Hakuhodo's push to better merge online and offline

Japanese creative firm Hakuhodo has started offering its new tool called Activation-Ad.Activation –Ad is a new technology that links consumers’ smartphone apps to real world ads containing built-in beacons. The tool alerts consumers via an app on their smartphone from ads outdoors, on transit, in store, or in the form of direct mail and pushes a message to them just as they notice the ad.This solution integrates advertising media and user media by taking beacon technology compatible with Bluetooth Low Energy short-range communications and combining it with the Hakuhodo Group’s advertising and marketing expertise in utilisation of smart devices.The app also helps marketers to collate behavioral data on the user gathered by the beacon  through time, location, frequency and reaction to message. The agency also claims that with user information obtained from the app, the technology makes it possible to send a message better tailored to the user’s behavior and attributes. Activation-Ad is offered in cooperation with Access Co.