on election day.

“There are campaign minimums, but the product is not only for Fortune 100 companies. The setup is relatively simple and we anticipate that political campaigns with robust data troves about the voters they want to reach will find strong value in location targeting,” explained Lowen.

The real-time aspect of the product allows for machine learning and smarter bidding decisions when it comes to buying inventory. As more data is collected, these decisions become increasingly accurate.

Nevertheless, Lowen cautions that beyond the programmatic abilities, a human touch is still used as an extra level to enhance and optimize advertising campaigns.