Profital establishes digital brochures in the Swiss advertising market
One year after its launch, the Profital brochure platform is enjoying remarkable success: the app and the website of the Basel-based startup have established themselves as a digital supplement to the classic print brochure. More than 60 retailers use Profital and benefit from over 1.2 million consumer contacts per month.
More than 80 percent of Swiss consumers get information online before they buy something. However, most purchases are still made offline. Since November 2017, the innovative solution from the Basel-based startup Profital has been offering retailers the opportunity to always reach consumers at the right time and in the right place, while at the same time strengthening their stores.
Consumers receive a compact overview of the currently valid brochures, catalogs and local promotions from stores in their area. "Retailers use Profital to reach a target group that tends to be younger and more urban and household-oriented," explains Raphael Thommen, Managing Director of Profital. "Advertisers particularly use Profital to target occasional shoppers and new customers they can't reach through existing channels."
High attention and impact measurement
The startup has already won over 60 retailers, including Media Markt, Lidl, Spar, Volg, Pfister, Jumbo, Lipo, Tchibo, Qualipet, C&A, and Ottos. With Profital, these increase their reach without wastage, as only read brochures are charged. As a pull channel, Profital explicitly attracts users who want to obtain information proactively. The attention and impact of the advertising media is correspondingly high: on average, users spend more than one minute in the digital brochures. Particularly attractive for retailers: thanks to geotechnology, it is possible to measure the effect of the advertising media on sales in the stores. Profital also evaluates important insights into the most popular brochure pages or access locations.
Consumers also appreciate the new way of communicating offers
Since its launch, the Profital app has been downloaded by around 400,000 users in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Consumers have digitally browsed brochures over 12 million times. Meanwhile, Profital records over 1.2 million consumer contacts per month in the early stages of the buying process. The popularity of Profital among consumers is also reflected in the app ratings: The app has already recorded over 2,800 reviews in its first year, with an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. "We are very pleased with the launch of Profital. Our expectations have been clearly exceeded and the response from users has been overwhelming," says Raphael Thommen. Of course, the continued ranking as one of the 15 most popular shopping apps in Switzerland since launch and the nomination for the shortlist as "Best of Swiss App" in October 2018 are also pleasing.
The future: dynamic prospecting
Profital is already working on new services and functions for retailers and consumers. The latest innovation: a dynamic framework that automatically generates mobile-optimized brochures based on a product feed and templates instead of a classic print brochure, and continuously updates them with current product data. "We are proud of what we have achieved, but at the same time we see many opportunities: there is demand on Profital for everything from high-priced furniture retailers to discounters. We want to take advantage of this and further expand Profital as an innovative channel for mobile advertising and an efficient tool for local offer communication" says Raphael Thommen.
