NORTH AMERCA/INTERNATIONAL. The phrase ‘game-changing’ is thrown around all too often in travel retail and aviation circles, but a new technology platform might prove to be exactly that in the critical sphere of airport commercial revenue generation.
In a world exclusive for The Moodie Davitt Report, Senior Business Editor Mark Lane spoke to the founders of Airports Anywhere, Matthew Hiller and James Brett, about their tech innovation which enables the micro-targeting of every passenger using a smartphone or tablet device inside the airport.
The solution is already being prepared for a trial at three contrasting airports and has attracted the interest of global airport services provider Collinson, which is providing input to the content of the Airports Anywhere app.
Together with their General Manager Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, Hiller and Brett explain the technology behind the system and the reasons why their platform could help to transform the fortunes of airport commercial enterprises and the brands associated with them.
The holy grail for the airport industry and related commercial partners for many years has been to find the solution of how to communicate directly with travellers as they traverse through the airport, and during other parts of the travel journey.
Hundreds of apps and other pieces of technology now link to, and in many cases have enhanced, the traveller journey yet creating a successful single digital ecosystem for airports with direct and timely communication to the individual passenger has proven elusive.
“There are multiple opportunities for the Airports Anywhere and APPIX integration to get its tentacles into every aspect of airport operations. The airport does not directly engage the travellers today, they don’t know who the customer is. We can provide them with that.” – APPIX Founding Investor and Chair of the Board James Brett
The arrival of a new airport digital platform which, among many other things, aims to drive up spending inside the airport, might change all that. That prospect is likely to command the attention of airport managers worldwide and the retailers, brands and in-airport service providers who target additional traveller spending at a point in industry history when it is needed more than ever.
Step forward the team which is in the process of developing a new super app called Airports Anywhere. It is a joint venture led by US firm TrekSecure, which has developed a technology that provides a contagion response solution to governments and aviation industry stakeholders. The partnership includes APPIX, the Vancouver-headquartered creator of the Bluetooth-based proprietary technology which helps drive the Airports Anywhere platform.
The bottom line of the power of Airports Anywhere is that every passenger with a switched on smartphone entering the airport will automatically receive a notification to their phone inviting them to download the app.
The app is fully-GDPR (data protection) compliant, mainly because it includes operational information and, should it be needed, emergency information, for the passenger. Therefore, even if the app is not downloaded by the individual passenger straight away, their smartphones will continue to receive relevant alerts, download invites, and other notifications as they pass through the airport.
Other travel stakeholders such as retailers and service providers will also engage with the app as clients, allowing them to encourage travellers to download the app ahead of or during their journey. One of the system’s strengths is that the user can engage anonymously through a virtual version of the app without the overhead of downloading via an app store, which has become a friction point for many consumers.
This underlines Airports Anywhere’s strength as a communication tool and its potential to become the complete airport digital ecosystem, with manifold benefits for the various airport stakeholders.
In the case of airports, through the app they can identify, locate and communicate with passengers as they move through the facility; travellers get timely information on the practical aspects of passing through the airport and also retail and other commercial services; and airport staff can be directed and deployed efficiently.
And crucially on the commercial revenues front, retailers and other service providers benefit from optimised passenger movement through the facility directed by the app, meaning more dwell time and the opportunity to promote their offer directly to the passenger via the app.
“Travellers can set up preferences without the need for any of their personal data. Imagine being able to offer a female business traveller a discount on MAC cosmetics and an additional saving from the use of a certain credit card exactly ten feet before she reaches duty free. That’s how specific we can be and this changes the game.” – TrekSecure President & Founder Matthew Hiller
The Airports Anywhere story began with a chance meeting last December in Las Vegas between TrekSecure President & Founder Matthew Hiller and APPIX Founding Investor and Chair of the Board James Brett. The duo discussed how integrating their respective technologies could be the basis of a ground-breaking communications and revenue-generation solution for the airport industry.
The APPIX platform, which has more than 50 global patents pending, is the key technology for reaching individuals directly on their smartphones. Brett explains, “We have a broadcast technology that utilises the Bluetooth frequency but does no pairing. So think of it as our ability to broadcast from one point to an infinite number of smartphones because it uses this particular frequency.
“It’s ubiquitous globally, and it doesn’t require any special licensing. We can literally tell the phone to display alphanumeric messages in specific spots.
“Using it, you can promote anything you can think of to the traveller as they’re traversing through the airport. The travelling public get one experience but then airport operations gets another experience. And it gives the ability for the airport authority to be able to resell this to the airlines and the other services within the airport itself.
“So there are multiple opportunities here for the Airports Anywhere and APPIX integration to get its tentacles into every aspect of airport operations. The airport does not directly engage the travellers today, they don’t know who the customer is. We can provide them with that.”
The APPIX technology that Brett describes has already been deployed successfully in sport and music concert stadiums. He gives an example of its use with a tour undertaken by the US band New Kids On The Block, which took in 55 venues and attracted 660,000 live viewers.
Among the initiatives it enabled was a promotion for Red Cross sent directly to concert attendees’ smartphones, encouraging the fans inside the stadiums to make appointments to give blood. The promotion achieved a remarkable 37% response rate, underlining the potential for using the technology in airports for generating commercial revenues.
“We’re taking a technology-based approach in the battle for customer engagement and mindshare, which is something that nobody’s ever been able to do inside an airport” – Airports Anywhere General Manager Timothy O’Neil-Dunne
Hiller summarises the appeal of the tech for the airport environment: “We personalise the airport experience. In a nutshell we are using a few proprietary technologies that allow airports and other service providers to engage travellers with location-based targeted messaging, accurate to within 12 inches, and enhance their time at the airport. Right now, airports don’t know their customers at all. This changes that.
“Travellers can set up preferences without the need for any of their personal data. Imagine being able to offer a female business traveller a discount on MAC cosmetics and an additional saving from the use of a certain credit card exactly ten feet before she reaches duty free. That’s how specific we can be and this changes the game.”
He adds: “Airport passengers are being swamped with dozens of different apps when they take a trip. With Airports Anywhere, we can minimise that by bringing them together. With the technology we’re using, we’re not putting content on your phone, we’re not taking up any memory. You don’t have to incur roaming charges or any of those things. It’s a win-win for airport and passengers in every sense.”
Hiller and Brett have brought onboard Timothy O’Neil-Dunne as General Manager for Airports Anywhere, an appointment that adds a deep understanding of the aviation and retail space to the team. His CV includes a role as Chief Commercial Officer of Canada’s Flair Airlines and he was a founding member of the team that launched Expedia, the high-profile online travel company.
The trio are currently undertaking a busy schedule of discussions with numerous airports in the US and the Middle East, and already three airports have agreed to participate in piloting the Airports Anywhere app. The team has also been boosted by input in the development of the app by Collinson, the global travel services provider which holds a vast array of traveller data.
Expanding on Airports Anywhere’s ability to help airports and their commercial partners to significantly increase their revenues, O’Neil-Dunne says: “What we’ve essentially done is to give retailers and all the other stakeholders involved in the airport experience an access channel that they have never had before.
“We’re taking a technology-based approach in the battle for customer engagement and mindshare, which is something that nobody’s ever been able to do inside an airport.
“This is something that people [in the airport industry] have wanted for a really, really long time, that ability to identify, and micro-target specific customers.
“Via our business customers including airports and other travel stakeholders and service providers, we will use the technology platform to identify, locate and communicate with the passengers as they move through the facility.
“For the first time, through Airports Anywhere, they have the ability to extend their existing models into what used to be a dead zone called the airport. The reality is that communication is the key to revenue. Without the communication capability, you can’t do anything. And that’s where we think we have an edge.”
He continues: “To increase airport commercial revenues, it has to be done through talking to the customer. That means we have got to have a proposition that gives value to the customer and helps gets you through the airport with a minimum amount of fuss.
“We’re extending the digital revenue model into the app, or rather the airport environment. Again, that’s unique. Nobody has been able to solve that problem before.”
O’Neil-Dunne goes on to say that the traveller is challenged “because he or she doesn’t have easy access to pertinent contextual information at what is a very stressful part of their journey”.
He explains: “So the thing that matters to the consumer here is finally he or she is able to get information that is pertinent specifically to him or her at the right moment and in the right place, including retail and brand offers inside the airport.”
O’Neil-Dunne emphasises that Airports Anywhere is selling its solution primarily to airports and will have no direct communication with travellers. That is a matter for the clients who take on the system, who will work with Airports Anywhere to develop a bespoke functionality for each airport setting.
Of the target customers, he says: “There’s the real estate people, which is essentially the airport. Those are the guys who own the infrastructure that we’re providing a service to. Then there are the commercial partnerships with service providers that have airport interests, for example Collinson, which has a system of aggregating customers who need to use services inside airports. The third and final customer base is the individual retailers and brands.
“So it’s important to understand that we segment our customer base very clearly, but our value proposition is we’re opening up this new channel to the consumer.”
Its creators argue that Airports Anywhere is potentially transformative in terms of airport stakeholders’ ability to develop new revenue streams and speak directly to customers. Recent research from Collinson revealed that 71% of travellers believe the ability to access airport services using a single app would improve their experience. If Airports Anywhere is successful in gaining traction across the global airport community, that need may be met.
