Like a lot of us in IT, I'm into electronics. I enjoy visiting stores to get the actual hands-on experience of the product -but I admit I rarely buy on the spot. Why? I want to make sure I know what I'm buying, and frankly, that I'm getting the best deal. I either have to do research beforehand -read reviews, check prices, and clip coupons -or search on my mobile device while I'm in the store. Depending on the results, I could either be heading to another store or heading home to make the purchase online.

This week, Cisco introduced a new way to transform that in-venue experience through Connected Mobile Experiences Web engagement. This enables organizations to communicate with opt-in mobile users -shoppers, guests, visitors -through their mobile browser, right there in the venue.

Location-aware menus, banners, and icons as well as content-aware search enable organizations to provide venue-specific information -such as nearby dining or amenities -as well as any information the user may find valuable based on their context: where they are, how long they are there, whether they are a new or repeat visitor, or even what sites they are visiting. This customized communication can dynamically change when the user's context changes.

Imagine merging the online with the brick and mortar shopping experience -if I'm standing in a particular area looking at a product, the location-aware menu can provide me a link to user reviews of that particular product. And if I'm searching online for the best price, imagine the store issuing a web notification for a price match minus 5% -I'm sold!

This complements the additional Connected Mobile Experiences engagement capabilities -using apps, with today's announcement of the MGM Resorts app rollout, and the devices themselves, through Cisco's Qualcomm collaboration. Now anyone with a mobile browser can receive location and context-aware communication.

Web engagement is managed by the Connected Mobile Experiences Dashboard: an easy-to-use interface used by marketing and sales leads to create the mobile web engage campaigns. Marketing teams can centrally view and manage all the venues, and view usage patterns such as per day usage, top consumption, top services people use, top domains people go to, and top browsers.

To see the new Web engagement capabilities from both a user and marketing perspective, watch these video demonstrations:

Backend Administration Demo: Marketing departments can drive mobile web-based campaigns to shoppers and guests in their venues using this easy-to-use dashboard. Learn how to set up campaigns to communicate with mobile users based on where they are in the venue, how long they're there, or even what sites they're visiting.

User Experience Demo: Mobile users can receive dynamic, relevant information while in a venue just using their web browser. See the mobile user experience, based on where they are in the venue, how long they're there, or even what sites they're visiting.

Learn more at http://www.cisco.com/go/cmx