Macroblock

In retail, the agony of trying to accurately determine one’s current target audience can be especially frustrating regardless if one is new to the market or is already in the market. We often find ourselves questioning how effective our advertisements shown on LED displays are and how our ads can reach out to more relevant audience. Macroblock is about to end this agony with the introduction of its very own Internet of Things (IoT) technology kit.

On the 6^th to the 9^th of March 2018, Macroblock partnered with Lighthouse at the Japan Shop exhibition featuring its first IoT technology kit. This collaboration showcased Lighthouse’s all-in-one LED Display with a 2.5mm pixel pitch that provides a reliable, trouble-free video solution for indoor applications. With the installation of Macroblock’s IoT kit, the display instantly becomes what we call “IoT-inside,” and once activated, it becomes “IoT-enabled.” Having a display equipped with the ability to collect data that matter to retail (or advertisement) owners, Macroblock’s IoT kit is the answer to precision marketing in retail.

When an ordinary LED display becomes IoT-enabled, it can now collect data through its facial recognition and gesture recognition cameras. Some of the data collected by the facial recognition camera include customers’ gender, age, emotion as well as their dwelling time and distance from the LED display. The gesture recognition camera, on the other hand, can pick up movements of one’s right or left hand, allowing customers to interact with the advertisement should the advertisement supports interactive contents. The data collected will then be presented in a web-based dashboard in an organized, clear, and comprehensive manner that users can access whenever they wish to view their real-time target audience database.

At Japan Shop 2018, we observed the IoT kit operating in action as it collected information from visitors who interacted with the interactive displayed content. The data collected were presented in the web-based dashboard and visitors could tell from a glance which item on the display was most frequently clicked on or whether more females than males checked out the booth.

When applied in actual retail space, the data becomes even more valuable because it is concrete information that business owners can rely on when analyzing their business performance and coming up with better marketing strategies. By correctly understanding their customers’ demographics and needs, and by making the necessary adjustments, retail owners can improve their customers’ experience tremendously.

For Macroblock, extending LED display’s value has always been the heart of the company’s philosophy. With the goal to expand LED displays’ usefulness, Macroblock saw the growing trend in IoT and understood immediately the advantage of combining IoT with displays. Due to the increase preponderance of LED display usage in the retail sector, there is an immense appeal behind pairing IoT with LED displays because LED displays will no longer be a passive display screen displaying advertisements but an upgraded version with the ability to actively collect valuable data that matter to retail (or advertisement) owners while displaying the ads.

As to most businesses, total revenue and profit matter as much as customer satisfaction which is why Macroblock aims to aid retail businesses in increasing their customer flow, encouraging conversion rates, and promoting sales through the installation of its IoT technology kit.