Imagine a user nearing your booth, your food stand, or your stage, and being able to reach out to that user at that exact moment when they are most likely to take action on whatever you would send them. This is the mission behind "In-App Alerts", Grandstand's newest marketing feature.
Unlike Bluetooth Beacons, which require Always On Location support which fewer than 5% of your app users will grant you, In-App Alerts allow your app user to periodically check their location against known locations that have a proximity radius around them. If the user's location is within the radius of one of your custom locations it will show them an alert message. Before showing the alert it will always check to make sure the user hasn't seen the alert before or if the repeat time has passed. The alert can also be used in a non-proximity situation for messages you want to make available to all users while using your app.
The alert then becomes clickable and the actions include isolating a map pin or opening a webpage in the in-app browser. In the future it will also link to a locked coupon that will unlock by tapping on the alert.
All of this is managed in the admin with the ability to not only set alerts but change alerts on the fly. Say you have an in-app alert that is supposed to go to 6 p.m. but you want to extend its visibility another hour. By simply editing the end time and updating the changes to the app, those changes go into effect immediately in the app.
At this time in-app alerts are limited to the map page but depending on how popular the feature becomes we may extend it to show proximity alerts while browsing the schedule ("A free concert featuring Taylor Swift is happening now nearby on The Popup Stage") or while browsing a list ("Did you know that Taylor Swift got her start by performing on The Popup Stage in 1999.").
There are numerous sponsorship opportunities with In-App Alerts, as they have a huge opportunity to drive attention to specific locations or messages right when the user is most interested in seeing the message.
Some of Grandstand's largest events will begin using this feature next week. In-App Alerts are currently only available for partners in our top package (App Package 4) but could be extended to other partners in the near future.
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