Cisco (CSCO +0.47%) announced today that it has teamed up with Facebook (FB +2.48%) to allow consumers the ability to connect to the wireless networks at different merchants by simply signing in using Facebook accounts. The service is called The Cisco Connected Mobile Experience (CMX) with Facebook Wi-Fi.
According to Cisco, the collaboration will help "businesses increase brand recognition and proactively target promotions and advertisements based on customer preferences and demographics using Wi-Fi."
The partnership is intended to allow users an easier way to connect to the Internet in various stores to improve customer experience while also allowing businesses to have more interaction and opportunities to connect with customers by providing more likes and check-ins to the businesses' Facebook pages. The hope is this will allow businesses to better serve customers through improved understanding of their demographic data.
CMX for Facebook Wi-Fi will direct customers to a Facebook check-in page when a customer joins a business's Wi-Fi network, and there they will be prompted to check in. From that page, the customer is then redirected to the business's Facebook page and then Facebook will provide the business "aggregated anonymous insights about people's activity on their Page, including demographics such as age, gender, and city." In addition to the demographic data, businesses will be allowed to have targeted promotions to customers and greater brand exposure.
The service has already been piloted by two Bonefish Grill locations as well as some of the world's most popular retailers, hotels, restaurants, and other public gathering spots.
In a separate blog post, Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager of Cisco Enterprise Networks Group, stated, "Our partnership with Facebook is to provide a very personalized mobile experience for consumers while they shop, spend time with friends and family. We will be rolling out this solution across some of the world's top brands in retail, hospitality, and other markets."
