How location tools are honing brand radars

It’s not just Oyster cards and ever-present CCTV cameras that provide information on where everyone is at a given point in time. Fuelled by the growing use of smartphones, social applications centring on sharing geographic information in real time are gaining ground and, most importantly, they are doing it on a platform of fun.

Facebook Places, the geolocation app from Facebook, launched in the UK in September 2010 and took the geolocation buzz – catalysed early last year by online games Gowalla and Foursquare – into the mainstream. Facebook Places lets people connect with their friends on a new level, enabling them to tell their network where they are in real time and share tips on what they have found there.

Game playing as a mechanism is raising the stakes in the marketing arena and is central to the concepts of two key geolocation players. Foursquare, based around the deceptively simple idea of using your mobile device to “check in” to any place once you arrive there, was widely considered 2009’s breakout application. This competitive adult game has two key aspects: virtual achievements called “badges” such as the Gym Rat badge, awarded when someone has checked in on ten trips to the gym in 30 days, the Explorer badge when they have checked in to 25 different venues, and even the Last Degree badge, awarded when checking in at the North Pole. Foursquare’s most significant concept is the “mayorship”, which allows participants with the most check-ins to a place to become its virtual mayor. Despite having only about 5 million global users, Foursquare is beginning to make its mark as an experimental marketing tool.

Rival app Gowalla similarly centres on rewards-based achievement for its 1 million-strong user base. With its user-experience couched in terms of a “passport” of collectable “stamps”, Gowalla’s USP and badge of cool is well-executed design. Since its launch in March 2009, brands have been partnering with the service to scatter a variety of virtual and physical goods and services.

All these applications have obvious benefits for marketers. Increasingly, when a user checks in, they not only share geographical location, they endorse places or venues, and stake their claim to a variety of branded deals, offers and incentives.

In November 2010, billboards featuring the nation’s current sweetheart Cheryl Cole promoting her album Messy Little Raindrops pouted down on passers-by across the UK.

Devised by her record company, Polydor, in association with digital agency MediaCom, the three-week long advertising campaign prompted fans to access Facebook on their smartphones and use Facebook Places to check in to the billboard itself. “We wanted to make the advertising work harder,” explains Aaron Bogucki, senior digital campaign manager at Polydor. “Although we were going for a mainstream audience that does not have a huge understanding of this technology at the moment, we had thousands of downloads and hundreds of check-ins.”

Fans were offered the chance to win tickets to The X-Factor. The activity was designed to give fans a physical location to engage with excitement around the release of Cole’s new record. “Because it’s early days for this technology, the number of check-ins we had was less than expected,” says Bogucki. “But we will definitely be using this and other geolocation services in the future – it is a game and therefore fun and a valuable way to engage with our audiences.”

Amsterdam-based music promoter Dancefoundation recently started a campaign with Flowd, a location-based social media tool for record companies and artists to promote directly to their fans. Flowd works by allowing fans to check in to their favourite artist’s events. “Location-based social media adds the ’where’ to the ’who’ and ’when’,” says Lennart Bader, founder of Dancefoundation. “This is interesting, because fans can literally follow their idols, check in at the same places and leave their comments.”

US car brand Chevrolet wanted to target people attending the South by Southwest interactive festival in Austin, Texas in March last year. People who checked in to Austin Bergstrom International Airport on Gowalla were randomly chosen to receive a free ride to their hotel, courtesy of Chevrolet. “All they had to do was tap the ’yes, please!’ button highlighted on their check-in confirmation and they would be greeted outside the airport by a driver holding a sign with their name,” explains Pia Arthur, head of marketing at Gowalla. “It is an example of how nimble the service can be for brands.”
Platforms such as Foursquare and Gowalla also enable users to leave tips at locations they visit and this exploratory element, along with the social aspect and ’boast’ factor, are key to their growing popularity. However, to garner mainstream support there needs to be more emphasis on incentives.

It is early days for the technology and neither consumers nor brands have widely adopted the use of location-based services. However, noteworthy patterns of behaviour and use are already emerging. Research conducted exclusively for Marketing Week by TNS Technology in December 2010 found that only 17% of people in the UK use mobile phone apps such as Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla to log their location, and that 23% of people are unaware of and unfamiliar with these apps. The most frequent users, checking in at least twice a week, are 25- to 34-year-olds (21%) and also those with children at home (19%).

“At present, one-third of people cannot see any point in checking in their location,” comments Ged Egan, technology specialist at TNS Research International. “To increase usage of these location-based social media apps, marketers need to demonstrate a clear benefit to the consumer and tailor benefits to the individual.”

The research also shows consumers want to be more engaged with their location. Those aged 25 to 34 are most likely to be what are defined as explorers; with a fifth of this age group stating that ’looking for places and things of interest nearby’ is the main reason they use these apps. The research shows men are more likely than women to check in to their location for functional reasons such as leaving reviews. Women are more likely to use them for social reasons, with 62% using it mainly for staying in touch versus 41% of men.

Buzzy geolocation services are exciting for bricks-and-mortar retailers as they provide opportunity to increase footfall and recruit brand ambassadors who will pass on genuine word-of-mouth endorsements to their friends and Twitter followers. Debenhams, an early adopter of Foursquare, began by offering free coffee to Foursquare visitors in February 2010 to encourage interaction with the brand.

“We have been impressed by the potential of Foursquare as a channel to combine social media with physical experiences,” says Harriet Williams, strategy and online marketing controller for Debenhams. “In 2011, we’ll continue to work with the major players and emerging platforms to stay ahead of the curve.”

Any Foursquare customer who makes it to be mayor of their local Domino’s Pizza is rewarded with a free pizza on a weekly basis while regular Foursquare users checking in receive a free side dish when they spend more than £10.

“Foursquare allows us to offer something extra to existing Domino’s customers who regularly visit their local stores,” says James Millett, multimedia manager at Domino’s Pizza. “Our Foursquare activity and the rewards for mayors have been well-received by customers, therefore geo-targeting through mobile will remain at the forefront of what we do.”

Launched only in the US so far, with plans to roll out this year, Facebook Deals is a natural extension of Facebook Places. With Deals, businesses now have the chance to link online conversations to offline results, giving consumers immediate incentivisation.

Las Vegas hotel The Palms is working with digital agency ICED Media. It has a target audience of young adult males, statistically the most likely demographic to use smartphones. The hotel recently ran a deal enabling anyone that checked in to The Palms on Facebook Deals to receive a third night free. At the same time as offering users an incentive to check in, the hotel brand earned viral impressions from them sharing their visit with their friends on Facebook.

“Location-based social media gives us the ability to seamlessly interact and reward those currently on our property,” says Jason Gastwirth, chief marketing officer of The Palms Casino Resort. “The flexibility, speed, and ease of changing offers through these applications also allows us to stay up-to-date with our information and promotions.”

So far, location-based services have demonstrated they can add value for the user through incentives and rewards and help brands directly target customers more efficiently and organically. If these game-like applications become a part of consumers’ habits, they will have wide-reaching implications in the future as providers offer new levels of sophistication. It’s game on for anyone who wants to play.