Proximity projects using mobile apps are a bottleneck for many marketers because they struggle to provide real value. That’s not the case in transportation, particularly for airlines. So says the Q3 Proxbook Report, which has aggregated information from more than 350 Proximity Solution Providers and reveals the latest trends, facts and figures from the global proximity industry as well as the growth and opportunity for proximity marketing in the transportation industry including airports and ground mass transit.

Thomas Walle, co-founder & CEO of Unacast said in a statement,“With an ‘always connected’ customer base of travelers, proximity technology presents a massive opportunity for transportation providers and their partners to communicate with passengers in real time. We already see that the transportation industry is a leading vertical in being smart with their data by monetizing their infrastructure. What is even more impressive is the fact that the majority of transportation companies currently planning their deployments are already looking to capitalize on the data.”

Key Transportation Statistics

  • 35% of the top 20 American airports have already deployed beacons.
  • 90% of global airports are undertaking either a major program or a trial project related to mobile apps.
  • Nearly half of airports (48%) are implementing commercial sensor deployments over the next three years.
  • 36% of airports are implementing a proximity pilot project. Only 16% of airports have no plans with sensor technology currently.
  • Half (49%) of airports planning to directly contact passengers via their mobile phone over the next three years.
  • According to SITA, by 2019 84% of airports plan to monetize the data collected through mobile interactions and proximity interactions within the next three years.

An Exploratory Analysis of a Transit App in New York City found that 80 percent of users are using the app two times or more per day. This opens the perfect window for timely and relevant customer communication. This exploratory analysis found that the MTA could increase its annual revenue by as much as $350 million while increasing the ticket price as little as 5 percent.

Industry Findings:

Support for Google’s Eddystone beacon has risen 6 percentage points from Q2 to a total of 55% of the industry.

The first Proximity Solution Provider index (PSPi) ranks Proxbook profiles and is automatically calculated based on whether the company is in commercial or pilot stage, number of use cases, geographic presence, number of clients, sensors deployed, and employees. The PSPi is divided by hardware and platform:

Top 5 Hardware:
1) Estimote (US)
2) Kontakt.io (Poland)
3) Accent Systems (Spain)
4) Cisco (US)
5) Sensoro (US)

Top 10 Platforms:
1) Proxama (UK)
2) Gimbal (US)
3) In The Pocket (Belgium)
4) OnyxBeacon (Romania)
5) Tamoco (UK)
6) Spark Compass (US)
7) inBeacon (Netherlands)
8) XtremePush (Ireland)
9) BluVision (US)
10) Liki Solution (Finland)

Some of the biggest changes to the proximity marketplace from Q2 to Q3 have been the rise in proximity advertising networks, which are up 6.2% as well as a 3.3% increase in Wi-Fi based services.