Photo Credit: Gord McKena
A host of location sharing applications have hit the market over the last couple of years. Though only 4% of U.S. Internet users checked in to location social networks in July 2010 1, the dominance of the smartphone, introduction of Facebook Places, and emergence of location based e-coupon services point to new sharing trend in 2011.
To offer a different perspective on emerging location-based opportunities, I looked at two location “check-in” applications through the lens of an out-of-home planning theory known as Life Pattern Marketing.
In the digital world, media planners have the ability to track behaviors in real time. People’s actions in the physical world are not nearly as traceable. That may be changing.
Mobile check-in applications, if used regularly, become outlines of individuals’ daily adventures throughout the physical world. If a person enters a physical space, he or she can check into a given digital application for some kind of social or commercial benefit. As a result, insight that we’ve never previously had access to becomes available thanks to users who choose to publicize their data.
Life Pattern Marketing
This opens up the idea of delivering contextually relevant messages during a consumer’s daily life journey. This tactic is the premise of a planning theory known as Life Pattern Marketing2.
In short, LPM recommends planners:
(1) Map out the daily work, play, and social tasks of a given demographic;
(2) Review relevant advertising opportunities;
(3) Develop contextually relevant executions that intercept the target during a daily pattern.
How does LPM Interplay with two popular applications?
Facebook Places:
Facebook places allows users to check-in to a location with or without friends. Each check-in is then published to a user’s news feed and broadcasted to his/her network of friends.
Commercial locations can also be claimed by the rightful owners. These Place pages will become hubs for fans, reviews, ratings and deals. Eventually, the Place page will merge with the Facebook ‘brand page’ to become one virtual hub.
LPM opportunities:
If a person opts in to a promotion or value-added service, his/her data could be used to deliver targeted, geo-relevant messages to a variety of screens (mobile phone, digital out of home screens, retail).
Continued usage will develop a pattern of activity that could be sold (with permission, anonymously, and in exchange for value) to companies looking to harvest life pattern data.
E-coupon companies (another buzzword for 2011) may develop applications that review your daily life patterns and prescribe targeted product deals to fit your needs. Similar types of location-based game applications may also emerge.
Shopkick:
Shopkick is a mobile application that offers in-store deals at partner retailers. Users download the application and are given ‘kickbucks’ for checking into stores. Enter the brilliant part: Shopkick has installed digital terminals at all of their retail partners so when shoppers enter they are automatically alerted of the deals available.
Note: One problem I have with Shopkick (and other similar apps) is that it’s yet another loyalty points system. I think most folks would rather have one or two integrated loyalty points systems that all work together rather than hundreds of one-offs.
LPM opportunities:
Even though Shopkick is more about users’ commercial adventures, widespread adoption may lead to very interesting (and more readily available) data. The unnatural step of manually ‘checking-in’ is removed and the number of interactions may increase as a result.
If Shopkick goes main-stream, planners may gain insight on when and why different shoppers travel to commercial spaces. This again could be leveraged across digital out-of-home and in-store digital channels in a way that syncs with the application.
Final Thoughts:
Sharing location – whether it’s to a group of friends or to a commercial entity - may seem like an unnatural behaviour at the moment (too many barriers in the way, too many privacy issues, etc.) but as intuitive applications that add social and material value continue to emerge, this act seems primed to become normalized.
Summary of key considerations:
- Manage expectations: this trend is still in its early days but worth experimenting with.
- Add value: how does the mechanic envisioned add social or material value?
- Remove barriers: Incentivize check-ins and reviews.
- Map out your target audience’s life pattern: location applications should be considered because they are relevant to a consumers’ behaviour.
- Think multi-screen: how can location data be leveraged across multiple screens & platforms en route to purchase.
Sources:
(1) Location-Based Social Networks: A Hint Of Mobile Engagement. (July 2010) Forrester.
(2) Monty Zwebeni (2010) Life Pattern Marketing http://www.seesawnetworks.com/services/whitepapers/life-pattern-marketing/
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