Waze?
Waze is an application owned by Google: it is a GPS-based geographical navigation application program for smartphones. The advantage for users is not so much the navigation part, which is very similar to other applications such as Google Maps and TomTom. The main advantage is that the application is also a social network. A bit like Coyote, Waze also encourages users to share situations they encounter on the road, such as bottlenecks, road works or even police checks. It’s a powerful tool for a strong web-to-store strategy
Why does Waze make sense for Retail marketing managers?
For two years, this application has taken up a nice market share among navigation systems. Its user base is therefore quite interesting, at more than 50 million users. In order to monetise its services, Waze has decided not to ask users to pay, and offers advertisers geo-targeted advertising.
How does geo-targeted advertising work on Waze?
This part is very interesting for brands. In fact, Waze only proposes geo-targeted advertising campaigns. The idea is to allow brands with points of sale to advertise within the application when users are in proximity of their points of sale.
Concretely, Waze proposes two types of actions:
- ‘Branded Pins’: the initiative consists in having the logos of your brand appear when they are on users’ navigation map.
- ‘Rich Takeovers’: banners that appear above the application when the users are stopped (at traffic lights or a filling station, for example).
Why does it make sense for the holidays?
During the holidays, consumers are often outside of their comfort zone and need to make purchases in unfamiliar places. Presenting your logos will allow you to gain local notoriety.
Here are a few situations we thought about for the holidays:
- Imagine you have points of sale at holiday spots. It makes sense that ‘Wazers’ (Waze users) see your logo upon arrival and during their local travels.
- Imagine you have points of sale in shopping centres. Why not suggest advertising when consumers stop in the parking lot? You can then show the offers of your point of sale at the shopping centre.
- Imagine you have restaurants along motorways. What about highlighting your logo when Wazers go by it? Since the application will offer a large map, they will have the possibility of seeing the logo before going by it and can then decide to stop. And if during the stop you show some advertising on a menu, you will increase the chances of a visit even more.
- Imagine you have a point of sale at a filling station or you manage filling stations. Presenting your logo also makes sense. Advertising while the car is stopped, even more so. And it is a very good opportunity to upsell.
There are surely more possible situations. Many opportunities that should be taken for a strong web-to-store strategy!
In conclusion
Geo-targeted advertising makes a whole lot of sense during the holiday season. For some brands, even more so that during regular periods. Take advantage of Waze to build up your web-to-store strategy!
Any Questions? Contact us!
