John Flynn, CEO of Boston-based Copley Advertising, has worked with some big names over the past 15 years – Best Buy, Wendy’s and Cracker Barrel, to name a few.
Now, Flynn and his company are working to provide new and relevant marketing tools to pregnancy help centers and other organizations working to help women find alternatives to abortion.
“The life-affirming message is in our belief system,” he said.
Flynn has been focused on offering mobile geo fencing and IP targeting services to his clients for the past five years. Relying on what has come to be referred to as “big data,” the marketing tools Flynn has been involved in developing allow a client to advertise its products and services to the customers most likely to make a connection, based on factors such as current geographic location and past purchases.
But while the marketing tools that use big data are most often used to connect a customer to his or her closest fast food joint, Copley Advertising is setting its sights on the life-and-death business of connecting another customer—a woman considering abortion—to pregnancy help.
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“Making a decision to have an abortion—there’s a fairly small window to making that decision,” Flynn said. “For example, if you have a 1-800 number [ad] and they click on it, you’re instantaneously connected.”
Through mobile geo fencing, banner ads with pregnancy help messaging can be delivered to a woman’s smartphone while she’s in the vicinity of an abortion clinic or actually sitting inside of one. Once she leaves the abortion clinic, the banner ad will continue to appear on her smartphone for up to 30 days.
“We can set up a mobile geo fence around an area—Planned Parenthood clinic, hospitals, doctor's offices that perform abortions,” Flynn said. “When a smartphone user enters the geo fence, we tag their smartphone's ID. When the user opens an app [the ad] appears.”
“We can tag all the smartphones entering and leaving the nearly 700 Planned Parenthood clinics in the U.S.”
Tweet This: "We can tag all smartphones entering and leaving #PlannedParenthood clinics." @johnflynn50
Similar in purpose and impact, IP targeting allows ads to be delivered to intended audiences as they view webpages on their desktop computers or laptops.
“Every internet connection has an IP address,” Flynn said. “When a laptop or computer user is on that IP, they will see pro-life resource center or message group ads on web pages they visit.”
Global nonprofit Bethany Christian Services, which specializes in pregnancy counseling, adoption, and foster care programs, recently reached out to Copley Advertising for assistance in building awareness about their services on local college campuses.
Bethany, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., ran an IP targeting campaign in April and May to reached local colleges, and more specifically, female students ages 18-24.
The campaign was a success, according to Jennie VanHorn, Bethany’s regional marketing manager, who pointed out that the move resulted in half a million impressions in the two-month span that sparked a corresponding increase in website traffic and contacts.
VanHorn said the campaign’s messaging included ads with titles such as, “Pregnancy Help,” “You Have Choices” and “You’re Not Alone”. Once clicked, users are taken straight to a landing page or webpage complete with pregnancy options information and access to a live mobile chat with a Bethany pregnancy support specialist.
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VanHorn said Bethany has plans to work with Copley on launching an upcoming mobile geo fencing campaign to connect with even more women in need of support, and she’s encouraging other life-minded organizations of all sizes to work on developing their own big-data powered targeted marketing strategies.
“It’s vital to keep up with market trends, such as ads on the apps on their phone,” she said. “Marketing for pregnancy help centers has always been a needle in a haystack approach—cast a wide net and hope for the best. With geo fencing, we can reach women who we know are looking for or in need of someone to talk to.”
Tweet This: @Bethany campaign nets half a million impressions from IP marketing plan
Flynn, who hopes to work with more pregnancy help centers and organizations, agrees that the impact of mobile geo fencing and IP targeting has a proven potency to reach clients with help.
“It’s one person staring at one screen all day, and to put info on that screen is pretty powerful,” he said
