Location, Location, Location
How Geolocation it's here to stay and how is also becoming “the place to be” .
As found proven by last year’s incredible hit of Geolocation based articles, apps, software, events.. this is not a fashion thing, it’s important, it’s huge, and is here to stay, what are the reasons behind this fast paced changes, that made Geolocation chante from "a maps thing" to become a Marketing tool?
Well, any traditional marketeer will tell you that the first question arising when discussing a marketing or advertising budget comes when customers request the Return Of Investment (ROI) of the campaign they are about to launch. The answer can be any, but will always be a very optimistic if not unrealistic one. Basically there is no way of proving how many of those who saw this or that ad or video or print actually went and spend any money on the featured products or services, therefore, classic advertising techniques can, at most, prove how many people watched an ad, but they fail to say how many of those potential clients actually bought the product thanks to that ad the advertising company claims they saw.
What is going to change is exactly that, the use of location based advertising techniques, whether intrusive or not, will result in an extremely accurate behavioural analysis, vendors will be able to follow every single step of their advertising campaign from launch to the minute the customer actually pays at the desk. GPS, Wifi triangulation, indoor sensors, bluetooth beacons and finally NFC will take the user right from the ad hit all the way to the cash desk
In terms of value that is amazing, I have never seen anything similar or even dreamed it could ever happen. The social, cultural and economic impact of these technologies is going to be hughe, as long as we can use it right, of course.
Customers have proven they care almost zero about their privacy when it comes to getting a discount or to redeem an offer, it makes sense that this is only going to grow, we are now completely cured of our privacy concerns, as governments have already shown us they are the first one who don’t care a bit about our personal communications, so, why care about an advertising campaign then?
Obviously there will be many who won’t buy into this new trend of exchanging location details and shopping preferences on their phones, and good for them, as it is good for anyone else to choose and go elsewhere for their shopping.
This new society where free for all things are now usual, we understand clearly that we are the product, we are the goods the big companies exchange, our likes and shares, our messages and cloud space, our free music and videos, all these free messaging tools.. everything is in exchange of some part of our privacy, we are the currency and the good, we are the product and the factory. Finally we are the ones who will make profit from it.
If companies begin aggressively making use of Location Based Marketing techniques, we will soon be getting push messages with dozens of offers to be redeem at this or that store desk, we will be directed without waste of time to the right shelf on the supermarket, where this or that product is on sale or discount.
Retailers can use mobile location to send highly relevant and targeted messages to their customers; logistics companies can track the location of their drivers and assets
In mobile advertising, location-based targeting grew from 22% in 2012 to 31% in 2013. And it was the first year that the industry saw tangible ROI results from proximity marketing campaigns. In this whitepaper from Alliance Data, the results of a pilot program run from Black Friday to Christmas 2012 are shared with findings including that 84% of consumers were comfortable using their phones to communicate with retailers; 60% have no privacy or security concerns; and 68% indicated they would likely sign up for future location-based text messages.
Apple launched its iBeacon technology deploying the beacons in 254 U.S. retail stores. An August 2013 research report by Research Moz states that the Global Indoor Location-based Service (LBS) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 40.05 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing adoption of local area networks.
Augmented Reality Apps are being used outdoors and indoors to offer personalized experiences based on their location to travellers, congress attendees and shoppers.
The future of location based advertising, marketing and analytics is clear and promising for those who find the way to put it at work with individual rights and privacy issues in mind.
If you want further information about UBIKUA’s Services do not hesitate in contacting me directly.
Francis Ortiz
Founder of UBIKUA
+34 615 684 195
Skype francisortizocana
francis@ubikua.com
