Video

iPhone mobile payment option opens up opportunity for marketers

With Apple's rollout of Apple Pay, now might be a good time for marketers to get to know Passbook.

September 9, 2014

[Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior toApple's announcement that it is jumping into mobile payments with Apply Pay. That means that in addition to the non-payment features discussed in the video, Apple has now added the ability for customers to pay for goods and services using their iPhones.]

With Apple's rollout of Apple Pay mobile payment, now might be a good time for retail and restaurant marketers to get to know Passbook.

Passbook has been around since 2012, but with the addition of mobile payment, its profile is likely to be raised significantly.

Passbook and similar apps like Google Wallet enable consumers to store all sorts of things they would store in a physical wallet – loyalty cards, coupons, special offers, airline boarding passes – on their smartphones. While customers might leave a coupon at home or lose a loyalty card, they are rarely without their phones. That, coupled with location and notification features available on smartphone devices, make Passbook and Google Wallet powerful marketing channels.

Passbook and Google Wallet offer marketers the opportunity to offer a variety of new tools for customer engagement, including notifying the customer when they are near a store, reminding them to use an offer, extending new offers and more.

In this video, Mark Tack, vice president of Marketing for Vibes, walks through the basics of Passbook and Google Wallet. Some key points:

• Much as marketers might use a third-party service to manage email marketing campaigns, they can use third-party services to manage Passbook/Wallet campaigns. Such services offer easy-to-use design, powerful measurement options and more.
• Location, location, location.Marketers can take advantage of a customer's proximity to extend the right offer, at the right time, in the right place, leading to stronger conversion rates and increased engagement.
• Integrate. Passbook/Wallet campaigns should seamlessly integrate with other digital and print marketing efforts.