When I read about Burger King Geo-fencing all the McDonald's around the country so Burger King could offer McDonalds' customers a Whopper for 1 cent, I thought it was brilliant. Now, you do have to have the BK-app but geo-fencing does not require it.
Click on the picture for a video that BK.com offers on the how the program works.
If you are not familiar with Geo-fencing, the platform allows you to literally draw a virtual fence around a location of your choosing. Anyone that walks through the virtual fence with their mobile phone, the platform captures the phone ID and will deliver your display ads or "in-app" ads to the mobile phone for 30 days or more. It's a very cost-effective tool delivering an ad to someone for cents.
Different than geo-targeting in that the platforms use 35 satellites to track the phone ID's going in and out of "fences" it is much more concise and accurate if you know where you audience "hangs out." Coupled with direct mail and other marketing channels it can be a powerful marketing tool to build your brand and generate leads. Or in the Burger King promotion drive sales away from your competitors.
Geo-fencing can track a mobile phone ID from one fence to other fences as well. So you could "fence" a retail store and track that the phone was in one fence and ended up in another. We've recently leveraged the platform that way and the insights have led the client to change their target audience strategy.
The Burger King Program is a fabulous way to drive BK-app use, gain attention and pull potential McDonald's customers to Burger King. It's smart. It's great to see marketers leveraging technology in such a way to engage their customers with a benefit.
You can read more about
geo-fencing by clicking on this link and it will take you to an article I wrote about the platform we use.