Postmedia Network has found a potential beacon of hope for rejuvenating its sagging ad business, which has seen revenues fall by more than $57 million in the past nine months.
The media company has partnered with ad tech firm Freckle IoT to bring the Toronto start-up’s beacon technology to its leading mobile publishing brands, including The Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen and The Calgary Herald.
The brands will incorporate Freckle IoT’s software development kit into their offering, enabling Postmedia advertisers to utilize beacon technology to provide interested users with personalized content and offers at optimal times.
It is said to be one of the largest deployments of beacon technology in the world, adding an estimated 3 million active users to Freckle IoT’s existing Open Beacon Network – which currently incorporates more than 500,000 venues in North America’s top 30 metropolitan areas.
Paula Festas, senior vice-president of digital and national advertising sales for Postmedia in Toronto, said the new partnership adds a key dimension to the company’s advertising solutions.
“At the end of the day, we want to do more than just sell display ads,” she said. “The beacon technology is a way for us to close the loop in terms of timing. In that moment, advertisers [can reach] a user who has opted in and really wants a personalized experience at that particular location and time.”
The partnership has particular appeal for the retail advertisers that Festas said represented a “very big” part of Postmedia’s advertiser base.
Festas said the partnership comes at an ideal time for Postmedia as it continues the rollout of its “reimagined” four-platform products. This week, The Edmonton Journal will become the fourth publication to adopt what she called a “2.0” model, following the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette and The Calgary Herald.
Postmedia is still developing a pricing model for the feature, but advertisers should expect to pay for access to the beacon technology. “This will be an enhanced ‘white glove’ service that I think specific advertisers will definitely pay a premium for,” said Festas.
She called in-moment advertising “the next big bet” for the media community, and said Postmedia Network has the necessary scale to make a beacon enabled offering viable for clients.
“I think people have been trying to crack that nut for quite a long time. Beacon technology is clearly going to have to perfect itself, and retailers are going to have to put it in their stores, but I believe a lot of other publishers are going to be [adopting the technology],” she said.
According to a recent report from Adobe, approximately 18% of marketers are currently using beacon technology, either in tests or active deployment.
