Unilever looks to unite online and offline consumer targeting with $50,000 investment in start-up Glimr
Unilever is hoping to close the missing link between on and offline visits and sales after awarding start-up Glimr a $50,000 prize to pilot with one of its brands.
The world’s second largest advertiser today crowned the start-up, which lets brands build a one-to-one relationship with consumers using offline data collected from beacons, the winner of its Scale Up competition during a session at Digital Shoreditch 2015.
Unilever Foundry director Jeremy Basset explained to The Drum why Glimr, which competed against fellow tech entrepreneurs Little Bird and Wobe to win the prize, will help Unilever better understand its consumers' habits.
“I think what is exciting about Glimr is the way they allow us to fuse the virtual and the physical world,” he said. “They enable us to connect with consumers though beacon technology in more of a pull way than a push way, which I think is unique for beacons. I think in that way it has a lot of relevance to Unilever, not only in the UK but in many countries around the world.”
Basset said the technology could potentially be used in its out-of-home business, for example ice cream and refreshments, but has the potential to be used across the full spectrum of the business.
Glimr chief executive Robert Hedberg added that the company’s technology will help Unilever understand consumers as individuals.
“We are hoping to bring an actual understating of who you are as an individual based on what stores you visit and help Unilever understand their target audience in a much better way – so for the first time bridging the offline and online gap.”
Watch the full interview above.