The gamification fad appears to have died down, but that’s not stopping Pocari Sweat and 7-Eleven from launching a mobile app that rewards runners who are near Bluetooth beacons placed in 7-Eleven outlets across Singapore.
Users are instructed to map out a preferred running route in the Pocari Cross Run app for Android and iOS devices, which then leads them to several 7-Eleven stores along the route.
Each time a runner runs past a 7-Eleven store, the in-store Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon will connect with his smartphone and award a virtual token, which can then be used to play an in-app bingo game for the chance to win prizes. More tokens can be obtained by purchasing the Pocari Sweat beverage.
To encourage more people to run with the app, participation points will be awarded based on how far a user runs. At the end of each competition round, the top 300 runners with the most participation points get a chance to win even more prizes.
In a media statement, Pocari Sweat and 7-Eleven said this is Singapore’s first and largest scale promotional campaign to use the BLE system.
Blazing a trail usually doesn’t come cheap: the entire project will cost S$600,000 a year. This includes app development plus installing and maintaining the Beacon devices, along with other advertising and promotional costs.
The campaign won’t run for a full year though, and is expected to conclude by March next year.
Pocari Cross Run certainly adds an interesting interactive element to a habitual runner’s usual fare, but it remains to be seen whether a dose of gamification and the promise of rewards are enough to motivate couch potatoes to get on our feet.
One thing is for sure: we’ll likely see more of such interactive promotional campaigns in the future.
Takamasa Tokumo, executive director of Asatsu-DK Singapore, the advertising firm that co-developed the app, said: “There will be plans in the pipeline for Beacon to be extensively utilised for other promotions and campaigns by other companies after the launch of the Pocari Sweat campaign.”
The firm also has plans to bring similar campaigns to other countries in Asia.
iBeacon is the most disruptive technology in recent times. When it comes to actually implementing a beacon strategy, however, things get a little difficult.
This is essentially because there is very little information about how to go about a beacon strategy and a beacon campaign. In our upcoming webinar, we will discuss how one can create successful beacon campaigns.
Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.c…