MDL GmbH combines online marketing with offline sales

Sustainability in advertising – Digital Advertising is a dynamically developing form of advertising. Connecting growing online marketing with offline sales. It is not easy to create a digital advertising. In conversation with futurologist and founder Valentin Jahn, Mobility Data Lab GmbH from Berlin.

One of the great advantages of digital advertising is that it is easy to manage. Digital, resource efficient, determination of time limitations compared to placing ads in print or the TV media landscape, for example. Another big plus of digital advertising is its reach. The Internet shortens distances, allowing potential customers to be addressed globally. At Drivery on Mariendorfer Damm in Berlin, right next to Tempelhofer Hafen in the former building of the Ullstein publishing house, people are tinkering, testing the technology and constantly developing the projects of Mobility Data Lab GmbH. Managing Director Valentin Jahn: „As a team, we have developed the combination of online marketing with offline sales as a digital interface. One issue is declining sales, which weaken retail, and an interrupted customer journey gives away monetization potential. To address this, Mobility Data Lab has combined digital marketing and customer engagement in a patented cloud platform solution. We offer two products for the automotive industry (CAR2AD) and retail (STORE2AD) and use Web IDs to connect advertisers in the offline world to the online world through our cloud platform.“

Reaching out via the Internet is simple, while TV or radio broadcast is much more complex, expensive and complicated. Digital advertising is dynamic. If it turns out to be ineffective, it can be changed quickly, adds Jahn, who is also a futurologist. Based on research and analysis, ads are adapted to the intended effects.

Sustainability: How can STORE2AD make retail more sustainable?

Valentin Jahn: „By STORE2AD being able to avoid, for example, the familiar paper flyers that are thrown into our mailboxes every week, the kind that many of us probably don’t even read and put straight back in the recycling garbage can. Because STORE2AD is a solution to reach customers digitally at home, i.e. without paper flyers in the mailbox, and in a targeted way digitally. That means I’m not interested in all 200 products that are in the supermarket flyer every week, I might only be interested in three of them. And if the three products are offered online while I’m sitting at home, digitally on platforms, and receiving information, then this is a sustainable solution, because I save paper, save printing costs – often these flyers are also shrink-wrapped in plastic – I save all that. And: I as a customer am offered a product that really interests me. But with the STORE2AD solution, we go one step further, because our goal is to combine stationary retail with the appropriate customer. This gives retailers a decisive market advantage by making them competitive with the smart, innovative, digital online retailers, and with the sustainability claim. Our complete digital marketing solution enables two complementary and independent revenue streams – one for the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) business and one for the customer engagement sector. While live content is automatically displayed on DOOH screens, revenue is generated from advertising. At the same time, customer data is collected in a GDPR-compliant manner and leads to revenue streams through customer engagement.“

There are many types of digital advertising, with advantages and disadvantages. „Those who are in the industry are well aware of the market changes, because without scalability and analytics, targeted advertising is not effective enough,“ Jahn explains. The diversity of advertising makes it universal and allows sales targets to be met effectively. Creating an ad comes down to a clearly defined goal, and Jahn adds, „Choosing an advertising platform and audience is much easier when we know and understand our goal.“ Digital advertising reaches the target audience, it is enough to search once in the browser for a specific product and after a few moments ads for similar items appear. Valentin Jahn explains that STORE2AD solves the problem of declining retail sales by leveraging existing in-store infrastructure. „The function of STORE2AD is very simple. The customer just has to log into the discount WLAN – that’s what we call it – or bargain WiFi on site. He already knows that, how he logs into a WLAN, and there he is shown which coupons he receives. That’s it. And why should he do that? Because he might be interested in getting an interesting offer, and because he’s not tying himself down for the long term with this either. He doesn’t have to download an app. He doesn’t have to fill out a form in writing. He just has to agree that the store where he gets the discount now can perhaps also rate him digitally in the future. The important thing is that, in principle, the user does not actually enter his data. Of course, he has to authenticate himself twice for the double opt-in – which is the correct way to do it nowadays according to the DSGVO standard – by providing a contact, such as a cell phone number or an e-mail address,“ says Valentin Jahn, explaining the function of STORE2AD.

Digital advertising is more precise than traditional ads and allows to reach the perfect recipient.

How efficient is digital advertising?

Digital advertising is profitable in any business, it works in any industry. The most important aspect is to adapt the advertising form and communication channel to our business. More and more people are ordering online. „Studies show that over 50 percent of Internet users say they bought something because they watched a video ad on the Internet. Through the last few years during the pandemic, it occurred to us how to save brick-and-mortar retail. We’ve seen the dramatic numbers and the drop in sales, and we thought: we have to do something about this. We are digitally positioned here, we know our way around, even with online marketing. Why don’t we combine existing smart technology from online marketing with retail, and that’s how STORE2AD was born. We knew that in many places retailers already had WLAN and the Internet, but they still didn’t know their customers. Who knows their customers? Online retail. And we combined that,“ says founder Valentin Jahn.

One challenge, for example, is reaching the right target group. The fisherman won’t be interested in a set of new pots for the kitchen, but the househusband will be curious. Another important aspect is tracking the effectiveness of a particular ad. Moreover, with performance indicators that are available in real time and can be tracked regularly.

Has traditional advertising had its day?

Both digital and classic advertising still have their place, but the future belongs to digital advertising, Valentin Jahn is convinced, because creative digital advertising enables real-time interactions and thus increases brand value. Studies show that the large group of silver surfers in Germany, who grew up with classic advertising (print, radio, TV or outdoor advertising), are becoming more informed and connected online, but are still more receptive to classic advertising due to habits. Targeted accessibility, scalability, the accompaniment of the entire customer journey and effectiveness are the focus for the future of advertising. It remains exciting and changing, says Valentin Jahn.

V.i.S.d.P.:

Sarah
Student and blogger

Sarah is actually a student from Poland. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Wrocław. She has been a writer at ABOWI-Reputation since 2022. German studies is Sarah’s passion and she is fond of culture and literature, especially Patrick Süskind or Peter Handke. You can reach us at contact@abowi.com.

Contact:

MDL Mobility Data Lab GmbH
c/o The Drivery GmbH
Mariendorfer Damm 1
12099 Berlin
represented by Valentin Jahn
phone: +49 (0) 30 120 86 7 85
e-mail: info@car2ad.de
web: https://mobilitydatalab.com

About the company:

MDL Mobility Data Lab GmbH is located in Berlin (Tempelhofer Hafen) and specializes in intelligent audience targeting. MDL connects ads, data, people and stores with a patented and cloud-based solution platform that uses Web IDs to connect advertising recipients online and offline. Products include CAR2AD, an automated and dynamic signage solution, and STORE2AD as a link between online marketing and offline sales. For more information, visit: https://mobilitydatalab.com

PRESSEKONTAKT

MDL Mobility Data Lab GmbH
Anna Sund

Mariendorfer Damm 1
12099 Berlin

Website: https://mobilitydatalab.com
E-Mail : info@car2ad.de
Telefon: +49 (0) 30 120 86 7 85