Marketing automation company Neolane launched its Mobile App Channel (MAC), a solution that allows branded iOS or Android apps to send personalized push notifications powered by customer data stored in a Neolane database, says the company’s VP of Marketing, Kristin Hambelton.
MAC is an optional add-on to Neolane’s marketing technology platform which Hambelton says includes a number of conversational marketing tools. These tools include, but aren’t limited to, an application for engaging Facebook fans and Twitter followers in one-on-one dialogues as well as a solution that enables personalized marketing offers to be sent with transactional email messages.
“We launched MAC because it is a natural evolution to the conversational marketing we do,” Hambelton says, adding that the proliferation of smartphones and apps are a new channel where there’s a need for interactions powered by customer data. “There’s a need for brands to be personalized on these personal devices,” Hambelton says.
MAC enables brands to collect consumer data within the boundaries of the app, says Hambelton, distinguishing that Neolane’s solutions serve strictly as technology platforms; the company does not develop or design any of the branded apps itself.
“Our role is to house all data in [a brand’s] customer records,” says Hambleton, “Neolane is able to track if the consumer opened a brand’s email, visited its website, what area they live in via geolocation.”
Neolane markets directly to brands, focusing on large enterprises, Hambelton says. Barnesandnoble.com uses Neolane’s services but as of yet has not purchased MAC. Hambelton adds that “BMW France is using Neolane’s conversational marketing platform to send personalized push notifications through [advertising agency] megalo & company.”
MAC is offered as a perpetual license for $25,000, says Hambelton, adding that it is an addition to Neolane’s preexisting platform, which can be purchased for a minimum of $100,000. Though Hambelton says there may be other small agencies providing services like Neolane’s MAC, this feature has no direct competitors.
