Ed Vaizey MP at IAB Engage 2011

I attended yesterday’s IAB Engage conference in London this year for the first time.

A chance meeting earlier in the year with Amit Kotecha, Mobile and Networks Manager at the IAB, we co-presented at Brand Republic’s Social Media Strategy 2011, introduced me to the IAB.

From an advertisers perspective it’s a fantastic organisation with training and many conferences on offer, for free.

IAB Engage is the event of the year for online marketeers, this year a celebrity interview with Dara O Briain,  and guest speakers from AOL, Google, Microsoft and many more, it’s a not to be missed event.

All of the presentations were solid, even Ed Vaizey MP gave a good performance, once he was able to get off his formal speech the Twitter feed finally gave him a break. The controversial EU Cookie Directive played a major part of his delivery, with a clear message that we need to find a way to implement this act, like it or not. (Sorry, I don’t).

Andy Hart & The Socks

Other than the Twitter discussion around Andy Hart’s socks and the fantastic presentation from futurologist Roman Weishäupl, the underlying theme was heavily mobile.

Social Media is by no doubt a major force in online, and offline, marketing. It’s also here to stay. But implementation in a mobile environment is to be the golden egg.

Much of the technology demoed, Lego’s Augmented Reality App, the Junaios App,  RexBox’s Epic Win and the exciting Goldrun used by fashion retailer H&M featured mobile devices as the central component to offline activity in marketing campaigns.

The huge Smirnoff campaign, presented by Michelle Klein, Vice President of Content, Digital & Communications, Smirnoff, Diageo, included location based elements as leverage for engagement.

Pete Robins at IAB Engage 2011

Yet many agencies are not geared up for this mobile invasion, or the integrated campaigns that gain traction with consumers. The reliance on trying to ‘crow bar‘ existing ad campaigns into the online and mobile space will just not translate.

As Pete Robins, Managing Partner at agenda21, put it, “We need to look at mobile in a new way. We need to discover unique ways to engage with users whilst delivering ROI for advertisers.”

Many mobile marketing models rely heavily on check-ins, QR Codes, SMS or other forms of simplistic communication. The answer is often seen in an App, yet undefined, and unoriginal. We could do worse than to create think tanks within our companies or our agencies, it’s that important.

We need to, urgently device ways to leverage mobile as the consumer expectation to be fulfilled moves to the streets. One big hurdle is connectivity. I have spoken in the past about WiFi access for all and at IAB Engage it was obvious that this loop hole hadn’t been considered by many. As many agencies are based in city centres, they don’t experience the lack of connectivity that we experience in rural locations.

Once we have connectivity resolved, or rather at the same time, we need to ensure we can deliver content in a mobile friendly format. Users expectation will be to see, not only content relevant to them, but also relevant to their location. QR Codes are almost a dirty form of promotion requiring the printing of a splodge on the item to be scanned, much better is the image recognition of the Junaio App; the challenge letting the user know they can scan the item in the first place.

Apps are everywhere and there were certainly no shortage of them presented at the event. Costly to produce and multiple platforms to consider, there must be a better way. Technically HTML 5 may offer some answers, but it will remain an obstacle if we insist users download applications to view our marketing genius.

As conferences should, for me IAB Engage 2011 raised as many questions as it did answers. What was clear was that the rate of change in technology has Microsoft, Apple and Google on it’s toes, so smaller, less technically advanced brands are going to need help.

Innovation will come from those that focus on it, investing time and money. The rewards are many. Failure to stay with the market will result in bland, mediocre marketing, delivering the same messages just on different platforms.

Looking forward to IAB Engage 2012 I hope to see many of these mobile issues realised and applied. I hope to have answers myself, maybe even be one of those helping to provide the answers.

Were you at IAB Engage? Or do you have a vision of a mobile future? If you have an opinion please let’s discuss it below.

Photo’s attributed to the IAB

Free WiFi

50% of Twitter users access the service via mobile and of the 700 million Facebook users 30% access the platform using a mobile device.

The growth in the use of mobile technology by consumers is leading many businesses to look at opportunities around Location Marketing. Still a relatively young practise, location based marketing is the child produced as result of the up-take of mobile Internet access and Social Media.

Ironically, as Governments try to control how much access companies have to personal information, consumers are happily giving it away with mobile by checking-in on Foursquare and Facebook Places.

There is real benefit to the consumer; with the low cost of implementation, the number of offers based on location are likely to increase, delivering greater value.

Consumers Need to Connect

It’s great t think there is this new marketing opportunity but it only works if consumers can access the platforms. Large parts of the UK, US and other countries are still without mobile 3G coverage in many populated areas; this severely restricts the growth of Mobile Internet usage, and things are unlikely to improve rapidly either.

Successful Location Marketing relies on connectivity; if customers can’t get online, they can’t login, it will frustrate them and that experience could be psychologically related to your business. You need to make it easy for consumers to promote your business for you.

Help Consumers Connect

If you don’t have at least a 3G mobile signal covering most of you outlet, invest in wireless broadband. The cost is negligible and seeing as the rest of the promotional tool-kit is free, it is your only marketing spend for this form of promotional activity. If you’re concerned with illegal activity across your WiFi connection then ensure you use a reputable supplier, they can either lock down access to certain sites or use content filtering to help prevent mis-use.

Additional Benefits

Giving your customers free WiFi can have a positive effect beyond location based marketing. If you live in a rural location you could become a hub for the community, in a urban area you may be an oasis for connectivity on the high street.

You don’t have to become an Internet cafe, your reward for providing easy access to the Internet is free promotion, don’t underestimate it’s value.

Thinking beyond check-ins; you now have easy access for staff to mange Twitter, update Facebook, maybe you could even stream live video demonstrations online.

What other beneficial uses can you think of for free WiFi in your business?

Loyalty Program

Location Based Marketing is a hot subject, with the likes of Groupon going IPO and Google and Facebook playing catch up to the early pioneers, like Foursquare. This in itself is an issue, that location based marketing is new and the many of the platforms it exists on are shared  by a comparative few consumers.

Facebook has 687 million users but only a small percentage of these are checking in, 65 million mobile users. If you look around the dedicated location space the user base is low, for example, Foursquare has 10 million users, having checked-in a total of 600 million times world -wide. It is growing fast, 3400% in 2010, and should not be underestimated.

It’s a valuable Market place

Being able to market to consumers when they are in a potential buying radius, or even increase their loyalty by way of reward and discount. We can all see from our stats the value of a repeat purchaser versus a new one. In addition digital channels now allow us to do this easier and cheaper than any offline equivalent. The added bonus is the data available from these platforms about customers once they have engaged.

So if the take up is low how can we justify resource and budget on location based marketing?

The key to maximising return in the early part of a trend is to focus on existing customers and early adopters. Existing customers are probably the easiest to convert. You can make offers exclusively available to those that check-in via Facebook, this being the platform that many users will be familiar with it will be easier to educate them about it. This in turn increases their loyalty and awareness of the location based platforms. Once you are getting them to successfully check-in on Facebook you can try to either migrate them to other platforms, Foursquare for example, or mine them for recommendations, introducing new customers.

The previous example is somewhat obvious and you should be encouraging this regardless of platform. The not so obvious opportunity is early adopters.

Early adopters exist in nearly every market place, and in today’s society represent a good cross section of ages and backgrounds. To take a benchmark, an early adopter will likely be using Twitter, read blogs or blog themselves; they will be highly mobile. Dare I suggest that many will be iPhone and iPad users? At the very least they will be inquisitive users of Mobile Applications regardless of platform.

How can you tap into these “upwardly mobile” technology addicts?

By doing things that will surprise them. As a Foursquare user I take much joy out of adding new shops, restaurants and other businesses to the application. I see it as my way of “leaving a tip”, yes, I do also leave a real tip if the service warrants! These businesses have no idea that I have just promoted them for free.

What if we were to turn this idea on it’s head?

The first thing we need to do is make sure these users can easily access the Internet. Ensure you can get a mobile 3G signal in your outlet at a minimum. Ideally you want to have WiFi access freely available. The easier it is for people to access the Internet on your premises the more likely they are to used location based services whilst there.

Choose an Application to target them with, Foursquare is as good as any, and for early adopters preferential to Facebook. Now highlight the WiFi access and Foursquare check-ins as visibly as possible; on receipts, menus, at the checkout, doorways, even on shop fittings.

Educate all staff about the application, and how it works. This part is important, there is nothing more frustrating than a member of staff that isn’t aware of a promotion and contradicting a customer.

Early adopters will notice these sign posts and start to use them, and if you get creative with implementation, spread the word about them. This in turn will reach other early adopters who are likely to be attracted to your business.

The trick is using location based marketing as part of your overall business strategy, getting creative with loyalty, discounts and offers. Focus on the customer and not the technology, but use the technology to make your job easier and to improve the customers experience.

Location based marketing may not be mainstream but the opportunities are worth the time invested for those willing to push new boundaries.

Do you have any examples of great location based marketing campaigns?

Check In Here

77% of the worlds population now has a mobile device, according to the ITU, with 90% of the world now living in an area with mobile access. Mobile Internet usage is growing at a rapid rate and expected to over take access via PC or Mac within 5 years.

In many developing countries web access by mobile only, already exceeds desktop web access, with 25% of web access in the UK and US by mobile only already.

With figures like these it’s not surprising to see the growth in location based services and location based marketing. Mobile price comparison, recommendations and offers all based on location can drive business and encourage customer loyalty.

Here are 14 of the best and up-coming location based applications.

1. Foursquare

Seen by many as the the location based application with the most potential, with over 8 million users worldwide and 2.5 million check-ins a day. Foursquare encourages users to check-in at locations in return for virtual badges and points. It works across many mobile devices and businesses can offer rewards of their own, currently for free.

2. Gowalla

A popular alternative to Foursquare, Gowalla offers users virtual rewards and allows them to connect based around locations. Businesses can add offers and rewards for free and personalise greetings to users checking in.

3. Groupon

The gorilla of discount voucher sites. The fastest growing company in the world has spawned many copycats but is staying ahead of the competition with it’s focus on creative copywriting. Businesses can advertise offers based on location in return for group purchases. Commissions can be high, around 30% and expected discounts for effective take up may mean you need to encourgae loyalty or upsells to make money long term.

4. Google Places

If your business hasn’t claimed it’s listing on Google Places yet you are already missing opportunities. You are able to add lots of additional information to your listing, including photos and video. Google uses places listings in local search results above standard results and users can rate and share their favourite businesses.

5. Google Offers

Only recently launched, Google Offers is a group buying discount site similair to Groupon. Offers are location based and with it’s dominance of online, Google is one ot watch in this space.

6. Facebook Places

With over 500 million users, 50% of them regularly accessing the site via mobile, Facebook cannot be ignored. Facebook Places is similair to Foursquare but even more social, as users can share and earn rewards together. Claim your place page to start promoting your business locally.

7. SCVNGR

A location based mobile game with potential. Google is one of the investors in SCVNGR. Businesses can set challenges and rewards, even connect locations to encourage multi-site visits.

8. Shopkick

A reward based application, users earn Kicks just for visiting a shop and can earn extra Kicks for preforming tasks such as scanning certain products. They can then redeem your Kicks for iTunes vouchers, resturaunt vouchers, movie tickets and lots more. Users can even donate them to charity.

9. Vouchercloud

Discount vouchers and offers based on location. One of the cool features of vouchercloud is that users can pre-downlaod vouchers before leaving home and store them ontheir phone or print them off. Suitable for larger retailers you can list unlimited offers and locations for £200 per year.

10. Urbanspoon

Not only location based but focussed on eating out. Urbanspoon is a great resturaunt review site that’s free for businesses to add a listing. In addition to customer reviews they also pull in reviews from Professional Critics, Blogs and other online sources. Even if your location isn’t listed you can still add your restuarant and as it is free why wouldn’t you?

11. Loopt

Integrating with Facebook, Loopt enables users to see where your friends are in real-time, sharing offers and rewards. US based only at the current time, businesses are invited to partner with Loopt for branded pages associated with certain locations.

12. Brightkite

Group texting between friends for free with place check-ins. Up-coming with 7 million users to date advertising is fairly simple through banner and text ads but they are location based. One to watch.

13. Yelp

A mobile yellow pages with reviews and offers. With over 50 million users you can advertise on Yelp for free, targeting users with offers and rewards. In addition to this you can also engage with customers privately and publicly within the application.

14. Where

Has 4 mllion users on it’s own mobile app that allows users to discover and share their favourite places. It’s business model is as an ad serving platform across many other apps claiming to reach over 50 million users. They do offer a free business page where you can include vouchers.

Location marketing is growing fast, do you have any applications to recommend?

Hyper Local

I often tell people when they ask me about Social Media “It’s nothing to do with the technology”.

It is true. Social Media Marketing is nothing more than Face to Face Networking on a grand scale, online. Before computers even came into being there were breakfast meetings, business connections made at golf and tennis clubs. All of these were places where the business community could meet to swap contacts, the latest gossip or insider information.

These “Elite Societies” no longer have the exclusivity on networking. It hasn’t made the act of networking any easier, you still need to approach people, but technology has made it far more accessible. One other thing that has occurred in the last 10 years or so…

The Internet has become more local

When I first started flogging web sites in the late 90′s it was the dream of reaching markets around the world; or at least within the rest of the UK, that I was selling. Grants were made available by local Chambers of Commerce to help small businesses get online and start selling. Road networks’s as well as digital ones, in the area I live aren’t as well connected as the rest of the country. The Internet was seen as a way for local business to reach out beyond this handicap.

Funny then how the world turns in on itself in such a short period of time. As technology simplifies the things we do like networking, local becomes the Internet champion. Foursquare, Google Places and Facebook check-ins being touted as some of the up and coming technologies. Making the Hyper Local Market the new market.

Mobile devices have certainly played their part

Access to relatively cheap and smart technology has meant that nearly everyone over the age of 16 has a device with the power of a mini-computer in their pocket. With mobile subscriptions now over 100% of the population in most developed countries of the  world, many owning more than one device. Even in less developed countries mobile penetration is at nearly 70%.

Mobile, The Internet and Networking (Social Media) have all come together to create the Perfect Storm for Hyper Local Marketing.

There’s just one thing missing, the “local connection”

You can have people visit your coffee shop, pub, hotel, shoe shop, bakers, butchers or newsagents and tell the rest of the local community they were there. You can, with their permission, connect with these customers, offer simplified loyalty programs to encourage them to further market your outlet on your behalf. It doesn’t matter what type of business you run you can dominate the local market with the use of today’s technology and communications infrastructure.

All you need to do is enable it

If you haven’t already, create an open WiFi network in your business. Make it freely available to the local community and all those that frequent your premises. You can use the login process as part of your data capture initiative if you wish but by doing this simple thing you enable the local market to Market your business for you.

The one thing that is restricting the potential for Hyper Local Marketing is the provision of Internet access at the local level. Rather than wait for some Broadband initiative to come to your village or town, you can take the lead and provide access direct from your outlet. Not only providing a service to the local community but a reason for people to recognise your business locally online.

Since Facebook launched it’s Place functionality the location based services channel has been relatively quiet. Nothing significant has hit the market and no major releases announced. Google have now broken cover. Earlier in the month saw the subtle move of location search filters to the left of the page now they announce Google Boost.

Until now doing anything practical with location based services from a marketing perspective has required creative thinking from business owners and marketeers. With the launch of Boost this is a proactive and deliberate strike at the local advertising market.

Boost is very simple to run, working from existing data in your Google Places page you set a budget and Google takes control of displaying your advert automatically. Currently only available in a handful of U.S. Cities, Google are bound to roll this out to a wider audience swiftly.

You also get the feeling Google are now taking this sector seriously, demonstrated by the move of Marissa Mayer, formally VP of Search Products and responsible for the introduction of Google Instant, to the position of Location and Local Services Chief.

Although Facebook’s advertising platform is much more passive the depth of knowledge they have of their end users could see them leapfrog Google in this space. We await eagerly the Facebook mobile announcement due next week.

Small businesses are always asking me, “How do I get to number 1 in Google?”, invariably my reply is, “How much are you willing to spend?”, with a wry smile of course. I do have to remind myself that even now in today’s switched on world there are lots of businesses that still don’t understand how search works. And to be fair why should they, it’s not what they specialise in.

One of the ways to ensure favourable positions within Google or any other search engine is to focus on a niche or long tail term. For new business this would make good business sense full stop, not just for search. Get known for doing a core activity well, then you can expand your offering. For existing businesses this opportunity may not be available, but one niche that is available to nearly all small businesses is the local niche.

For example selling antiques is a wide market, selling a specific type of antiques, say art, is slightly more niche. But selling Antiques in Colchester is a good niche that doesn’t narrow your offering. Now I am applying this to antiques but it could just as easily work for a bakers, hairdressers, pub or  restaurant. Yes I also here you shouting, “This is only any good if anybody is searching for the phrase”, of course this groundwork and research has to be done. Expectation of search traffic on these terms should be kept within reason but being so simple to implement local is one niche you should definitely cover.

The whole essence of product or service promotion on Social Media and Social Networking channels is recommendation. If there is something new I want I’ll go by recommendation, whether that be from direct friends on Facebook, or collective recommendation on Twitter. Even outside the realm of “Social” recommendation by way of reviews have played a big part in e-commerce. So why should the same not be true of Location Based Services for the high street?

Foursquare recently announced that one of the new features they are testing within their mobile application is a recommendation engine. This will look at users check-in history and to-do lists, based on this it will then make recommendations based on this data. They are also hoping 3rd party developers will build on this functionality to provide enhancements to the recommendation engine.

So if I check-in at a lot of Chinese Takeaways, my favourite take home meal, when I am staying away Foursquare could automatically alert me to Chinese Takeaways close to where I am staying. Based on my behavioural data it would also be possible to relate some activities with other recommendations. Check-ins at wine retailers could lead to recommendations of wine bars. Or checking in at the fish mongers could lead me to discover sushi restaurants.

The possible combinations and crossovers are vast but they are going to require a certain amount of data to be accurate. To benefit from quality recommendations you will need to check-in regularly but with the power of numbers recommendations could not only be made based on what you do but also the actions of people your are connected to.

Offering additional elements other than the gaming element is a good move by Foursquare and if they get recommendations right end users will see the benefits. Now, is it Kebab or Chinese tonight?

#picnic10: Dennis Crowley (FourSquare) over Social Cities from MGvandenBroek on Vimeo.

Announced early this morning on The Next Web Facebook Places is now officially live in the UK. Whilst there is no commercial aspect to the release at this point in the form of Ads, you can add locations to Facebook Pages.

Currently you are unable to tag images or videos but this will come in future releases.

Action point for businesses is to ensure they’ve added their Facebook Place location to their Facebook Page.

Facebook Places still isn’t available in the UK at present even though there are rumours that it is being tested. Unlike Foursquare, Facebook Places is likely to take off fairly rapidly in the UK when it is released due to the large Facebook user base.

In light of this it would be prudent for businesses to be up to speed with Facebook Places, how to register your business and what you can do with it currently. Registration is fairly simple and requires you to do no more than list your premises and then claim your location through a series of security checks. If you have registered with Google Local it is fairly similar, if you haven’t registered on Google Local I would suggest doing this now.

Although it is the early stages of development one of the great things you can do with Facebook Places is send messages directly to all users that have checked-in at your business premises. Offering you the opportunity to target market existing customers.

In the following video Mari Smith coauthor of “Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day” explains how Facebook Places currently works in the U.S.: