Shooting Stars: 12 Brands to Watch in 2014
Brand: Major League Baseball
Idea to Steal: Enhance traditional experiences with emerging technologies.
While going to the ballpark to watch a game is not a broken tradition in need of major fixing (depending on the team you root for), Major League Baseball (MLB) saw Apple’s recently unveiled iBeacon feature for iOS 7 devices as an opportunity to enrich the in-stadium fan experience.
MLB and Apple began working on the incorporation of iBeacon into MLB’s At the Ballpark app last February. In late September, it was finally ready to enhance the ballpark experience. Leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy, the iBeacon system enables precise location tracking for iOS 7 devices. In other words, iBeacon does for enclosed locations what GPS does for door-to-door directions.
When opened, the app tailors the user experience based on the ballpark the user is near. So when the user walks to the gates, his ticket bar code will appear on the screen; once inside, the app will direct the user to his seat; when the user is near a selected point of interest (e.g., statue, store, food stand), pertinent information or promotional offers are displayed. Eventually, this technology could be used to process mobile payments.
Does this mean an iOS 7 device is necessary to fully enjoy a trip to a baseball game next season? No, but it does mean that owners of iOS 7 devices (and, in the future, Android devices) will have a helpful friend in the palm of their hand, one that can make life a little bit easier—and cooler.
What MLB is doing with iBeacon is just an example of what retailers and other businesses with physical locations will be doing soon with iBeacon and other existing in-store-intelligence technologies, if they aren’t tinkering with it already.—JH
