Marketing is changing. Soon, products will be able to send smartphone messages to passing shoppers as the UK high street adopts Apple’s iBeacon. This offers a great opportunity to target customers in a more impactful way. The key is integration. Integrated campaigns deliver 77% more uplift than single-channel campaigns.

When i2c advised on the Sainsbury’s launch of Unilever’s ‘compressed’ aerosol products, we started the marketing promotion online, before products hit shelves. We built anticipation through targeted emails to Sainsbury’s customers, then offered a one-off Nectar points bonus for purchases through an associated app. This was carried through in-store with entrance gates, radio messages, TV display walls and shelf barkers, while customers were targeted with coupons at tills.

The upshot? We achieved an 18% redemption rate in the first wave of coupon-at-till, while among shoppers exposed to at least three media, the new products showed an uplift of 17% versus non-compressed equivalents.

In a few years, even this model could seem limited. The challenge for marketers will be to adopt the right set of behaviour to build long-term, sustainable relationships with customers.

This requires trust, commitment and reciprocity. Trust involves using personal data to deliver relevant offers, practising permission-based marketing and establishing a transparent value exchange, where consumers understand how data use benefits them.

Companies can show commitment by using data to enhance and personalise the customer experience through loyalty programmes, merchandising, store design, pricing and relevant messages. To create reciprocity, partners should derive strength from each other. For marketers, relationship value comes from increased customer lift, share of wallet and lifetime value. For customers, it comes from tailored rewards and recognition.

This story has only just begun. None of us knows how Google Glass, iBeacon or any other innovation will change the game. But the potential to create even more rewarding relationships with customers is huge.

James Moir is CEO of i2c

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