Seizing the Commuting Moment: Contextual Targeting Based on Mobile Transportation Apps

Abstract

Despite the average daily commuting time of commuters increasing by the day, the way marketers can benefit from our commuting behaviors has not yet been thoroughly examined. Commuting can serve as one of the most attractive contexts that mobile marketers can target not only because of commuters’ high level of mobile engagement during long daily commutes but also because of its effortless and accurate identifiability. In collaboration with one of the largest global mobile service platform providers, this study investigates how contextual targeting with commuting is associated with responses to mobile coupons. The key findings indicate that commuters are about three times as likely to redeem their mobile coupon at a faster rate compared with noncommuters. However, multiple-coupon distribution strategy increases response rates more effectively among noncommuters than commuters. Moreover, the response rates of commuters and noncommuters are higher for coupons with shorter and longer expiration dates, respectively. The findings serve as useful guidance on who and which context to target, when to send mobile coupons, how many coupons to distribute, which coupons are more attractive, and what products should be advertised on mobile coupons.