Yesterday, I was thinking about some of the best mobile campaigns of last year and I remembered one in particular that definitely opened my mind up to the possibilities of using LBS for brand engagement rather than driving consumers in-store or redeeming coupons.
Many of you will probably have heard of Terminate A Mate, it picked up bronze for ‘Best LBS Technology‘ at the MAMA awards plus nominations for a whole host of others, although I honestly think it should have won loads more than it actually did.
The Terminate A Mate viral was launched as part of a campaign for the hit US TV-series appearing in the UK called ‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’.
The idea is that you select a mate for ‘termination’ by inputting their mobile number the website. A video is then sent to your friend containing their actual location with a message from a worried looking SAS/Armed police type guy saying that the terminators are after him/her knowing their location and to be afraid, very afraid. Read More
Mastercard have released an iPhone app called ‘Priceless Picks‘ in conjunction with their agencies McCann Erickson and MRM which integrates with the ‘Priceless’ TV ads.
It’s actually quite a nice dynamic, social app which uses your location to show the nearest ‘priceless’ deals that other consumers have pointed out.
Deals are indicated by bubbles on a map, you simply tap on it to get more information. If you happen to find a priceless deal or place you want to share you can tag it to your current location and add further details.
I like how much effort has gone into this app to tie it in with the ‘Priceless’ proposition. The user generated aspect is cool too, although I wonder if the app will have enough ‘picks’ to still be useful if the amount of users is low.
It would be great if users got a discount at these places for using Mastercard or something so there is a reason to keep using the app.
The app is free to download.
Back in May, I wrote a post about location based status updates on Facebook and how it was something we would be seeing soon. Location data on Facebook will add another dimension to the site, especially as nearly 20% of users are using Facebook mobile.
Today Techcrunch reported that Nokia are releasing a new service which will allow users to update your status with your location. The application is called Ovi Lifecasting and will tie in with Nokia’s Ovi Maps (part of the Nokia Ovi suite).
It works by detecting your location via GPS, allowing you to share it on your Facebook status with a link to a Ovi map. The example below puts in the address, postcode and shortened URL map link in the status update.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, it’s only a matter of time before we see Facebook utilising user location via its mobile site. I think it fits in perfectly for status updates done on the move on WAP or SMS, even for mobile uploads.
Friends could glance at their newsfeed on the go and see where friends are, potentially this will be far more useful than Google Latitude as not all my friends have a Gmail account or compatible Latitude phone whereas all of them have a Facebook account.
Obviously there would be user control such as a tick box to toggle displaying your location or choosing to only display it to certain groups you have defined (work, family etc).
The problem they would have is that user location is only available to the operator when accessing websites on your mobile. They would have to do a deal with every mobile network which doesn’t sound too far fetched considering Facebook is Vodafones most browsed mobile site and deals have been done with O2 and Vodafone previously, Twitter too.
In Q4 2008 Facebook mobile hit over 15 million users and is growing at a crazy rate (up from 5 million at the beginning of 2008). Nearly 20% of its user base are now on mobile.
I think this would be a cool feature to Facebook/Twitter and would enhance the experience. What do you think?
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