How Location Changes Digital Marketing: Pt. 1

Hi everyone

One of the fastest growing and most important areas of digital marketing is based on providing ‘distributed digital experiences’.

That is, reaching out to people in the real world with digital experiences and communications, not just trying to reach them at our branded space online.

Mat Honan from Wired wrote in this article recently about how important location is to people’s decisions, and the impact digital services can have. “Simply put, location changes everything. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for, where we go – they all change once we merge location and the web.”

For marketers that means if you aren’t building location-based digital marketing into everything you do, you will lose them, because their choices are increasingly being dictated by their location.

The social networking tools people use, the mobile applications they choose, the stores they visit – are all influenced by digital location specific content and it's changing the way people behave.

This week I want to look at what marketers are doing with digital marketing installations and location-based mobile marketing experiences.

1. Digital Installations: One of the most visible ways of reaching out to customers is through large scale digital installations, often event-style communications, where people can not only experience visual/video/audio communications, but interact with them as well.

HBO’s Voyeur campaign was a great example of this type of communication, and interesting to see they will follow up with a new campaign called HBO Imagine to be launched soon. The reason why this was so powerful was it used the visibility of an installation medium embedded into everyday life, then led people to explore other mediums to interact with the idea further. Using these installations to excite and inspire further exploration is a key to success.

Other interesting examples of different real-world digital installations the fascinating Nike Chalkbot, Puma’s engaging installation Lift, and the interactive billboard experience Nike ID. This last, mobile digital experience we’ll describe further below.

2. Location Based Mobile Experiences: I’ve spoken about mobile a lot lately, and the reason why it is becoming so important – as highlighted in this excellent Ad Age article – is the realization by most markers “that mobile isn’t an ad play, but an extension of the services and products already on offer. And location is one of the most important contextual clues a mobile phone can provide”.

I’ve listed 4 of the most popular ways that marketers are using this added layer of location to enhance services and communications to customers:
- Mobile Applications: This great mobile real estate app from Zillow allows you check out home prices on houses from where you are
- Social Networking: Location specific social networking communities like 4Square add another layer of utility to online relationships
- Interactive Destinations: Combining the attraction of a digital installation and mobile interactivity, Nike ID campaign a good example
- Location Aware Communications: RFID, Blue-tooth, augmented reality and mobile web are allowing us to communicate with customers at a specific location.

Next week we’ll look how digital experiences are transforming the retail environment, creating unique branded destinations and digital shop-fronts.

Cheers, Rob

Feel free to add comments below, or for further questions or advice contact me at rob.h@th.arcww.com