50% of users of the CheckPoints and ShopSavvy mobile apps discovered a product they previously had not heard of via in-app messages generated by check-ins on CheckPoints and in-app messages generated by bar code scanning on ShopSavvy, according to a new survey of these users from inMarket. InMarket owns CheckPoints and has integrated its mobile marketing system with CheckPoints and ShopSavvy.

CheckPoints is a mobile rewards app that gives users points when they scan the bar codes on products; points are redeemable for prizes. ShopSavvy is an app that enables users to search for products, scan products for more information, locate retailers online and in stores that carry products, and obtain special deals. Through integrating its back-end messaging technology with the two apps, inMarket sends pop-up windows to app users who check in at stores via CheckPoints and to app users who scan products vis ShopSavvy. The messages are from consumer brands that run campaigns with inMarket.

“Product discovery—the consumer’s initial encounter with a product—plays a critical role in the path to purchase, particularly when it occurs in a store,” inMarket says. Retailers traditionally have relied on eye-catching displays or end caps to capture consumer attention; inMarket messages introduce products to consumers via smartphones as soon as they enter a store, the company adds.

InMarket charges brands running campaigns a fee per scan; it declines to reveal the fee. A bar code scan brings up product information and any special deals. If an app user scans a product from a brand not running a campaign, a deal from a brand that is running a campaign may pop up alongside the information for the product that was scanned.

“Manufacturers love these programs because we combine the volume of bricks-and-mortar retail with the accountability of online advertising,” an inMarket spokesman says. “It’s sort of like pay-per-click based on in-store product interactions.”

Brands using inMarket include Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever and others. InMarket says the average return on investment for brands that have run campaigns ranges from 300-400%.