News

• DUS Open Playground available free of charge to agencies and advertisers.
• Ströer advertising media in Düsseldorf main station now equipped with Sensorberg beacons

Cologne, September 23, 2014                     Ströer opens the doors to the infrastructure for future communications: Together with Deutsche Bahn and Sensorberg, Ströer has equipped Düsseldorf main station with iBeacon technology and, in doing so, made its advertising media fully interactive. Agencies and advertisers now have access to the first public beacon testing platform in Germany – the DUS Open Playground. Any interested agencies or advertisers can test out their own campaigns using beacon technology and sound out future solutions free of charge until the end of the year.

The use of Bluetooth low energy-based systems makes the digital handshake simple to implement and combines the real world with the digital world. The innovation will benefit retail customers in particular, as iBeacon technology allows e-commerce mechanisms to be linked seamlessly with stationary retail.

Beacons send push notifications via the advertiser’s app to user smartphones. Time- and location-specific information on products, advertising campaigns or vouchers are targeted at consumers directly with the aim of diverting them to the POS.

The DUS Open Playground provides agencies with an opportunity to test out the potential of iBeacon technology in a real environment and find out how solutions are received by the target group.

“As an infrastructure provider, iBeacon technology essentially gives us the opportunity to combine the real world with the online universe and enable digital handshakes for customers throughout Germany,” said Christian Schmalzl, COO of Ströer Media AG. “We are making this infrastructure and our knowledge available so that creatives and developers can sound out direct customer dialog in a real- world scenario.”

“Rail stations are Germany’s largest and most highly frequented interchanges and are in direct proximity to the point of sale. In this regard, it is a logical and challenging environment for advertisers to test out new technology”, adds Ulrich Klenke, Head of Group Marketing DB Mobility Logistics AG. “In addition, the individual sales approach for us is even more important. In the future, with the iBeacon  technology  we  have  the  opportunity,  to  supplement  our  campaigns usefully and to integrate other service functions for our customers in the stations.”

Agencies and advertisers interested in testing out their solution in the DUS Open Playground can register at  www.stroeer.de/open-playground, where they can download a fully documented software development kit (SDK) for iOS and Android from Berlin-based iBeacon specialists Sensorberg. The beacons are administered through Sensorberg’s beacon management platform. This allows customers to customize the times at which a specific action should be executed by any given beacon.

Participating agencies also have the chance to submit a case film on their solution for the Hyperlocality Award, which is set to be handed out for the first time in November at the BITKOM Trendkongress.

About Ströer

Ströer Media AG is a leading provider of online advertising and out-of-home, and offers its advertising customers individualized and fully integrated premium communications solutions. In the field of digital media, Ströer  is  setting new standards  for  innovation  and  quality  in  Europe  and  is  thus  opening up new and innovative opportunities for targeted customer contact for its advertisers.

The Ströer Group commercializes several thousand websites and more than 280,000 out-of-home advertising faces. With consolidated revenue of EUR 634m for the full year 2013, Ströer Media AG is one of largest providers of out-of-home media in Europe in terms of revenue.

The Ströer Group has approximately 2,300 employees at over 70 locations.

For more information on the Company, please visit www.stroeer.com.