Can You Shop While Commuting?
On your way home from work, have you ever wondered what’s for dinner? Or perhaps what groceries you need to get for your family? If only you could both commute and shop at the same time… could you?
The answer is a definitive yes. Peapod, an online grocery company set up billboards to remind customers they could indeed shop while commuting. The goal was to nudge its potential customers into shopping through their smart phones on their commute.
It lets bus and rail commuters in Chicago and Philadelphia check out good deals as they wait for public transportation.
People waiting can scan QR codes at rail stations and download Peapod ads. It works on all major mobile platforms, including Android, iPhone and iPad.
When shoppers see something they want to buy, they can actually place their orders on the spot. The billboards make it a snap to whittle down their grocery list and schedule when it will be delivered. Commuters seemed to love the idea of being productive while waiting for public transportation.
Virtual Selling
The campaign was wildly successful with more than 90% of the people who ordered using the QR codes having gone on to reorder. Perhaps this is because of the convenience factor or maybe the fact that so much of our interaction with the world is now through gadgets. As smart phone use has become ubiquitous, billboards are being used to bring the digital and the real worlds together and this is a great example.
New Uses for Billboards
Interactive advertising is here to stay. Consumers are used to surfing online for products and services. These billboards are bringing the convenience of the Internet to real world situations.
The method has also met with positive results in other parts of the world. For example, retail giant Tesco has had excellent results with similar billboards in South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Advantages of Interactive Advertising
Consumers are sharing the Peapod’s billboard with friends for two solid reasons:
- It’s new and different
- It provides a useful service, bringing the shopping experience directly and conveniently to the consumer.
Advertisers increase the rate that information gets shared when they use interactive marketing techniques.
This type of marketing can also be customized to specific groups. Overall, it works well for anyone who wants to check items off their grocery list and use downtime productively. These billboards take advantage of a world short on time and steeped in technology.
In addition, the billboards in each station can be personalized for the groups that use it. Some might target young professionals or members of specific ethnic groups with ads for items they tend to use.
It’s not a hard sell. This type of billboard offers convenience for its audience, appealing to people’s love of new gadgetry and engaging them by letting them shop on the spot. The billboard is relevant, which reduces the chance that people will see it as invasive or annoying.
Interactive billboards appeal to consumers on the basis of convenience and novelty. They bring a new focus to one of the most widely used and oldest methods of marketing.