Almost 200 Colleges Beckon Beacons With RetailMeNot

Digital offers destination RetailMeNot reportedly has a back-to-school marketing campaign that will leverage geofencing technology.

The Austin, Texas-based company plans to work with its retail partners across 180 college campuses, reports Mobile Commerce Daily. Working with such companies as Oakley and Tilly’s, RetailMeNot plans to distribute the retailers’ back-to-school promotional offers through its mobile app.

“We know these students need to get supplies as they arrive on campus,” Keith Duncan, RetailMeNot vice president of in-store and mobile,” is quoted as saying in the article. “Obviously, this campaign speaks to that demographic that’s on their mobile phones, and the timing of the offers as they arrive back to school makes it super contextually relevant.”

RetailMeNot plans to be cautious with its geolocation-based service, and it doesn’t want to overdo its messaging, Duncan reportedly said at the Mobile Summit at eTail East 2014 in Philadelphia. In fact, to prevent “drive-by” pings, the company now has a policy stipulating customers must be inside a store for at least two minutes to receive one of its notifications.

“If you walk into a mall and 50 stores have beacons and you get pinged by every single store, it will be a terrible user experience,” Duncan said in the Mobile Commerce Daily article. “You have to pay close attention to it, because a good experience will go bad very quickly if you don’t.”

A top Federal Trade Commission official in July expressed her support for pending legislation designed to protect consumers in how their geolocation data are used.