THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BLUETOOTH BEACONS New to beacons and proximity technologies? The Ultimate Guide to Beacons provides a comprehensive overview of beacon technology along with information that will help you understand how beacons can deliver benefits to your business and customers. This guide is brought to you by Lighthouse.io - a mobile first platform that makes it simple to locate, interact with, and optimize workers and assets at facilities like shopping malls, train stations, corporate campuses, airports, hospitals and stadiums. If you would like to provide us with feedback on this guide please get in touch with us at http://lighthouse.io Chapter 1 - Introduction to beacons What are beacons? Beacons are small wireless devices that broadcast signals using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or Bluetooth SMART technology. Mobile apps on compatible devices are able to listen for signals from beacons placed in the physical world and then trigger an experience via the app. By experiences we mean things like sending a notification, coupon, video, URL or other forms of media that are relevant to a person's exact location. Beacon enabled apps are notified when the device enters or exits the range of a beacon, and are also able to monitor the distance from the beacon as it changes, often referred to as ‘ranging’. This is in contrast to GPS, which uses latitude and longitude to define a device's location. We don’t always have to trigger an experience when a device enters or exits the range of a beacon, in some instances we may just like to collect data for the purposes of generating real world analytics and insights.

The range of a beacon varies depending on the manufacturer, hardware settings and physical surroundings, but can typically be configured anywhere from 5 centimeters to 50 meters, creating a wide range of use cases. Each beacon broadcasts a unique ID which means that a mobile app can tell them apart from each other. You will learn more about these in Chapter 4. Beacons come in all shapes and sizes and can cost anywhere from $1-50 USD. They are most often powered by a coin cell or AA battery. Several beacon manufacturers claim that their beacons can last up to 3 years on a single lithium battery, however this is dependant on the power source, power settings and advertising frequency of the beacon. Typically a beacon is comprised of a surrounding case, battery, processor chip and Bluetooth radio. Some beacons contain additional sensors such as an accelerometer and heat sensor. It’s important to think about your use case for beacons before deciding whether these additional sensors will add any value. What is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)? BLE or Bluetooth Smart is an intelligent and power friendly version of Bluetooth wireless technology and exchanges data over short distances using radio transmissions. The power of BLE is in its ability to work with an app on a smartphone, tablet or any other compatible mobile device. The technology itself is simple, secure and featured in billions of devices ranging from mobile phones and computers to medical devices and home entertainment products. It is intended to replace the cables that connect devices, while maintaining high levels of security. It is highly likely that BLE will be one of the key technologies behind the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) - a network of physical objects that can exchange data via the existing Internet infrastructure. What is iBeacon? iBeacon is simply Apple’s trademarked term for it’s location aware system that uses beacons to notify nearby iOS 7 or 8+ devices of their presence. In order to use the term iBeacon, hardware manufacturers must enroll to become an iBeacon Licensee and use the iBeacon Proximity Specification. This is Apple’s way of ensuring a reliable and consistent experience for its customers. It’s important to note that all recent Android, Windows and Blackberry devices support BLE too. You can find a full list of supported devices on the Bluetooth website.

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What are the benefits of using beacon technology?

1. High degree of accuracy Beacon technology allows a mobile device to understand its exact position, even indoors where smartphones are typically not able to pick up GPS signals from satellites. This means beacon technology offers a high level of accuracy when compared to other geo-location technologies.

2. Low impact on battery life Bluetooth technology is designed to have very low power consumption, which means that beacon powered apps have minimal impact on the devices battery life. GPS on the other hand, demands a significant amount of power to run and therefore significantly impacts battery life when in use.

3. App engagement / wake-up Mobile devices automatically wake-up when the come within ranges of beacons, even if the mobile app that is listening is fully closed. This unique feature of beacons offers a powerful way to drive engagement with your mobile app at exactly the right time and place.

4. No Internet connection required Mobile apps can pick up beacon signals without an Internet connection and store data locally on the device. This means beacons are a great proximity trigger in areas where a stable Internet connection is not available. It’s worth noting that typically an Internet connection is required to trigger content such as push notifications. However, there are ways around this such as developing local notifications and caching content within the app. It is technically possible to run an entire beacon experience without an Internet connection.

5. Low cost of entry Setting up and taking advantage of a beacon network is relatively low cost when compared to other technologies such as Wi-Fi. Unless you are deploying a large network of beacons, most of the costs are likely to be associated with the development of a beacon enabled mobile app. Unless of course you already have one, in which case the barriers to entry are even lower.

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What do you need to use beacon technology?

1. Beacon enabled mobile app In order to use beacon technology you need to have a beacon enabled mobile app. Existing apps need to be updated to be beacon enabled, however this is typically a very straightforward process for an app developer. Many beacon software platforms provide a software development kit (SDK) that can be installed to make an existing app compatible with beacons. If you don’t have your own app and are not planning on building one, there are other alternatives you can consider. You may like to partner with a company who already has a suitable mobile app to deliver your content. You can also use Apple Passbook or Android PassWallet to deliver coupons and loyalty offers based on proximity to a beacon. The Passbook app is available on all iOS 6+ devices. Here’s a short summary of how it works:

● Promote an offer or loyalty card through your existing marketing channels (email, SMS, website, barcode, QR code etc.) using a customized link that adds the Pass (offer) to Passbook.

● If you have beacons deployed you can present the pass or offer on the device lock screen when a users enters the range of one of your beacons. Examples include an airline presenting a boarding pass when you arrive at the airport or Starbucks presenting a loyalty pass when you’re close to a Starbucks outlet.

● Passes can also be updated remotely with new information, offers or coupons. Tip: With the recent launch of Apple Pay expect to see the use of Passbook increase as iOS users store their credit cards in Passbook and use their mobile devices to make mobile payments both online and in-store. Related blog post: iBeacon, no app.

2. Network of deployed beacons You will also need to purchase and deploy beacons to one or multiple physical locations. Once deployed, you’ll need to ensure that your mobile app is listening for the unique ID’s (UUID’s) of the beacons in your network.

3. Bluetooth switched on and relevant permissions

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In addition to Bluetooth being switched on at the device level, there are a two app level permissions required to use beacon technology. These are;

● Push notifications ● Location services

4. Management platform

Once you’ve deployed beacons and have an app that is listening for them, you’ll need an easy way to manage content and assess performance of your beacon program. That’s where we can help. Lighthouse allows you to set up locations and zones, manage content, automate processes and view detailed analytics.

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Chapter 2 - Beacon use cases Now that you have an understanding of how beacon technology works, it’s time to explore some of the most exciting use cases. It’s worth noting that this list is by no means exhaustive. If you have other compelling use cases for beacons that are missing get in touch and we’ll add them to the list. Access control / security Beacons can also augment traditional access control systems and can make traditional swipe cards and pin codes redundant. Simply walk up to a secure access point with your device and the beacon will recognise the user and allow or deny access. For an added layer of security you could prompt a pin code to gain access. We’re also starting to see the emergence of beacons in interesting form factors such as lanyards and swipe cards which hold particular relevance for security. Asset monitoring / tracking Beacons are tags for the real-world and can keep track of your most valuable assets. Heard of Tile? Tile uses BLE to pair valuable items (like your keys or laptop) with an app on your phone. So when your things get lost, the app knows where it was last. Other assets being tracked with beacons and BLE include sunglasses, suitcases, cars, and would you believe it, kids! Auditing / task management Beacons can add a whole new dimension to mobile auditing tools. Imagine you’re auditing stock in a large department store. As you move to a different section of the store, the audit list on your mobile device automatically updates to only display the items within a 5 meter range. Or perhaps you’re doing maintenance rounds as a work site and as you move through different areas you’re presented with tasks relevant only to your exact location. The image on the right shows a task management tool we developed for commercial cleaners. The taks update automatically based on the cleaners exact location. The image on the right shows the auditing function available from the Lighthouse.io mobile app.

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Augmented outdoor advertising By adding beacons to outdoor advertising locations such at train stations and bus shelters you can create an interactive and engaging experience for those passing by. For example, imagine walking past a bush shelter ad for a blockbuster film and being pushed a 50% discount coupon to watch it at your local cinema. It’s also a great way to track the conversion rate and return on investment of outdoor advertising. But remember that you need a mobile app to listen out for the advertising beacons. Tip: Using beacons for advertising requires careful consideration. There needs to be a clear opt-in path for consumers and the advertising needs to deliver a real value exchange. If your advertising doesn’t deliver any value, then there’s a high chance that users will delete your app or disable location services. Automated check-ins Beacons present the opportunity to automatically check-in app users when they arrive at a specific location and capture data about the individual. Think automated check-ins at high risk worksites such as hospitals, mines or building sites. Or perhaps automated check-ins within the school classroom, or at festivals and events. Automated check-ins could also be used to replace clunky and expensive time tracking software. Content / media delivery Beacons can help you deliver content and media based on a person’s exact location. In a gallery, the content could be information about a painting you're standing in front of. Or perhaps at a car dealer, a video test drive of the new Mercedes you’re standing in front of. Maybe you’re delivered class lecture notes as you enter the lecture hall at your university. The opportunities to deliver media at the right time and place are endless. Coupons / offers There’s no doubting that retail is attracting most of the hype surrounding beacons, and several of the real world use cases involve the delivery of coupons and offers while in-store. Like with advertising, you need a clear opt-in and the offer needs to be compelling, otherwise users could delete your app. A recent beacon trial by McDonald’s demonstrated just how powerful beacons can be at driving coupon redemptions. Over four-weeks, they were able to drive more than 18,000 redemptions. Hillshire Brands was also able to demonstrate an impressive sales uplift of their products using beacon technology.

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Cross channel media attribution The purpose of media attribution is to quantify the influence each advertising impression has on a consumer’s decision to make a purchase decision, or convert, allowing marketers to better optimize media spend for conversions. While this is easily achieved online due to advanced tracking solutions, understanding real-world interactions is a little more challenging. Beacons provide a whole new data set that can be fed into media attribution models to better understand how online advertising drives offline behavior and vice versa. Here’s a simple example to illustrate the point. Imagine you see an ad online for the latest BMW 3 Series and decide to click on it as you’re contemplating upgrading your current BMW. You browse around the website for a little while and then decide to leave. Later in the week you’re driving past a BMW dealership and decide to stop in and check out the 3 Series. The BMW app detects the presence of a beacon in the dealership and records a visit, or perhaps a test drive against your customer ID. From a marketing perspective we can now attribute the physical visit or test drive back to the online banner that was viewed earlier in the week. Events Beacons and events go hand in hand. You can use beacons to create unique and engaging event experiences for your attendees. Deliver electronic tickets and welcome messages as people arrive at an event. Then provide directions to event locations and seating. Get people to rate event their experiences or keynote speakers. And deliver content and media based on a person’s exact location at the event. Interested in learning more about this particular application of beacons? Read our case study. Feedback / ratings We spend so much of our time and resources analysing and optimising the online experience, but what about the performance of physical locations or stores? With beacons you have the ability to deliver feedback forms and ratings as people exit a location or store. Use the data to understand which of your locations are underperforming and then take action to improve the physical customer experience. In-store customer service / support Imagine when you walk into a store the customer service assistant is immediately alerted and your customer profile is presented on an iPad screen or other smart device. The profile includes items such as your purchase history and preferences. Perhaps you’re a VIP customer

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and because of this you’re given priority service. This type of proximity data is powering the next generation of personalised customer service experiences. Mapping / resource management Beacons can track the last known location of employees and customers and then plot the data over a map. You can see where people are in real-time which is extremely valuable for high risk work sites and emergency situations. In addition to real-time mapping, beacon data can also produce historial heat mapping to see hot spots across any of your locations and then use the data to optimise flows and resources. Market / customer research Beacons are gaining a lot of traction in the market research industry by collecting feedback at key “Moments of Truth” - the point in the experience that makes or breaks the purchase decision. The idea is that consumers can opt-in to mobile market research programs to earn rewards by leaving valuable feedback. With beacons, the feedback survey can be pushed at the exact Moment of Truth. For example, as they walk away from the shoe department at Macy’s. Beacons offer great opportunities for researchers, in industries ranging from retail and healthcare to events and automotive. Offline / online retargeting This one is definitely on the radar of media companies around the world who are looking to better target advertising based on data generated by beacons. Imagine a consumer walks into a Nike store equipped with beacons and receives a push notification for the latest Nike runners. Then later when that same consumer is browsing online, Nike can retarget them based on their offline behavior. This can also be reversed. So that online browsing behavior can trigger offers or experiences in store. People / workforce tracking Understanding employees positioning and movements is very important across a range of industries. Using beacons to track employees helps you know when KPI’s have been missed and can help provide protection against litigation in highly regulated industries like cleaning, health services and security. In addition, the data collected enables you to better coordinate your employees and reduce overall labour costs. Interested in learning more about this particular application of beacons? Read our case study. Product information

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We’ve all be in a situation where we’re standing in the aisle of a store trying to evaluate a product we’re looking to purchase. What if that product had a beacon attached to it, and after detecting a dwell time of 2 minutes you were presented with a short video outlining the key product specs and features. Perhaps you’re at a car dealership and you are pushed a video review of the car you're standing next to? Or perhaps a video on how to fold up the pram you’re standing in front of? Beacons are set to enable the delivery of useful product information based on your exact location in a store. Think of it as a virtual sales assistant. Ticketing / boarding passes / guest lists Beacons are great for triggering utility based content such as tickets and boarding passes at the right time and the right place. Imagine you have purchased tickets to a basketball match and as you arrive at the entrance to the stadium your tickets are automatically presented on your mobile device, speeding up the entry process. Then once you’re inside you can even receive ticket upgrades based on available seating. Orlando Magic are already doing this to create additional revenue streams. The same thing applies for presenting a boarding pass as you arrive at the boarding gate for your flight, which is already being piloted by Virgin Atlantic. Transport Use beacons to create seamless and integrated travel experiences for your customers. With beacons you can deliver timetable information based on a person’s exact location. Or provide real-time status updates and directions at key transport hubs. Imagine being able to notify only people at certain subway station that there have been delays to the train they are waiting for. Virtual tours This is a use case we are particularly excited about. Using beacons to offer mobile guided discovery tours and provide tourism information based on a person’s exact location. You could also use beacons to provide audio tours in multiple languages creating whole new revenue streams. Or simply augment key tourism destinations and landmarks with additional media such as video, audio and imagery.

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Chapter 3 - Beacon case studies McDonalds beacon case study (retail) 26 McDonald’s franchises in Columbus, Georgia tested out iBeacon technology with its customers. Over the four week trial, the franchises were pushing special deals for McChicken Sandwiches and 10 piece Chicken McNuggets. The iBeacon powered promotions pushed McChicken Sandwich sales up 8 percent and Chicken McNugget sales up 7.5 percent. Based on the initial results of the pilot it looks as though McDonald’s will continue to explore the technology for an additional 263 retail stores in the southeast. “Everyone is looking at their phones, millennials especially, and that’s where we’ve decided to engage,” Jack Pezold, a McDonald’s franchisee of 40 years, said in a statement. Spotless beacon case study (enterprise) Spotless is an Australian owned and managed provider of integrated facilities management services. In 2014, Spotless partnered with Lighthouse to build and deploy a custom workforce management solution with the goal of reducing litigation claims in the commercial cleaning service line. At several of their public facilities, in particular shopping malls and airports, Spotless are often required to clean at defined, regular intervals. These service levels are known as "loop times" and dictate how frequently an area must be inspected and cleaned. Spotless now utilises Lighthouse.io at several of their facilities and are able to efficiently record these loop times using Lighthouse.io which in turn provides their clients with accurate and meaningful records of the services provided by Spotless. Read the full case study here. Pause Fest beacon case study (events) Pause Fest is Australia’s premier digital event, aimed at supporting and showcasing the best in creative and tech from Australia and all over the world. In 2015, Pause Fest partnered with Inlight, a digital agency in Melbourne, to deploy a network of beacons that delivered proximity

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based content and experiences to attendees, while enabling real-time event analytics for the organisers. Festival attendees who downloaded the Pause Fest mobile app received contextual notifications and content based on their proximity to different festival locations and points of interest. Campaign content included welcome messages on arrival, meal deals, tech installation videos, post keynote surveys, party notifications and competitions. Pause Fest are using traffic flow and content analytics to inform future festival layout, speaker schedules and offers. Read the full case study here. Hillshire Brands beacon case study An iBeacon mobile campaign ran from April to June 2014 to push Hillshire Brands American Craft link sausages in the top ten markets in grocery stores within the U.S, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. The campaign targeted consumers who had downloaded the Epicurious app. Consumers who used the app in-store were sent a branded push notification from Hillshire Brands. The campaign also included banner ads within the app that linked to a full-page ad with a coupon and content. The beacon powered offers claim to have lifted purchase intent by 20 percent and brand awareness by 36 percent. Some 6,000 engagements were measured during the first two days of the campaign, which measures the number of times someone received, opened and viewed a push notification ad while in-store.

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Chapter 4 - Beacon deployment, zones and ID’s Understanding beacon ID’s There are three different ID’s that make a beacon unique. These are the UUID, Major and Minor values. UUID: This is a 16 byte string used to differentiate a large group of related beacons. For example, if McDonalds deployed a network of beacons across many franchises, all of their beacons would share the same UUID. This allows the McDonald’s smartphone app to know which signals come from McDonald’s owned beacons. Major: This is a 2 byte string used to differentiate a smaller subset of beacons within the larger group. For example, if McDonalds had 5 beacons in a restaurant, all 5 would share the same Major. This allows the McDonald’s app to know which store the customer is in. Minor: This is a 2 byte string that is used to identify individual beacons. For example, if McDonalds had 5 beacons in a restaurant, each beacon would have its own unique Minor. This allows the McDonald’s app to know exactly where the customer is in the restaurant e.g. at the cashier. Beacon configuration The way you configure your beacons has a significant impact on both performance and battery life. There are two key beacon configuration settings to consider:

1. Transmitting Power Most beacons have a configurable power setting which is the power with which the signal leaves the beacon’s antenna. This can typically be configured from -30 dBm to +4 dBm, lowest to highest power settings respectively. The higher the power, the larger the beacon’s range and the more stable the signal, but it also shortens battery life significantly. Carefully consider your use case when setting the transmitting power.

2. Advertising Interval

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Advertising interval refers to the delay between broadcast advertising packets. When you decrease the advertising interval you increase the rate at which the advertising packets are sent. A higher rate will reduce the response time for a device to recognise that it has entered a beacon region. However, this also results in higher power consumption and therefore reduced battery life. Most beacons can be configured advertising interval from 0.1s (10 advertisements per second) to 30 seconds (2 advertisements per minute). Your goal should be to find the right balance between responsiveness of the app and battery life of the beacon. Beacon deployment Beacon deployments are one of the trickiest parts of setting up a beacon program. For best results you should consider programming and mapping your beacons before deploying on site. It’s also worth noting that when programming a beacon with an app, you need to be out of range of all other beacons, otherwise it’s difficult to know which beacon you are actually programming. Tip: Keep your beacons in a microwave to prevent them from broadcasting signals while you test and program other beacons. It’s also important to test beacon ranges at the site you plan to deploy to, as different environments can significantly alter the beacon signal. For example, in an empty shopping mall full of reflective surfaces the range can increase significantly due to the signal bouncing. Or in a crowded environment with lots of people, the range can decrease significantly. Finally, do plenty of testing. Replicate your deployment in your office and test different beacon settings. During deployment, test each beacon as you go to see how it behaves with your app. You don’t want to get to the end of the deployment and then realise that you have to change all of the beacon settings. Or worse still you have to go back and reposition them. Related blog post: 5 lessons learned from one of Australia’s largest beacon deployments Beacon maintenance Once you deploy a large network of beacons we strongly advise having a maintenance plan in place. You will need a way to identify beacons in the network that are no longer functioning. Some beacon manufacturers offer the ability monitor battery life. We’ve built fail safe mechanisms into our Lighthouse software that create alerts when a beacon signal is no longer being recorded as expected.

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Chapter 5 - Beacon security and privacy Security Signals that are broadcast using BLE are considered public, meaning another mobile app can potentially use the signal for their own purposes. This is practice is known as piggybacking. However, beacon manufacturers have started rolling out features that prevent others piggybacking off your beacons. For example, Estimote have rolled out secure UUID which uses a mechanism called UUID rotation. Beacons with this feature change their ID at a fixed time interval on pattern that is safely stored in the cloud. This means that even if someone manages to sniff out the ID’s of your beacons, they are not able to piggyback off them as the ID’s keep changing and it’s not possible to identify the pattern. Here are some of the most common beacon security myths:

● Beacons are transmitting personal data. Beacons don’t transmit any personal data. In fact, beacons don’t receive any data at all. Beacons don’t do anything except broadcast their UUID, Major, and Minor values. These values are then used by a mobile app to trigger an appropriate response based on the particular beacon that is nearby.

● Beacons are tracking my location. Beacons can’t track your location. The only thing they can do is let your mobile device know that you’re nearby.

● Beacons can track anybody with a compatible mobile device. This is not true. In order for any app to be notified of your location the user has to have opted-in for background location tracking.

Privacy In order for beacon technology to proliferate special consideration has to be given to the end user's privacy. If consumers are constantly bombarded with unsolicited or low value content they are likely to delete your app or revoke location permissions. What’s more, companies leveraging beacon technology must be as transparent as possible and clearly explain to the user how you are going to use their location and what value they should expect from your app. Here are some key recommendations related to privacy:

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● Clear opt-in path. When asking for push notification and location permissions use a custom opt-in screen to provide context to the end user and clearly explain the benefits

● Limit frequency. Consider using frequency based rules to limit the amount of content you push to the end user over a given time frame.

● Deliver value. Make sure there is clear value exchange for the user. ● Update your terms of use and privacy policy to account for the use of beacon

technology. This should be done in consultation with a qualified legal practitioner

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Chapter 6 - Managing beacon programs So you’ve made it to the final chapter and now have a thorough understanding of how beacons can deliver value to your business and customers. You’re now ready to take the plunge and set up your own beacon program. Before you do you’ll need a solution to manage your beacon program - and there are plenty of options available. Here’s some that are worth checking out:

● Google Beacons ● Kontakt.io ● Radius Networks ● BlueCats

If you’re looking for a beacon powered workforce management solution then you should check out our own product Lighthouse.io. We hope you enjoyed reading The Ultimate Guide To Beacons and wish you all the best on your beacon powered journey. If you enjoyed reading this guide please share it with other people who might be interested. If you have any feedback or think anything is missing then get in touch with us at http://lighthouse.io

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