receiving geo-referenced promotions from multiple brands without having to download a brand specific application. The integrated loyalty feature enhances the promotion feature by rewarding users through the collection of virtual tokens called “bananas” which can be redeemed for actual products and services. The bananas are planted virtually in the world and are found at different times and quantities, creating a gaming experience similar to Pokemon GO, but with real benefits which can be redeemed directly in on our In-App banana store. This interactive process of collecting bananas in the world and redeeming actual products is different from traditional loyalty programs in which the consumer needs to purchase an item before they receive benefits. In izit’s case, the user collects bananas in the world and is able to redeem them for products without an initial purchase. This difference creates a similar effect as an in-store promoter who gives you a sample to try for free with the intent of generating interest in the product and ultimately a sale. This same process now can be done virtually for any product through izit. From a Brand or retailer perspective, izit is a platform that can now be used to improve the shopping experience for their clients before, during and after their store visit. Izit addresses the challenges of delivering promotions at the point of sale, of attracting a critical mass of users, and delivering instant value while the user is physically shopping. Based on recent campaigns, izit has delivered an average Return on Investment (ROI) of 75% to a leading client using this channel.

In principal, the contextual mobile channel should be considered as a complimentary and natural extension of Social and Search to enhance the customer journey. Although similar to these channels, contextual marketing is also distinct in that the messages sent are generally executed through push notifications and by combining this with geo-referencing technology, contextual marketing enables brands to efficiently control what is published to their clients at the precise moment they are near or in the store.

Since launching in 2013, izit has executed over 5,100 campaigns and have sent more than 125 million messages. Our results closely confirm industry findings and forecasts related to this channel and it is effectiveness when messages are delivered contextually. On average, izit achieves an industry leading mobile click-thru-rate (CTR) of 30% across most campaigns and true or Point of Sale conversions between 5 and 10% depending on the brand category. The use of the izit channel is beneficial to the brands by helping to enhance branding, accelerate purchases and to generate in-store leads. Izit has recently been awarded a research grant on Artificial Intelligence and is currently participating in other contextual marketing research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chile, California, and Maryland.

The izit solution consists of a front-end smartphone application that has been designed to work on Android and IOS mobile platforms. The backend technology consists of a series of applications to manage, publish, and track promotions as they are published in established geo-fences. The izit platform is hosted on the Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud and has been architected to be fully scalable with the goal to expand to other countries. A new version of izit is scheduled to be released at the end of this year and will include a direct payment feature in which users will be able to make direct purchases of promotions, saving time and further improving the experience for izit users.

Izit currently has a patent filed related to our geolocation technology in Chile (No. 2013-01957) in September 2017 and have patent pending applications in Brazil and US.