Consumer goods companies are facing tremendous pressure to develop experiences that match the brand expectations defined by today’s consumer. What tops the list? Delivering true omnichannel experiences that are personal, seamless and engaging throughout the customer journey—meeting the shopper where they choose to interact. And with more than 90 percent of retail sales still generated in brick-and-mortar environments, in-store personalized marketing and a differentiated retail customer experience are critical components.

The good news is that today’s technology innovations are opening those retail doors for consumer brands to get closer to their customers and deliver the same level of in-store retail personalization historically only available online.

Many consumer goods brands are embracing the opportunity. Redbox is a great example of a leader tapping into the latest IoT technologies for personalized marketing and customer experiences.

The one-stop shop for the latest movies and games at ridiculously cheap prices, more than 40,000 Redbox kiosks nationwide turn everything from grocery stores to convenience stores into entertainment destinations—which translates to about 40 million movie and game rentals a month.

And with their recent announcement that they’re expanding to another 1,500 locations this year, with more planned roll outs next year, Redbox is focused on setting the business up for future success.

Redbox’s success in an ever-fragmenting entertainment ecosystem and changing retail environment proves an enduring value proposition to consumers – and in Redbox’s case, their retail partners – is critical to long-term success.

Equally important is Redbox’s track record of digital-marketing innovation that meets consumers where they’re making their movie and game decisions, whether that’s on a desktop computer, mobile device or at the kiosk.

Redbox has always been an early adopter of new personalized marketing technologies and as a result, the company now boasts one of the largest digital marketing networks of engaged entertainment consumers in the U.S. – more than 90 million marketing touch points across email, web, mobile and social media.

To help bring one of their latest innovations to life, Redbox partnered with Footmarks, the leading enterprise proximity data management and marketing platform. Footmarks’ SmartConnect solution, based on Microsoft Azure, enabled Redbox to deploy and test Bluetooth beacons at 1,500 kiosk locations. The test proved very successful for customer engagement as well as the ability to scale and manage the solution across more than 30,000 locations.

In addition to managing the beacon hardware and data, the solution allows Redbox to create and target mobile app engagements. The beacons create “micro-moments” of engagement when their customers—with the Redbox app downloaded and notifications enabled—come close to a kiosk. These are Redbox’s most engaged consumers who want to hear about the latest new releases and offers from Redbox, but may not have movie or game-night on their mind as they’re picking up a gallon of milk on the way home from work.

A well-timed, personalized push notification about the newest movies and games in the box can turn a milk run into a movie run in a flash.

Based on the very positive results in test markets, Redbox is currently in process of installing beacons in an additional 30,000 kiosks to be completed between August and the end of 2017. In partnership with Footmarks they will continue to test more personalized messaging and pursue potential retail partnerships to drive further customer engagement and results at retail.

Redbox continues to prove digital personalized marketing innovation can be led by a physical media business.

Redbox by the Numbers:

Locations:

  • More than 40k kiosks and growing
  • More locations than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined (U.S.)

Rentals:

  • 5B+ rentals to date
  • Average 8M rentals per week

Digital Marketing Network:

  • 44M active email subscribers
  • 32MM app downloads across Android & iOS
  • 7.7MM Text Club subscribers
  • 7MM Social Media followers

Read on the Microsoft Blog