BLUFFTON, Ind. -- National Oil & Gas Inc., which distributes Sunoco, Marathon, Clark and Phillips 66 fuel to gas stations and convenience stores, has been testing new technology from iSIGN Media Solutions Inc., a provider of interactive mobile advertising solutions. Installation into the initial 250 locations chosen by Bluffton, Ind.-based National Oil within its network of stations and stores commenced in early February.
A major goal for U.S. National Oil & Gas Inc. is to encourage motorists who pump fuel at its stations to come into the adjoining c-stores to make additional purchases, Trent Moser, owner and director of the company, told Internet Retailer magazine.
iSign technology will entice customers inside by sending them a mobile coupon for a discount on their fuel--redeemable at the cash register only--as they pull up to a store, the report said.
Of the more than 150,000 customers National Oil sent coupons to during three months, enough redeemed them to justify the retailer starting a rollout of iSign offers to 200 of its nationwide stores, Moser said. He declined to reveal the exact response rate.
Another gasoline/c-store chain in Canada that has been using the technology has a response rate between 10% and 30% among the one million consumers it sends coupons to each day for 10 cents off per gallon, Alex Romanov, iSign's founder and CEO, told the publication.
iSign provides retailers with an antenna that broadcasts a signal in an approximately 300-foot radius. When a mobile device enters that range, the antenna notes the device's unique serial number. That number allows iSign to record the device's movement in the broadcast range and note its interactions with mobile offers anonymously; it does not collect any personal information about the owner. If the device has enabled Bluetooth or wi-fi, iSign sends it a mobile offer on behalf of the merchant.
The offer can be in a variety of formats, such as a bar code, image, video or link to a website, said the report. Should the customer accept it, the offer downloads to her device.
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Separately, iSIGN has started developing technology that will enable customers to take control of off-the-shelf Android smartphone and tablet devices, in light of many companies supplying mobile devices to their staff for communication purposes, in-store product information use and point-of-sale (POS) devices. This technology will support the remote control of Android device's capabilities to target specific applications within retail, hospitality and digital signage verticals.
iSIGN customers, using this new technology, will be able to configure off-the-shelf devices to perform dedicated functions such as portable POS, sales associate assists, in-room entertainment and end-cap signage to their own requirements, by disabling any function that the customer does not want to allow. This will result in the customer having a stripped-down device for its employees to use, better control over employee time management and reduced device theft. Additional capabilities include device usage statistics and geo-fenced theft alarming. iSIGN's new technology will support dedicated applications and can be configured with no training required.
iSIGN Media is a leader in multiplatform advertising solutions that use Bluetooth, mobile, wi-fi and location-aware technologies to deliver rich media, permission-based messages to engage consumers. Business intelligence and real-time metrics, gathered through iSIGN's patent-pending advertising platform, deliver insights into emerging consumer behaviors that help advertisers measure their efforts and make business decisions to increase return on investment and customer loyalty Based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, iSIGN is a leading owner/operator of in-store digital media with 5,600 digital signs in 1,400 locations.
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