Even though they appear to be unlikely marketing assets, they each illustrate the potential for generating additional revenue by producing valuable data from surprising sources. Just recently, MoviePass, which is just six years old, announced a dramatic change to its business model that could result in the company becoming a provider of marketing data, reports BusinessInsider.
MoviePass has offered a service that lets its subscribers attend a movie every day for only $50 a month. The company sought to make money from the portion of its subscribers consisting of individuals who attended movies infrequently. Just recently MoviePass slashed its fee to only $9.95 a month.
At the same time, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., which is a publicly traded data firm, announced that it had acquired a majority stake in the company. In making the change, MoviePass says it will sell data on its subscribers to advertisers or marketers.
Details have yet to surface, but a variety of marketing scenarios are possible. On one hand, marketers may be interested in targeting advertising campaigns that target consumers’ unique interests based on the movies that individuals watch. Marketers could also consider offering promotions at restaurants or stores that are situated alongside of movie theaters. That way, when an individual orders tickets through MoviePass, marketers will know which theaters that consumer will visit and which local businesses should be promoted.
The Internet of Things, meanwhile, is also pushing the envelop for developing new sources of data, with vacuum cleaners being one potential example. Recent news accounts said that vacuum cleaners may become sources of data. Earlier reports had said iRobot, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner, planned to sell data that the systems gathered. The company then announced that it would seek customers’ permission to use the data.
In the meantime, journalists speculated that information gathered from internet-connected vacuum cleaners could help estimate the income of homeowners by calculating the size of individual’s houses. Owners of the vacuum cleaners, furthermore, may have a strong interest in cleaning products. It’s even possible that data could help determine if individuals need to purchase furniture by calculating the amount of unused floor space in houses.
Retailers, especially online businesses such as Amazon, have long been viewed as fertile grounds for generating actionable marketing data. Indeed, Amazon is working on monetizing its customer data by selling advertising that targets individual consumers’ unique interest.
Yet, Sears is also making a play to become a provider of marketing data. The company has been in a long painful decline as it loses market share to online retailers while many of its brands have fallen out of favor with consumers. It has gradually been closing stores and selling off product lines, including its well-known Craftsman line of tools.
At the same time, it is developing a program that sells data to marketers that it gathers on consumers, including those that shop at the company’s shopyourway website. The challenge for Sears, of course, will be to generate a viable data enterprise before the company’s financial results hit a bottom.
