Proximity Based Marketing and the Location Innovation Awards
So what’s the big deal with Proximity Based Marketing? We have included this category in the Awards because it offers a huge opportunity for companies to engage with potential clients in a way that adds value to them. There are different ways of doing proximity marketing, our interest is specifically mobile and opt-in. That means that you only participate in a campaign if you chose to and in doing so there are some critical criteria. I will explain those, but first let’s get an idea of what the concept means, because a lot of people don’t really understand the concept.
Proximity based marketing is about getting messages, offers, invitations and communication about goods, services, activities based on where you are, i.e. they are availble close to where you happen to be. There are two main methods for doing this from a mobile persepctive, which is our interest in this competition. One is around targetted SMS messages, being the easiest technology to use currently and the other is Bluetooth. Unless there is an opt in component, Bluetooth is unlikely to be supported in this environment, but it could be. Bluetooth is really about short range communication between devices, say up to about 10 metres. It is a short range radio frequency concept that normally requires ‘pairing’ that is both devices agreeing that the other device is a trusted device to communicate with. So in most cases you can not communicate with another Bluetooth device unless A/ It is switched on (using a fair amount of battery power); and B/ It is open to communication with other devices in ‘Discoverable Mode‘ ; and C/ It has registered the other device as one it will communicate with. This is how you can have a Bluetooth headset for your phone and not listen in to calls that other people in the vicinity are making who are also using a Bluetooth headset. Free and open communications are not receommended because of the risk of virus attack.
So the concept, which according to BlueTomorrow is ‘all the rage’ of Bluetooth Proximity Marketing means that you have no control over who sends you messages. You may think that’s a good thing, but the last thing I want as I walk past shops in the mall is to receive unsolicited messages asking me if I would like information or perhaps an electronic coupon for products which are in the store. If they have deals, let them put some good material in the shop window.
Another concept which also isn’t in the scope of the competition is applications that require you to do something based on a billboard or other Point of Sale. In effect they didn’t contact you, but they persuaded you to do something when you happened to be somewhere. An excellent example is the UN Voices project put together by The Hyperfactory, who are a worldwide expert company in wireless and mobile marketing in Australia. The concept was that you take a digital photo of a mouth on a billboard and then get sent an audio message of the person who’s photo you took, telling you about their lives. This and other great examples of their work which are very inspiring can be seen here.
So the concept we are talking about goes like this. Through a form of marketiong, you convince people to opt in to a service, it could be via a brochure, a message on product packaging or on a label, or perhaps through a website or billboard. You will allow the service to send you messages based on your interests in products or services, which will probably be SMS or Text Messages. The messages might contain an offer, an electronic coupon, or ask you to do something.
To me the concept of being offered special deals for things that I am specifically interested in at a time that I would like to receive it is a great idea. For the marketing company if they can find willing subjects it is also great because it is targetted rather than the normal scattergun approaches. How much junk mail have you received in the recent build up to Christmas sales mostly about things you weren’t interested in? What would be the ad drop to sales conversion ratio. A very good DM (Direct Marketing) Campaign would get 5-10% return, the average would probably be less than 4%. If you know you can target people that are interested, you would get a significantly greater result.
The thing is, you don’t want SPAM solicited or not, so there need to be rules and if the rules aren’t followed, the entire industry could be set back for many years. So for the competition our rules are:
1. You must clearly understand what you are opting into.How many messages are you likely to receive.
2. You need to have control over when you will receive messages. For example for a ‘Happy Hour Club’ You might decide you only want to receive messages on Friday and Saturday nights and only between 6 and 10 PM.
3. From a proximity perspective you may only want to receive offers when you are within a km of a participating bar or club.
4. It needs to be easy and clear how to opt out. People might try something once in a while, but there are many services such as subscription newsletters where it is very difficult to figure out how to opt out of the service.
It’s interesting when you start searching for existing applications, how few actually exist so far, while the web is full of sites suggesting what could be done, most of the companies who could be doing it aren’t and wouldn’t know where to start, which is why this competition is so important. So here are a few ideas:
- BP Petrol stations in New Zealand sell coupon books which give you two-for-one deals on coffee. The sell car wash services with coupon books so that your 5th car wash is free. You have to go out of your way to get them and most of the time when you need them they are not around. They generally do not work very well in motivating people to use the service. Often there are competing gas stations accross the road and people have a choice where they go. At commuting times of day most traffic is driving one one side of the road, the gas station on the other side misses out. Why not add a service for people to opt into so that they can be offered special deals when they are in proximity of petrol stations at quiet times. It could be a free coffee with $60 worth of petrol, it could be a half price carwash etc. I don’t know too much about the petrol industry but people sure like a deal. Why not give them one when they are close by. Why not get them to top up their gas now, when they are near your business, especially if they weren’t planning to stop.
- Imagine you have signed up for your favourite retail clothing chain, given them your favourite colours, style and size. They know when you are walking into the mall, either because your phone has told them, or because you texted the name of the mall to the short code on the sign at the entrance. Now you get a text message saying that they have got something similar to what you loved last summer and if you come in now, you will get a 2nd garment for half price and you can forward this to 3 friends who will get the same deal.
- Still in the mall, you walk past the Music Store who send you a message saying that your favourite band’s new album has just been released and another group who is quite similar also have a great new album and if you come in and buy them both now, you will also get a free collector T-Shirt.
- How about renting a camervan or motorhome and subscribing to travel deals as you drive on your holiday. As you travel around the country, you get SMS alerts from attractions and activities within say 10km of your location. You drive into Waitomo to go on the boat trip the the underwater caves, but the day has been quiet for the Black Water Rafting Trip so they send you a special deal where the 2nd person goes for free. As you drive further towards the end of the day and are thinking about where to stay, you get a text message from the nearby Top 10 Holiday Park with an offer of a 20% disccount on your meal at the restaurant next door.
The key to this concept is that the offers are targetted and the recipient has control of when, how often and what type of deals they are offered and have the ability to stop them as quickly as sending a text message. You might subscribe indefinitely or just for the 5 day trip in your motorhome. In many cases these deals might also include aspects of other categories such as LBS Games or Social Networking. The key is that it targets you because you are interested in or a regular consumer of the goods and services, buit most importantly because you receive the deals when you are in the proximity of the offer, they are welcomed. You don’t want to receive an electronic coupon for a petrol discount if you are on the beach or out on the boat, you want it when you are driving past. You want something that is a really good deal.
Hopefully I have given you a few ideas for applications you might like to come up with for the competition. If you are not elligable or don’t want to participate, please feel free to share comments or ideas on this blog that other people might be able to pick up on.
December 12, 2008 Posted by Luigi Cappel | awards, competition, competitions, geosmart, lbs, lbs games, location innovation awards, maps, new zealand, petrol, proximity based marketing, social networking, Uncategorized | advertising company, audio message, australia, bluetomorrow, bluetooth, bp, campervan, car wash promotion, competition, computer virus, discoverable mode, dm, electronic coupon, free coffee with petrol, happy hour club, lbs games, location innovation awards, marketing campaign, marketing company, mobile, mobile social networking, motorhome, new zealand, opt in, opt out, petrol, proximity based marketing, radio frequency, short code, sms, spam, targetted marketing, the hyperfactory, top 10 holiday park, txt, un voices, unsolicited messages | Leave a comment
Friend Finder, LBS Based Social Networking and the Location Innovation Awards
One of the applications that many organisations have seen as major opportunities for LBS application development is the concept or Friend or Buddy Finder. The most common concept is which of my friends are nearby, but it can also lead to finding new friends of similar interests. This concept offers lots of opportunities to come up with an entry for the GeoSmart Location Innovation Awards.
One application that seems to do this quite well is Mobiluck. Mobiluck is a mobile social networking application which allows you to see where your friends are and let them know where you are. It can send you free SMS alerts when a friend is nearby. I don’t know if it is free everywhere in the world, I’d be surprised if the New Zealand telcos allowed any SMS to slip through without getting some revenue from them. Like all good social networking sites it lets you make new friends. It is free because it is supported by advertising and with almost half a million users, I suspect it is proving itself to be an app that people want to use. When I looked at the application, it knew from my IP Address (I’m assuming that’s how it worked because I hadn’t yet entered any data). It also supports multiple languages and gives you the ability to decide how much profile information to share. They are working on getting establishments such as restaurants and bars to get involved in the network as Points of Interest to make it easy for people to let their friends know where they are and invite them to join them.
Japan pioneered a system of proximity based dating several years ago which was an instant hit, Korea followed quickly thereafter. You could set your criteria of the person you were looking for and would get a message when someone that matched your interests were nearby. The first devices were simple Bluetooth Devices specifically designed for the purpose and as you walked past a person who was a match, your devicee would beep. Now off course the technology is cellular and uses GPS and SMS as the key enablers. I’m not sure that culturally this would work so well in the Western world, but given that dating sites are amongst the most popular on the web, I could well be wrong.
Car Navigation won’t be left out. My TomTom GO720 has Buddy Finder technology. I use my navigation unit as my hands free car kit so it is already paired through Bluetooth to my phone. Any friends who also do the same with their unit have the option of allowing me to see where they are on a map in real time. This is a great tool if you are travelling to a location. Let’s say I was on my way to the Big Day Out and I was going to meet a friend outside and go in together. Let’s say one of us finds enough car parking for 2 cars, I could spot exactly where they are on my unit and grab the other park. This would also be a lot of fun on car rallys and other events. Of course you don’t have to be driving either. You could even create a proximity game using phones and TomToms.
Another interesting service is navmii from GeoLife.It operates in a Windows Mobile environment with GPS. You can find people or allow them to find you and they can then see you on a map and get driving directions on how to find you. You can see an example below. They are also planning new related products including GeoFamily and GeoPet. The latter 2 I’m sure would be very popular. GeoFamily means that you can make sure your children are safe and know where they are, another aspect which has been very popular in one of my own blogs is using GPS to keep track of elderly family members, especially those who may have memory problems or suffer from Alzheimers or another form of dementia, who get themselves lost and don’t remember where to go. Another popular aspect is when elderly people are away from their homes and are injured or need medical assistance. Current solutions tend only to work within a close radius of their homes. You can find more information on my other blog about this.
December 10, 2008 Posted by Luigi Cappel | awards, car navigation, competition, competitions, driving directions, geosmart, gps, lbs, lbs games, location innovation awards, maps, new zealand, satnav, social networking, tomtom, Uncategorized, web maps | bluetooth, buddy finder, driving directions, free sms alerts, friend finder, geofamily, geolife, geopet, geosmart, lbs, location based dating, location innovation, location innovation awards, mobile dating, mobile social networking, mobiluck, navmii, new zealand, pet finder, Points of Interest, social networking, track elderly family member, windows mobile | Leave a comment
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GeoSmart is a New Zealand based Geospatial Solutions Provider. What does that mean? If you want anything to do with location, we are the people for you to get in touch with. We have driven all of New Zealand as well as flown most of it to gather orthophotography which is used by many GIS departments in regional and local government. We have the only full turn restriction database in New Zealand, which in simple terms means that we have eliminated the paper roads designed in Scotland in the 1800’s which still exist on paper and in many mapping products, we know all about the no left or right turns, one way streets, legal and implicit turn restrictions and much more including a huge database of Points of Interest including businesses, accommodation, petrol stations right down to public toilets, boat ramps, places of geographic or historic interest and more.
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As Sales & Marketing Manager, this is a semi informal place for me to share ideas, knowledge and generally share some of the things we are working on. Feel free to comment or make contact with me.
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