4 reasons to pay attention to location based services

As a marketer location based has always been the holy grail for engaging customers. Now with the increase in platforms, adoption of smart phones and bandwidth it is finally moving from hypothesis to reality/

Here are a few reasons we are excited about location based services.

1. Augments traditional advertising and PR

One of the first reasons we are excited is the ability to augment existing tactics with digital overlays. We recently presented an extension to existing outdoor and instore advertising to a large food manufacturer looking to increase their market share in 4 markets. Given the constraints/cost of physical displays in store we proposed using a location based platform to reward customers for checking in with offers, recipes and affiliate offers. We wanted to make their product stand out in a category that was considered staple and had very little if any differentiation based on consumer research.

2. It’s a new way of extend loyalty.
Customer loyalty and retention have always been part of the executive dashboard for as log as i have been in the business. We are excited about the new ways we can extend existing loyalty programs and allow customers to redeem rewards in real time, across partner networks. Long gone are the days of carrying a dozen little cards on your keychain. Opting in will be simple and if done right rewards will be tailored to you and can be achieved in new ways. These new ways can be more social in nature. Earn rewards by checking in and telling friends or by rating an experience.

3. Bridges retail with point of sale.
For many retailers, manufacturers or small businesses simply knowing that a prospect or loyal customer is nearby provides the perfect opportunity to engage. Notice I said engage not spam. Assuming for a second these people have opted in to receive content from you when they are near. You can offer short-term redemption to gain increase lift in a day that may otherwise be slow. Based on some recent research from emarketer consumers are still leary of getting over messages but over 60% would accept an offer if it was relevant.

4. Allows us to do some really cool stuff.
One of things that keeps our teams most engaged is working on really cool stuff and location based services are a fertile ground to do amazing things. The app by the museum of London is a great example of that. It leverages their assets in totally new context. You can tour London and in certain locations they have an augmented view of what the past looked like. In a similar example was the history channel and foursquare where people who followed