On September 4th, we officially launched Purple WiFi at Camden Market with a party for our partners, customers and guests.
The event, held at the stunning Gilgamesh venue in Camden Stables Market, brought together the great and the good from the local community, our partners Cisco Meraki, as well as a mixture of Purple WiFi customers, such as William Hill, Alexandra Palace and Pandora, and members of the press.
The attendees were able to try Purple WiFi for themselves, which is now operational throughout Camden Stables Market, with 20 APs operational already, and 30 more due to go live soon.
We also learnt more about Purple WiFi’s features from our very own Kerry Wright, head of marketing, who offered deeper insight into our WiFi software, and its new functionality.
Kerry treated attendees to an early look at the profile of visitors that have already logged onto the WiFi in the area, thanks to sneak preview into Purple WiFi’s new Facebook report, which categorises how people ‘like’ things on Facebook.
Although the data is still at an early phase of collection in Camden, it is already showing a much higher than average interest in entertainment, mass media and fashion from those in the vicinity. It also showed a slight skew to females logging on (51% of the total) which is unusual when compared to the average Purple WiFi user.
The data revealed that people in Camden are less sporty, less interested in literature and commercial business than the national average, but they are more heavily into charitable causes, music, films and TV.
Furthermore, we also learnt that those logging on in Camden are twice as likely to like electronic music, three times as likely to like reggae, half as likely to like pop and far less interested in classical, folk and country.
Next up was Sarah Eccleston, Director of Enterprise Networks, UK&I, at Cisco who gave us an extremely interesting talk on the Internet of Things. Sarah offered a fascinating insight into a world where our freezer will never run out of ice cream, our cows will always be milked on time and our offers should forever be relevant, all thanks to the growing integration of connected ‘things’ into our everyday lives.
Speaking about Camden specifically, Sarah said: “Now more than ever, businesses and cities are realizing the benefits that WiFi location analytics delivers. It’s no longer good enough to have wireless connectivity – understanding consumer behaviour is what matters. We’re pleased to be working with Purple WiFi, giving Stables Market Camden a means to personalize the user experience and the data intelligence for local businesses to customize their marketing campaigns. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Jac Timms, IT Manager, Stables Market Camden, who has been responsible for the set up and integration also offered a customer perspective, confirming the importance of a grant from super connected cities to get the WiFi live, and his challenges in the early phases of the project before finding Purple WiFi.
Jac commented: “We were looking for a fast, scalable, quick to set-up and easy to use platform, without the usual issues associated with running a large free WiFi hotspot. The team at Purple WiFi deployed incredibly quickly and the ease of use is impressive.”
Following the brief presentations, the evening continued with Purple cocktails flowing.