OK - so lets assume we have all the technical aspects of location based services figured out. Then what? Will we experience a world like in Total Recall where every monitor and news feed in the world will be personlazid to you? A world where we cannot get away from the marketing and messaging pushed at us from every marketer in the world? Will we not be able to walk around the mall with out being carpet bombed with messages from every little store around? Our phones dinging like a late night in Vegas with all of the incoming messages?
I strongly feel that location based contextual marketing is just a matter of time. How do we as developers of such services ensure that the user still gets a good experience? How do we ensure that we do not create a world where we all long after spam e-mail because it was so much better that the hell our phones have become?
Any thoughts on this? PLease let me know :-)
Of course the main issue will be getting the users acceptance of what you can and cannot do on the handset. Also I think maybe services that will allow the user to identify what kind of messaging he or she wants will play a major role. On the other hand we don't want this to get so complex that the users don't understand it...
Looking forward to hearing some of your thoughts
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4 comments:
Context-aware computing was the subject of my dissertation back in the day.
At that time I did a study that was centred on the user experience and compared my results to others.
The truth was that users didn't care in the slightest about the marketing aspect BUT the service features had to outweigh the security risk and inconvenience.
An example of this is the cinema, where you get to watch up to thirty minutes of ads after paying $40 for a ticket and $20 on snacks(my local is expensive). But actually I quite like the ads.
This is typically the reason that services are offered in basic/clean versions, for those who want a superior experience and are willing to pay for it.
There is a great scene in Minority report where the Nokia logo is the only thing on screen for 10secs. Simply an amazing film.
The world has had Location Based Marketing already for decades - outdoor billboards and posters. What mobile, or even web LB marketing provides is attribution and conversion metrics instead of statistical sampling of traffic. So I think the question of IF has been decided. The question of HOW and WHO (carriers vs. Google, or some yet unknown party) are of interest.
The security of location data in a private network like the carrier data networks or in a public wifi network, is important but relatively easy to solve technically. That would be an entire thesis, so ping me if you are interested.
I think from a buyer's perspective, though, mobile location based marketing offers a fundamentally unique opportunity --- younger users personalize their mobile device and it is central to their social experiences. The confluence of social experiences, personalization, and location offers the media buyer a novel touch point with consumers.
I'm all for location based marketing as long as the user can define their preferences and opt-in/out. One of the worse case examples I can think of is a user's handset popping up ads and notification when they simply want to dial a number or be left alone. There needs to be a balance.
I completely agree to all of the above comments :-) Location based marketing is going to be a great thing - but only if we solve the whole user acceptance thing. We all know how much spam we get and those marketers are just waiting to get onboard our phones. So I think that maybe the solution would be found in the word: Context. If youre at the cinema and you've just seen a great flick - like Minority Report :-) - then if your phone when you get home contain a really good deal on tickets for next weeks showing of Totall Recall you will probably get a good reaction from the user as this would be something he/she would want and has shown themselves to be in the target audience for. If however you get an ad on your phone getting you a great deal on Penis enhancements or carpet cleaning because you visisted the movies you're probably going to get very irritated very quickly.
All in all one of the main selling points we use towards our potential clients is that by creating content that delivers a great experience in the right context towards the user will earn them much more loyalty than just getting a great deal.
so we basically all agree that there needs to be a balance :-) will be interesting to see if we can keep spammers away - and will be interesting to see the phone with the UI from Minority Report :-)
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