BlueFox Convert measures foot traffic between locations that may be any distance apart, and is normally configured to accumulate data over several days or weeks. One application of Convert is to measure the “drive-to-store” impact of advertising on consumer foot traffic. First, traffic is measured to establish a baseline. Then, after advertising is put in place, traffic is remeasured to quantify the impact–and value–of the advertising campaign.
If an advertising campaign is designed to send foot traffic to a specific destination in a mall (e.g. a specific store), BlueFox sensors are placed at the locations where advertising will be displayed, and at the destination–either the entire store, or specific counters within the store.
Convert answers the following question: What fraction of the people who are exposed to the advertisement make their way to the destination promoted by the advertisement? We infer that people detected near the sensor located at the advertisement have “seen” the advertisement. We measure unique visitors, identified by their mobile phone MAC address, and filter them by time to ensure correct directionality.
The simplest application of Convert consists of two steps:
- First, the advertiser measures baseline flow. Before advertising is posted, BlueFox sensors measure foot traffic from the advertising locations to the destination over a period (e.g. two weeks). We measure the percentage (P %) of persons that would have gone to the store without the advertising boost.
- Second, the advertiser executes the advertising campaign and remeasures traffic. After advertising is posted, the same BlueFox sensors measure foot traffic from the same locations (now with ads displayed) to the destination over a period (e.g. two weeks). During the advertising campaign, we expect that more people (P’ %) will go to the store with the advertising boost. The question is: How much bigger, if at all, is P’ % than P%?
The BlueFox Convert product delivers an answer to the age-old marketer’s conundrum: “I waste half my advertising dollars…but don’t know which half”. Using Convert to measure drive-to-store impact, marketers finally can better answer this question and deliver more valuable outcomes as a result.
