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What's Up with Tech?
Beyond Connectivity: Reimagining Wi-Fi as Customer Intelligence
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Connectivity has transformed from a luxury into a necessity. But what if your venue's Wi-Fi could do more than just provide internet access? What if it could become a powerful revenue generator and customer intelligence platform?
Sean Bossons, Chief Revenue Officer at Purple, reveals how smart guest Wi-Fi is revolutionizing customer engagement across industries. From sports venues identifying returning fans to promote playoff tickets, to airports guiding passenger traffic away from congested gates toward retail opportunities, businesses are discovering the untapped potential of their connectivity infrastructure.
The magic happens when anonymous connections become meaningful customer interactions. By capturing first-party data including demographics, visiting patterns, and preferences, venues gain unprecedented insight into their customers. This creates opportunities for hyper-personalized marketing at exactly the right moment - when customers are physically present and most receptive to relevant offers.
"Research suggests you're willing to share data if you get something in return and you don't want generic rewards," explains Bossons, highlighting the value exchange at the heart of successful implementation. This approach drives measurable results across three key metrics: visit frequency, average spend, and customer lifetime value.
Privacy remains paramount in this data-driven approach. Having grown under Europe's stringent GDPR regulations, Purple emphasizes consent and confidentiality as foundational principles, ensuring compliance with regional regulations worldwide while building the consumer trust necessary for willing participation.
As we look toward the future of venue technology, AI-driven personalization and mobile-first engagement will continue transforming how businesses connect with customers in physical spaces. The old paradigm of investing heavily to attract visitors without effectively engaging them once they arrive is being replaced by sophisticated, real-time interaction strategies powered by intelligent Wi-Fi.
Ready to transform your venue's connectivity from cost center to profit driver? Discover how your Wi-Fi network could become your most valuable customer intelligence platform.
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Hey everybody, fascinating guest and topic today, talking about transforming guest Wi-Fi from a cost center to a profit center with Purple, purple AI Sean. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good, thank you. Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here. You know very interesting topic for me as a longtime wireless geek tech geek. Before that, maybe introduce yourself your role at Purple and what was the big idea behind the founding of the company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great questions. I'm Sean Bostons. I'm the Chief Revenue Officer here at Purple. I'm based in Chicago. Originally from the UK. I've been with the company now for just over five years. So originally the company was founded roughly 11, 12 years ago because our founder got frustrated with how difficult it was to connect online, especially during travel. It seemed like there was a really big opportunity for guest Wi-Fi to play a bigger part in that role. That's how Purple started many, many years ago.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Wi-fi used to be at that time, kind of a nice-to-have Of course, like air conditioning and heating. It's like a baseline expectation. But what are your customers telling you about their wants and needs, desires as far as modern Wi-Fi?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess from our side Wi-Fi you're completely correct, right? So Wi-Fi used to be this kind of nice to have it, you could find it, but now it's become essential. Our world's become digital, very much digital first, and if you look at everything from social media to streaming and all that communication, that demand for connection is higher than ever, especially in physical venues where we know traditional cell data can be harder to kind of use and to access. So so as part of that, it's become this essential utility that a customer will expect. So that's changed that pressure on the venues now to make sure it's there and to do that they invest heavily into infrastructure and that infrastructure is expensive. So all of a sudden now Wi-Fi has become from a nice to have to an essential, but also something that's actually impacting that budget line. So they're looking for ways to make sure they can generate revenue with it rather than it being just a simple free service.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about a simple free service. Most venues that I go to the Wi-Fi is pretty bad right compared to my expectations, at least from home. You mentioned the investment in infrastructure connectivity. Why haven't they kept up with a great Wi-Fi experience?
Speaker 2:So I think it's a journey. I think obviously we were very lucky at home, especially in the United States, where we have things like fiber and we can get extremely high bandwidth, and I think we almost take it for granted that there's no longer any time to wait for anything that we do, and when we do have to wait for something, it's instantly. It's a frustration and I think that kind of goes on to that journey where we were talking about before. Now, venues are seeing Wi-Fi as an opportunity to connect with people who are in their buildings. They've realized they need to get faster bandwidth, they need to be able to connect better with their end user and because of that that's where that cost has come in. So when you experience slow connection, that's typically because they're really in that journey of providing something that's going to add more value to you, the end user and hopefully over time, to them as well.
Speaker 1:Interesting and you talk about Wi-Fi as a profit center, a revenue driver. How is that? How does it look in practice? What models are working beyond just the? You know adding $20 a bill to my hotel stay? What else are the opportunities there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you reference obviously a very simple one, which is paid Wi-Fi. So they're providing you as maybe a business user, business traveler, so you get faster bandwidth, so you can work more seamlessly. But I think in general, there's lots of other opportunities as well. So we're trying to transform that anonymous connection of you know, they know somebody or a device is in a building. They're trying to turn that into more of a customer interaction.
Speaker 2:So the idea is that when a customer or end user leverages your Wi-Fi within that venue, you can start to capture data, confidential data, safe data. We start to capture that data like demographics and their visiting patterns, sometimes their inferences sorry their interests and their preferences, and all of that data means you can start to tailor your message back to them, and I think that's what the end user wants. Research suggests you're willing to share data if you get something in return and you don't want generic rewards. So if that data can be used to tailor their offering, to tailor rewards and benefits, you as the end user will win and obviously that will generate revenue for the venue as well.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So you have any examples of the types of data brands are prioritizing, you know, for that sort of personalized engagement without crossing the privacy lines that we wouldn't want them to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, certainly there's all kinds of data and there's all kinds of different ways it can be used, like we've got examples where, for example, in healthcare, they're using connection with the patient to create donations.
Speaker 2:Um, and obviously, as you know, donations are critical so they can understand who you are, where you are and why you're there. Maybe you're a visitor, they can use that to engage with you and hopefully influence you to to maybe donate on on the day while you're there. But, um, outside of that, it's understanding things like dwell times how long are you in a venue if you're there but outside of that, it's understanding things like dwell times how long are you in a venue If you're in a venue for a long time and you're using high bandwidth. Maybe you're sitting in a coffee shop watching Netflix, so that means the venue would like something in return. So that's where paid Wi-Fi or tiered Wi-Fi certainly help them. So it's really about understanding a bit more about you so they can interact with you on a more personal level, and it's trying to understand where you are and when you're there. And by bringing all of that together, it really does present an opportunity to influence your buying behavior at the most receptive moment possible.
Speaker 1:Interesting so you're taking foot traffic trying to get first party insights there. Do you have any examples of like where real-time customer insights really helped the venue or the provider?
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you take, for example, sports, it's things that we know, for example with. You buy tickets, usually through a third party. Often in this kind of day and age, that means they don't know who you are, Whereas if they know who you are, so you actually log into Wi-Fi, they capture some information about your contacts or your preferences or the fact that they've seen you before. Then they can engage with you on the premise of welcome back, it's been great to see you. Because it's getting towards the end of the season, maybe they want to use that data then to push things like playoffs.
Speaker 2:So there's tickets coming up for a big event they could use it for cross-pollination, where you're there for a hockey game.
Speaker 2:But there's a country music event coming up in the near future so they can use that to actually to see if that's something based on your preferences you'd like to see, and a chance to sell tickets or even season tickets. They want to get you back as a loyal fan. You've been here several times this year but there, but you're not using your season ticket to um to access the wi-Fi. So this gives you a chance to hopefully push season tickets to those individuals. So every vehicle has lots of opportunities Airports, how they can use your data to understand where you are, what time your flight could be, and hopefully influence you to go into hospitality and spend a little bit more money on food and drinks, or maybe spend more time away from the gate, which is causing a bottleneck for other passengers. So there's lots of different ways they can use data about you, your preferences, your frequency, where you are, when you're there, and all of that allows them to engage and hopefully make it a better experience for you, but also a chance to generate revenue for them.
Speaker 1:Very cool. So I see the opportunity from the single venue, boston Logan, where I am all the time, or TD Garden, where I am a lot. But is you know, is there sort of a network effect as I go to multiple venues, you know, and connect across locations, regions, countries?
Speaker 2:even. Yeah, exactly. So that can happen very quickly when brands are global. So you know we're lucky enough to work with a number of large brands that are all around the world. So we know, for example, if you're working with a hospitality brand that are in more than one country, more than one city, they can start to understand behaviors across the country or even outside of the country. But we think that's just going to continue to grow as we start to aggregate data more across these venues.
Speaker 2:You know Purple's in a very lucky position to understand what's happening and one great use case from several years ago I know we didn't talk about COVID anymore or try not to, but we did capture a huge amount of anonymous data across London and we were using that data to help the local government to understand are the lockdown procedures helping?
Speaker 2:Are we seeing footfall, traffic go lower during curfews? So that kind of data across multiple venue types, across multiple areas, really provides them a huge amount of insight to help understand if things are working, and we see that going to happen more and more now. So we're going to start seeing more and more about your preferences. For example, if you've just been to Thailand on holiday and you return. Maybe your local retailer will want to try and offer you Thai food because they just come back and you might still have a hunger for that. Or maybe, for example, if you know you go to local pizza restaurants, that knowledge means that your retailer will offer you pizzas on discounts or rewards, because clearly you have a taste for that. So it's being able to understand your behavior across multiple types of venue, allowing them to get more personal and offering things that are valuable for you.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So you mentioned you're pretty much global as a business and of course, every locality has nuances and different regional requirements and customer behaviors, Also, when it comes to trust and privacy and consent very different in Europe, the UK versus the US. How do you ensure data security and consent to all of this and consent to all of this.
Speaker 2:So we grew up as a country in the sorry, as a company in the UK, so GDFR was something that we grew up with. So data confidentiality is the first thing we think of in everything we do. But we also understand there's lots of local legislation, like CCPA in California and lots of different types across all of LATAM as well. So that's always front and center for everything we do. So as we start to build relationships with brands and venues, and as they do that with their end customer, they make sure that confidentiality is there. They allow the user to opt into data and to get in which is remarketed. They always allow the user to remove themselves from that as well. But we're, as you mentioned, we're very lucky that we are in a unique position. We are global, which means we can see all of the different legislation, but we also make sure that the data is owned by the brand we're working with, not by them.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So you know there's a big boom in in-venue tech sports tech it's often called, and Wi-Fi is part of that but also AI applications, internet of Things, all kinds of really cool technologies. How do you see the customer experience evolving and are you part of that big push that we see at the moment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know sports is a great example. I remember speaking to a head of marketing in a large MLB team quite some months ago and they were saying how they had their advertising team and they were sitting around during a game and they were talking about how much it would cost to have a sponsorship on a large scoreboard during the game. But then in between innings they looked around and everybody is on the phone. No one's looking at that large scoreboard. So all of a sudden, that scoreboard, in theory, is in your hand, it's your phone, right, and it's the same as digital kiosks and shopping malls.
Speaker 2:Really, we're moving away from things like that and they become digital kiosks in your hand. So I think we're seeing a lot more engagement whilst you're in a venue, but it's driven through your device that's in your hand. So the future, I think, is going to be more and more around deeper integrations, more intelligence. I think obviously we can't go a whole show nowadays without talking about AI, and I think AI is going to drive that hyper-personalization. It's going to create more predictability about what people want, what customers actually need, and that will then allow brands and venues to create more and more kind of interactive, bespoke tailored experiences and IoT devices will just continually to drive that connection, that Wi-Fi network effect, creating smarter venues all the time.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. Yeah, it's even back to hospitality I think about when I check into a hotel room. I don't use the television and I don't use the phone the desk phone, the bedside phone so that's left to my laptop and my mobile. So what a great opportunity for customer engagement in the room and customer service. So, as you work with these various venues, how do they think about ROI for smarter Wi-Fi, what are some of the metrics they're looking at and how do you tie into their overall strategy on the business side?
Speaker 2:I think one thing we try to be really breaking down and keep it very simple. If you think about a lot of brands around the world today, they're trying to constantly communicate with you and when you're at home, when you're in your hotel room, wherever that is, they're trying to influence you to go to their venue, whether it's a store or it's a restaurant or a stadium. They're always spending huge amounts of money through social and TV. They're trying to convince you to go there. But if you imagine your experience when you walk into a retail store today, how much are they engaging with you? If they've made this effort to get you there and now you're there, how are they engaging with you? This effort to get you there and now you're there, how are they engaging with you?
Speaker 2:Well, they've got generic point of sale material and they might have a loyalty card, which they have a huge amount of data on you so they understand the way you buy and shop. But all of that tends to not be used as you walk in. So they know that you've been there because you paid on your credit card so they can see you were there and you left. Maybe Maybe you used your loyalty card so they can see you transacted through them that day, but all of that is when you're leaving, not when you arrive. So it seems like a lot of marketing effort happens at potentially the wrong time.
Speaker 2:If they engage with you as you walked, in that receptive moments as you go around the store, that's when they should be tailoring their message. I think what we're seeing now is brands are understanding that and they realize that if they can start to engage with you the second you walk into their venue, if they can offer something to you at the right time and at the right place with the right message, you are far more likely to be influenced in your purchasing decision, and that literally leads to you going back more often. So, more frequent visits. You're going to spend more your average wallet spend and hopefully it's going to drive great loyalty for you and, as we know, loyalty means spending more from a lifetime value point of view over time. So we're seeing connection, wi-fi all of those things we talked about being a key part now of a digital marketing strategy for most brands and most venue types.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, it's clear Google's doing a lot in this strategy with location-based services and mapping and local commerce and of course, they're getting all the juicy juicy data not so much the retailers or their advertising customers, so they're accruing all the benefits there. Just curious on the infrastructure side how that works when it comes to the access points, the infrastructure, network management. How do you get that done with and for the brands you work with?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great, great question. So most venues have usually some form of access points. Maybe they're quite old, maybe their legacy. The challenge they tend to face is that they might have different brands because over time they've grown and they've changed and maybe they've taken advantage of offers in the market today and what it's capable of. And, and once again, because we've been around for quite some time, because we're a global player and we partner with a huge amount of the hardware brands, we can push our software out across all of that. We're completely agnostic. Um, so that makes their life a lot easier. That they are working in multi-brand environments. It's not going to cause them a problem.
Speaker 2:But not only that in terms of driving that engagement with you, the customer, but also it allows them to look at how that network's performing, and what's really important is to be proactive in understanding how that network's performing. So the first thing you said today was you've had some terrible experiences, so that's the last thing they want. If they're investing into this infrastructure and your feedback is it doesn't really work, then that could be, you know, that breaks their entire strategy. So what's important is that you know, working closely with Purple, we can obviously support the marketing teams and we can help create the engagement, all the fun things. But also we work very closely with the IT teams and that's making sure those networks are working well, they're predictable, they're safe. We want to make sure that you know we're avoiding any form of potential liability and all of that means we have a happy IT team using the infrastructure they've got and supporting them, making it future-proof as they change and grow, and also driving that benefit through marketing, like we discussed earlier.
Speaker 1:Wow, amazing value proposition. Congratulations onwards and upwards. Can't wait to check out my purple Wi-Fi in the future. Perfect, thank you. The future.
Speaker 2:Perfect Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thanks and thanks everyone for listening, watching, sharing and be sure to check out my other show, techimpacttv on Bloomberg and Fox Business on Saturday. Thanks everyone, thanks guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you.