In a commercial first, Exterion Media, the out-of-home advertising business, is collaborating with Proxama mobile marketing technology to equip 500 London buses with beacon technology.

A participating retailer‘s app will be able to use the connection to send targeted messages and alerts to 300,000+ London bus riders daily, although no brand partners have been announced to date.

This creates the opportunity to deliver highly contextualised messages at moments when travelling consumers are most receptive, which when combined with out-of-home (OOH) advertising, can prompt immediate action.

This announcement comes after a successful six month beacon trial on 110 buses in Norwich, which saw 30% of users clicking through from receipt of notification and 2,000 app downloads. Exterion‘s online urban community work.shop.play. recently found London to have the highest penetration of smartphones (94%) in the UK. Coupled with this, the average journey on a bus in London is estimated to be between 17-19 minutes (with some journeys taking considerably longer). This provides passengers the time and opportunity to respond, interact, view or redeem offers delivered direct to their mobile phones. This mobile popularity and the lengthy journeys makes beacons on London buses an attractive channel to deliver extended consumer engagement to audiences on the move.

“We are continually seeking new and innovative ways to connect brands with consumers and this solution will engage audiences on the move in a way that builds meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships. We believe the future of OOH engagement is the ability to deliver a truly personal experience; and, with so many of us keeping our smartphones handy during the bus trips we take every day, it makes sense to combine the two. Our ultimate aim is to deploy this technology across our portfolio nationwide, with a long-term vision of providing full connectivity across buses in the UK.” says Jason Cotterrell, Managing Director UK, Exterion Media.

“The trial in Norwich and our partnership with Exterion Media showed us that consumers are open to receiving content via their mobile devices while they travel, so we expect to experience a similar level of success once we roll out across London. By ensuring that content pushed to users is relevant, personal and received at the right time, beacons are set to enhance Londoners‘ commuting experiences.” says John Worley, CEO of Proxama Marketing Division.