Pep Boys has seen incremental revenue growth when it implemented WalletAds campaigns helping the brand’s mobile advertising business. It has generated high “save to phone” and redemption rates, contributing to incremental revenue.
“The technology also allows us to track ROI from our mobile advertising spend by seeing how many offers saved to mobile wallet are redeemed in-store,” said Rachel Silva, assistant vice president of marketing for Pep Boys. “We are able to redeem these offers at the point of sale from the consumer’s phone, providing a seamless, omnichannel experience.”
WalletAds enables all advertisers to remove the friction commonly associated with mobile ads and the reliance on brand-owned mobile apps by integrating with Apple Wallet and Android Pay, the mobile wallet apps pre-installed on nearly all iPhones and Android phones.
“It is a frictionless experience because you don’t have to download the app or go to the store locator page,” said Mark Tack, vice president of marketing at Vibes. “With WalletAds the ad is taking the consumer to the branded content.”
In two taps, consumers can save branded content such as a special offer, coupon or event reminder to their mobile wallets directly from the mobile ad.
Vibes has provided the service for such brands as Adidas, Petco, Hewlett Packard and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
This type of mobile ad destination is popular with consumers. According to the Vibes 2016 Mobile Consumer Report, about half of consumers say they prefer to be directed to a mobile coupon page as opposed to a mobile commerce or app download page.
The study also found that approximately one-third (32%) of mobile consumers currently use a mobile wallet like Apple Wallet or Android Pay. Without requiring brands to rely on their own mobile apps, WalletAds allows advertisers to capitalize on the rapid adoption of these native applications.
WalletAds solves some key problems for advertisers. It allows them to close the loop on their campaigns and connect their paid media with real-life purchases in a way that is seamless and trackable. Saved WalletAds become a living ad unit in the mobile wallet that can be updated over time with new offers, content and reminders to extend the brand’s engagement with the customer.
Through location-triggered reminders or updates at relevant times, WalletAds allows brands to influence the consumer through the entire purchase process, even after the ad campaign has ended.
Silva said prior to WalletAds, it was difficult to close the loop on mobile advertising spend. WalletAds has enabled Pep Boys to overcome that challenge and drive online engagement to offline purchases in a measurable way.
“WalletAds lends itself perfectly to our mobile-first strategy, which is resonating extremely well with our customers,” said Silva. “They appreciate the convenience of saving offers to an app already pre-installed on their phone and redeeming them from their phone in store.
Pep Boys was one of the first auto service brands to mobilize offers using Apple and Google payment platforms.
“We sent out offers via text, direct mail and email with a ‘save to wallet’ option and saw outstanding results,” said Silva. “Thirty percent of offers that were added to the mobile wallet were redeemed in store.”
Another benefit is that saved WalletAds become a living ad unit in the mobile wallet that can be updated over time with new offers, content and reminders.
“Even after our campaigns have ended, we’re able to continue communicating with consumers and influence them in the purchase process by updating the offer or sending a reminder of its expiry date,” he said.
Daniela Forte is Multichannel Merchant’s Associate Editor