In the 2002 Hollywood blockbuster Minority Report, a futuristic world was envisaged whereby adverts were personalized to individual shoppers as they walked through the mall.  Such an approach requires not only detailed knowledge of each shopper, but the ability to track their location and respond dynamically.

The movie has proved to be prescient in a number of ways, with a recent study from Carnegie Mellon suggesting that such personalized advertising could be on the horizon before long too.  The research used mobile tracking technologies to allow advertisers to understand where, when and for how long consumers are in the mall, and to understand how this affects their buying behaviors.

The researchers tracked nearly a hundred thousand shoppers in an Asian mall with over 300 stores.  Shoppers were offered free Wi-Fi, with enrolment requiring information such as age, gender and income rage to be shared.

Tracking shoppers

Of the people who signed up for the free Wi-Fi, four groups were determined.  One didn’t receive any adverts to their mobile phone, whilst a second group were sent random ads for stores in the mall.  A third group were sent ads for stores near to their current location, whilst a final group were sent ads based upon information trajectory-based targeting.

Each shopper was then monitored to determine not only their movements around the mall, but their buying behaviors during the day. This was done via a survey completed upon purchase whereby they were asked not only how much they spent but whether the purchase was influenced by the coupon they had received via their phone.

What influence did the various forms of adverts have on their behavior?  It emerged that trajectory-based targeting was most effective at encouraging shoppers to use the coupons sent to them.  What’s more, this form of advertising also led to the highest customer satisfaction ratings and the highest overall revenue from the stores participating in the research, and indeed for the mall overall.

“Mobile ads that are based on customers’ trajectories can be designed to influence consumers’ shopping patterns,” the authors conclude. “This suggests that this type of targeting can be used not only to boost the efficiency of customers’ current shopping behavior but also to nudge them toward changing their shopping patterns, which will generate additional revenue for businesses.”