Marketo and Gimbal pitch proximity marketing at Cannes

Marketo has struck a partnership with proximity technology vendor, Gimbal, to integrate its location capabilities with its marketing technology stack.

The pair undertook a live demonstration of how the proximity technology could be combined with marketing automation during the Cannes Lions Data and Innovation Festival on 25 June.

Gimbal has developed a platform that allows marketers to delve into location-based information including behavioural data from opt-in customers, which can be passed through an engagement marketing engine. According to its website, the platform combines geofencing and proximity beacons with software, hardware, analytics tools and a management portal.

The integration is aimed at helping marketers better personalise engagement through mobile location technology. Gimbal was already a member of Marketo’s LaunchPoint partner ecosystem and has now been integrated into the vendor’s Mobile Marketing Engagement platform.

“The future of marketing is centred on marketers’ ability to engage their customers everywhere,” commented Marketo’s senior vice-president of partnerships and product strategy.

“By teaming up with Gimbal, marketers now have access to both rich proximity data and customer behavioural data from Marketo so they can send the right message at the right time. By bringing mobile into a comprehensive marketing strategy, we are continuing to break down silos so marketers can demonstrate innovation and business impact on their organisations."

Gimbal chief operating officer, Kevin Hunter, added its location-aware technology combined with marketing automation delivers more precise and relevant engagement – a must in the face of ever-higher customer expectations around digital interactions with brands.

“Gimbal's expertise in macro- and micro-location, combined with Marketo's industry-leading marketing automation software, will give marketers endless opportunities to interact with customers wherever they are based on location and proximity triggers,” he said.

The two companies pointed to a recent report produced for Marketo by the Economist Intelligence Unit, where half of the 500 senior-level marketers surveyed globally identified real-time mobile personalised technology as a vital ingredient to future marketing activity.

How beacons and nearables are giving marketers new customer know-how

Earlier this year, Kellogg’s marketing director, John Broome, claimed proximity marketing was the new battleground for brands to engage with their customers at the point of purchase.

“Location-based marketing is potentially – and certainly in the FMCG world – what we’re all looking for,” Broome told attendees at the launch of the 30th annual Starcom Media Group Media Futures Report. “This is a new frontier, and it will drive much better quality interactions between the targeted consumer and an offer, which is right in front of their eyes.”

A number of Australian and international retailers, retail sites and events venues have been experimenting with proximity technologies such as beacons, including Woolworths, John Lewis, , Bendigo Marketplace and The Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Marketing cloud vendors, meanwhile, are also shoring up their capabilities around the proximity sphere. Last November, Teradata partnered with proximity marketing consultancy, Localz, and Adobe has also recently expanded on its iBeacon functionality by adding in-app messaging functionality through its Marketing Cloud.

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