Mobile Marketers and advertisers can now look to get some clarity with the release of the ‘Mobile Phone Creative Guidelines’. The document, the result of exhaustive cross-industry research by the IAM Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and the Mobile Marketing Association, helps create commonality for mobile advertising on smartphones, feature phones, tablets, and eReaders.

“Balancing the requirements of both the marketer and the consumer experience, the guidelines address varying factors such as different data connections (WIFI, 3G, 4G, etc.), carrier plans, Z-Index range and even the impact of the reduced processing power inherent in mobile device for file load size and web display,” states the IAB in this press release. The guidelines present a one-stop reference for the optimum file sizes, rich media, and dimensions for mobile ads.

The mobile guidelines were developed with three goals in mind. These are:

1. Issue guidelines that empower creative shops to exercise the limits of their imagination, only tempering creativity as it relates to positive consumer experience; and
2. Further simplify the digital mobile supply chain by making these new guidelines easily accessible, adoptable and understandable.
3. Provide cross-platform consistency by aligning these guidelines with the existing Web Display Creative Guidelines where applicable.

For location-based advertisers, these guidelines coupled with mobile location data and the behavioral insights it reveals, means that they can truly deliver optimized campaigns based on actual consumer activity.

Download and review the Guidelines for yourself and let me know what you think they mean for location-based advertising.

So what does this mean for Chief Location Officers in the Mobile Gambling industry?

As smartphones continue to penetrate the mobile market, mobile Internet usage will increase. In India, mobile Internet traffic surpassed desktop Internet usage in May 2012. It is only a matter of time until the same happens in the US and in other markets.

In the US, mobile gambling laws, which weren’t on many people’s radars 10 years ago, are starting to surface as an important issue. Establishing mobile gambling laws and regulations will help the US capitalize on the income potential while protecting consumers. Nevada is the only state to have legalized mobile gambling, but New Jersey and Illinois are soon to follow.

Why should CLOs care?

As discussed in our blog post on mobile sports betting, location data will be a key component in mobile gambling regulation. A user’s location will need to be verified to allow them to take part.

Locaid is currently the only network location service that is approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to provide secure and accurate location data.

CLO’s: Keep your finger on the pulse of the evolution of mobile gambling laws and the critical role that reliable and accurate location data will play. There is a lot to be learned, discovered, and taught in this developing field.

Location enables mobile commerce, marketing, social and search.  But privacy allows it all to happen.  Transparency, control and choice are key to any location use.  Every Chief Location Officer knows this.  Here’s a quick refresher:

Rule #1: You need permission to locate a mobile device. Permission, often called opt-in (from our old email marketing days), can be obtained in multiple ways, from a user tap on a device to replying Y to an SMS request to signing a contract or agreeing to utilize a service.  As long as the location use is clearly explained and well understood.

Despite the widespread coverage of privacy concerns in the media and the seemingly top-of-the-agenda efforts by our Congressmen, most mobile users are comfortable using mobile services that actively tap their location.  Most people do opt-in, most people allow apps to “use your current location.”  Location makes the app or service work better, improves results and value, and makes life easier for many of us.

So long as location is not abused.

Ever since the first app was launched in 2007, mobile users’ privacy rights regarding the collection, storing, and sharing of their personal data have been relatively ill-defined, but broadly respected, by the developer community.

Recent events have shed greater light on the need for standardized privacy policies and disclosure to protect users’ privacy.  There are hundreds of thousands of apps and developers who follow the very best-in-class location policies and guidelines.  But a few awkward examples (and bad apples) can spoil it for the whole app orchard.  Last year, for example, Path was caught uploading users’ address books to its servers without those users’ knowledge. Another popular app, Color, soon was under scrutiny for being able to literally tap in to users’ microphones without their permission, and CarrierIQ was found to be collecting data on users’ keystrokes, texts sent, and numbers dialed.

But the majority of developers large and small do not want to shake the trust of their loyal customers.  With scrutiny on the rise, mobile apps are quick to point out that they don’t spend their time reading users’ texts or checking out their address book for fun, it’s solely for data collection to help enhance their product.  Organizations such as the MMA and the CTIA have helpful guidelines for developers on LBS (location-based services), how to obtain consent form users, when to notify them, and the like.  But many felt such industry guidelines and self-policing antics were not enough.

Enter privacy policies. The need for enforceable codes of conduct and open disclosure for mobile applications have arisen. The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology released a publication with titled Best Practices for Mobile Application Developers. The paper includes guidelines and tips for making privacy policies comprehensive and easy to access for users, highlighting full disclosure to users and secure connections as must-haves.

Some companies (like mine, Locaid, the world’s largest Location-as-a-Service company offering a location API for developers), have been following (and indeed, setting), conservative privacy policies and rules for years.  We welcome the new publications from policy setting groups.  Any CLO should.  Publications such as these are the first step towards standardizing privacy control for mobile applications, and federal rules and regulations are not far behind.   And for those looking to incorporate mobile location into apps, companies who use Locaid‘s location information technology won’t need to change a thing. Why? Locaid realized the importance users’ privacy from the beginning, and developed an iron-clad privacy policy that is third-party certified, protects users’ data, and easy to understand.

Highlights of Locaid’s Privacy Policy include:

• Locaid requires developers to have consent from users of their location data collection.
• Locaid requires that this consent collected via a comprehensible and non-misleading vehicle
• Locaid encrypts location information when stored or transmitted by Locaid to ensure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands, and requires its subscribers to do the same.

Mobile commerce is expected to hit $31 billion by 2016, according to a Forrester Research report. With 2010′s mobile commerce reaching only $6 billion, this is a notable increase that requires all retailers’ attention. To help provide guidance, we’ve compiled four integral steps to help retailers capitalize on this trend.

Build a user-friendly mobile site: Make it easy for customers to navigate your site, find their favorite products, and checkout from their phone. Offer a mobile version of your site that’s optimized for Android or iPhone. Better yet, build an app that customers can download onto their phone as a constant reminder of your store’s superior products. Invest in a professional developer if needed; nothing turns off customers more than a site that crashes after they’ve carefully entered detailed payment information.

Optimize Your Catalog For Mobile: Apps like CoffeeTable and Catalog Spree take retailers’ catalogs and optimize them for viewing on an iPad, converting your most powerful marketing tool into a rich, mobile shopping experience. Customers can buy products directly in the app, and share their favorite products with their friends on Facebook.

Send e-mails with discounts and coupons: Today, many consumers check their email on their phone rather than sitting down at a computer, attributing to the rampant success of group discount sites such as Groupon and Living Social. Capitalize on this by sending discounts and sale announcements to your customers on a regular basis with links that take them directly to your online store. Make shopping your site as easy as a click-through.

Offer the best price: Price comparison apps like RedLaser and ShopSavvy offer a benefit to mobile commerce customers by letting them scan a bar code and find its lowest sale price online. A recent Deloitte analysis estimates that mobile price comparison will influence a whopping $158 billion of brick-and-mortar retail sales this year. Stay ahead of the curve by offering the lowest price online, MAP permitting.

Above all else, make it easy for customers to give you their money.

CLO’s Take: Embrace the trend towards mobile shopping and position your store for success!

Lawmakers and tech titans united?  What possibly could align such a crew?  War?  No.  The environment?  Sadly, no.  Citizen and consumer well-being?  Not exactly.

Fear.

Well, fear and greed.  Last month representative Zoe Lofgren presented a new bill that requires law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before accessing cloud data, such as email history or location information of individuals.  Why?  The talk track is fear: fear that law enforcement may abuse the ability to access information to do their job.  But it’s also about greed.  Warrants are expensive to acquire, monitor and track, which means more government dollars required to issue more warrants. 

And lo, the majority of large tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Twitter, and Google support the bill.  The Digital Due Process coalition, an organization in support of stricter controls on who can access digital and mobile information, is also a large supporter of this bill.  Why?  Fear that the government might make tech companies do things they don’t want to do?  Or is it about greed?

Mobile privacy laws are already in effect, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986.  Yes, the laws are convoluted and outdated to tackle the large amount of private information that is shared in digital communications today.  We as digital mobile beings have evolved.  No surprise that our approach to data access should evolve too.  Witness the fundamental changes in the way people communicate online, including email, location data, social networking, and cloud computing. 

But are the tech titans accessing our digital information without our consent for more than greed?  Should we fear our talented technologists?  Should we fear our own government?

Yes, if we have a  reason to fear.  Bad folks have a reason to fear both those that can collect and analyze data, and those that can enforce the law by utilizing said data.  But what about the good folk?  The 99%?  Should we fear our government?

If you have a friend or relative in law enforcement, you might have some idea of just how many controls are already in place for accessing personal data.  Turns out it’s a lot easier for the bad guys to access and use cloud data than the good guys.  New requirements such as those proposed by Zoe would, from the ranks of the law enforcers, ”hinder the ability to do our jobs.”  Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa recently stated that requiring search warrants to access data would “limit (law enforcement’s) ability to obtain information necessary to catch criminals and terrorists who use electronic communication.”

Who’s right, Zoe or Chuck?  Chief Location Officer says both are approaching the mark.  Yes, the Justice Department needs information.  And information needs are growing.  But personal information on anyone without cause?  No. 

What are the limits?  Seven years ago. CNET reported on the Justice Department’s tracking of digital data, such as location, without a warrant.   Today, cell phone tracking, including minute-by-minute location data, is an expected and necessary component of criminal investigations.  And while the statistics and reports are limited and thus under constant debate, cloud and mobile information access has helped all agencies enforce the law under the Justice Department.  There is, some Senators report, a demonstrated ROI, a Return on Information.  Especially when tracking really bad and really sophisticated evil-doers.

In 2011, the Justice Department took the idea of cell phone monitoring to a new level by asking for new laws that require mobile providers to collect and store location data and other information about their customers, in case law enforcement needs to access historical data as well.   Some conjure up a notion that constant, inescapable government surveillance is the result.  That, whoa, “Big Brother” is watching you.  But access does not mean action.  Having the capability to see your information doesn’t mean that anyone is accessing it, or doing anything with it.  Unless of course there’s a) fear or b) greed involved.

The Justice Department is concerned with a) fear.  Fear that bad folk, terrorists and law breakbreakers, will do bad things.  The tech titans like Apple and Google are more concerned with b) greed.  How can money be made by providing goods and services to all the folks (mostly good folks)?  We all accept that Google and Facebook make money off us by using our information when we search or poke friends.  It’s a fair trade for billions of us: not paying anything in exchange for information about what we do online or on our phones.

In the United States, a warrant is an order directly from the Department of Justice that data and information is needed and must be provided, even if it trumps a commercial agreement in place between a company and a customer.  Like tapping a phone.  And even today, if a judge issues a wiretap order or a warrant, he or she does after a rigorous and “innocent until proven guilty” process.  Requiring a warrant shifts authority, and control, from the private sector (your search engine, your smartphone maker, your location service) to the government (the FBI, the DEA, your local sheriff).  Companies, ones with very robust privacy policies, including the tech titans and platforms like Google, Apple, Facebook and Locaid, want very clear, specific laws in place.  And so do consumers. 

What do leading Chief Location Officers want?  We want all parties, our consumers and the governments who represent them, to agree on data access protocols and procedures.  We recognize that ubiquitious accord will not be attained for quite some time.  So we will continue to “do the right thing.”  And urge our politicians to conduct a robust and balanced debate.  And that may take time. 

The question will remain for generations: how to balance the Age of Big Data with the Age of Privacy?  What is the ROI of tracking the bad folk?  And does it balance with the ROI of providing the good folk, in a good way, with the goods and services they demand?

Chief Location Officer wants to offer our congratulations to top female CLO Marissa Mayer for her appointment as Yahoo’s new President and CEO. This is a huge appointment for Mayer, and the pressure is now on to turn Yahoo’s reputation around after a shaky past 5 years for the company, complete with 5 corresponding CEOs. Talking heads are skeptical that one person can positively impact a large company that has been losing market share for some time, but Mayer brings unique traits to the table that are bound to strike change, including:

• Provides a fresh set of eyes on Yahoo’s design: Mayer was behind Google’s infamously clean homepage, believing that a clean interface helps from scaring people away. Perhaps she can apply this to Yahoo’s over-stimulating page layout.
• Fosters a creative work environment: Mayer held office hours in her Google office 3 times/week, leaving the door open for insight and creativity from other employees.
• Maintains an inspiring work ethic: Mayer believes that working around the clock is sometimes necessary. But, she establishes a work/life balance by identifying what matters most to her during the week, such as attending a favorite yoga class, and making sure it gets done to avoid burnout.
• Has experience in Location Services: Mayer’s last position at Google was Vice President of Local, Maps, and Location Services. Location is a hot topic in tech right now, so her location experience at Google positions her to help Yahoo excel in this closely-watched department.

How will Mayer’s experience in Google’s location services department translate to Yahoo’s location realm? In 2010, Yahoo staked their claim on the geo-location scene by launching its location-based deal aggregator Yahoo Deals and a fun search application named Sketch-a-Search. Yahoo also boasts a user-friendly Local News page.  Location services are becoming a more central department for all search engines, as Bing, Google, and Yahoo all compete for users via awe-inspiring map imagery and geo-technology. So how can Yahoo differentiate itself? Now that the sparkle has worn off from location sharing apps such as Foursquare and Google Latitude, there is a need for a revolutionary location app, and mobile couponing presents a huge opportunity. If Yahoo was the first to launch a user-friendly mobile coupon app, it could re-establish the company as an innovator in the industry and be the first large company to tap into this large market. Establishing itself in the leader in location-based services for consumers will shake the dust off Yahoo’s brand and shine new light on its potential.

CLO Take: Location services present a bevy of opportunities for companies looking to be a leader in their industry.  And we congratulate one of our own, rising to the top.  Best of luck on both deliveries (the baby and the business!)

Just how much money are we talking about?

Last year, $13 billion in bets were placed via mobile devices worldwide, and that number is expected to increase to $45 billion by 2017. Much of that growth is expected to come from the US. Mobile gaming is currently only legal in Nevada.  Efforts are underway in New Jersey and Illinois to follow in Nevada’s footsteps.  As these and other states open their doors to the smartphone betting (and subsequent state revenues), mobile betting dollars will grow.

Who’s getting in on the action?

William Hill, Ladsbrokes, and Paddy Power are three big wigs in the online gaming industry, and they’re already staking their claim in Nevada. William Hill acquired 3 sportsbooks for $55 million this year, Ladsbrokes bought 65% of a mobile gaming software supplier, and Paddy Power is up for review by the Nevada Gaming Control Board regarding their ability to do business in the state. These entities are keen on the forecasted $45 billion market and are prepping to capitalize on it.

Why should CLOs care?

Even if your company has nothing to do with gaming or gambling, if you lead the location agenda in your company, you should watch what is happening in the mobile gaming industry.  First, gaming is one of the most highly regulated industries in the country.  How regulators and state agencies (like the Nevada Gaming Control Board) treat mobile transaction is a harbinger for regulator considerations in other industries, such as banking and workforce management.  Second, in the gaming industry (not the Zynga type, but the Caesars type), each state is different.  Tax dollars drive decisions, and geofences define boundaries.  So if your business operates acorss state lines (as most do), watch how the various states tackle the opportunities and risks associated with smartphone wagering.  Third, network location (the kind provided by my company Locaid) is a requirement for authenicated, verified location.  This is also true in banking, workforce management, or in any location-enabled use case where the company’s Chief Location Officer cannot rely solely on a GPS or WiFi location to make a decision.  (Locaid is a supplier of location data of mobile devices, including phones and tablets.  Locaid is the only network location service within the apps approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to provide secure and accurate location data.)

CLO take: Location data will be a key requirement for any wage-taking gaming app, as a user’s physical location within a state with legalized online gambling must be verified to allow them to take part.  What happens in Vegas will not stay in Vegas in smartphone wagering, but will influence state regulators and companies in many states and industries.  Chief Location Officers take note.  You can bet on it.

OMG!  Just lost $$$ 4 grand on Draw Something!  Didn’t get the cartoon of Chris Christie.  Yikes!  Went back to my spacious cornfield suite (in the Farmville Tower).  Tomorrow I am sticking to poker while touring Hoover Dam.

That’s a Tweet from me, four years from now.  Right after Zynga opened up their monster casino on the strip, where Excalibur used to stand sentry.  Sounds outrageous?  The groundwork is already underway.

How did this happen?

The answer is something you hold to your head everyday: your phone.  While most of the gaming industry focuses on yesterday’s major computing cycle, the Age of the Internet, the next wave of operators is busy changing the game.  Those players, Facebook and Zynga included, are riding today’s tectonic computing transformation: the Age of Mobile.

Too many of the old guard are still focused on the last wave, the Internet, what we technologists call “THE HOW.”  How as in how consumers access content and services…bricks and clicks, cookies and browsers, Macs and PCs.  The new guard is focused on “THE WHERE.”  They are knee deep in what Kleiner Perkins’ star analyst Mary Meeker calls the “fifth major computing cycle of mankind,” the Age of Mobile.

What matters in this age of mobile?  Not how, but where.

Zynga figured it out back in 2012.  We live in a mobile society, always on the go.  There are more mobile phone subscribers in the US than there are citizens.  Of the 7 billion people on this planet, 6.1 billion own a mobile device.  And more of those devices are smart phones, phones that can do just about anything your computer can do.

Zynga got mobile games, but virtual money didn’t drive real profits.  So they turned to the mobile device and realized that the phone in your pocket or purse has the ability to collect and stream all kinds of information about you: the calls you make, the sites you visit, what you Tweet and Like.  And while all this behavioral data is helpful for serving ads and pushing coupons, Zynga found the gold in the phone: at any time, that device knows precisely where you are.

Real-time location data is the most valuable and engaging aspect of the Age of Mobile.  Location-Based Services (LBS) are transforming every industry. Credit card issuers like VISA use mobile location to battle fraud.  Logistics companies like FedEx use location to track shipments. Big brands like Kohl’s and Miller Coors use mobile location to improve marketing campaigns.

Zynga and Facebook realized early on that mobile location would revolutionize the way we play games and place bets.

Used to be you had to be physically sitting at the card table to place a wager, or standing at the lottery machine to buy a lotto ticket.  No longer.  New Jersey, Illinois and more states in 2012 were moving to legalize mobile gambling, and allowing operators to take bets on a customer’s own smartphone.  (Disclosure: my company Locaid provides authenticated location to the only smartphone gaming apps approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.)

Zynga figured out that location was a critical lynchpin in the new gaming ecosystem.  They predicted the day when the house takes more bets from customer smartphones than from the casino floor.  So Zynga (with a billion dollar loan from Facebook) decided to build a house, right on the strip.

Location-as-a-Service providers made it easy for Zynga and other gaming operators back in 2012.  Take geofencing.  Draw a circle around your casino or a perimeter around your state, and when your customer crosses your “fence,” they get an alert, such as an “OK to wager” message, or a promotion to visit your casino, or an incentive not to stray into your competitor’s house.  Mobile marketing with location geofencing adds rich context and much-desired relevance to a consumer relationship with your brand.

In highly regulated industries such as gaming and banking, location is complex and evolving.  And Zynga was an alien on Planet Vegas.  In Nevada, mobile gamers must be within state lines to place bets on their mobile phone.  Smartphone location (Wi-Fi and GPS) does not meet the requirements of the Nevada Gaming Control Board because these location sources are easily spoofed.  Network location sourced from the wireless carriers (the kind Locaid provides) cannot be spoofed by an app on the device.  This location, combined with geofencing, allowed gaming operators like Zynga to extend their books and games beyond the casino walls for the first time in US history.

In 2011, a historic first was achieved by Leroy’s: the first legal real money wager was placed on a smartphone in the state Nevada.  It was only a matter of time (and money) before Zynga and Facebook started negotiating with Trump and Wynn.

Zynga saw that the legalization of online gambling had the potential to create a multi-billion dollar market in the US, with many states eager to cash in on the revenue potential. Pair legalized online gambling with location-verified mobile gaming, and Zynga saw a huge, unchartered market.  That was in 2012.

Who else saw the opportunity in mobile and location back then?  AWI (now William Hill) was an early entrant.  But others were close behind.  With fraud protection and location verification, geofencing’s role in mobile gaming’s bulging market was destined to play a crucial role to ensure compliance and safety for all players, while ensuring all gamers within state lines can get a piece of the action from the comfort of their living room, car, or favorite bar.

Perhaps it’s not too late for the major gaming operators to take notice of mobile location.  Perhaps those that run the largest betting books in the country will realize that location verification via geofencing captures enormous value from the Age of Mobile.  Perhaps those CEOs and strategists have realized that the majority of consumers are constantly interacting with their phones, day in and day out

Zynga figured it out.  They did “Draw Something” back in 2012: they drew geofences around state borders, so they could start taking real money bets.  Is Caesarsville and ParisParisville far behind?

This article originally appeared on June 22, 2012 on TotallyGaming.com.

Do you remember cutting coupons? I do.  When I was a teenager I cut them for Mom and pocketed the savings for a new bike (from Sears, a ten speed that weighted fifty pounds).  For most (and anyone reading this blog), paper coupons are ancient history. Who has time for that anymore?  

Turns out, anyone with a mobile phone has time now, because mobile coupons take no time at all.  Coupons are making a new-and-improved comeback via your mobile phone, and marketing analysts are “cutting up” a huge chuck of mobile spend to the once lowly coupon.

Kudos to new mobile technologies.  Mobile coupons are a big focus of mobile advertising using near field communication (NFC) technology as one of many ways to increase store traffic. As discussed in last week’s post, hyper-local marketing via mobile advertising is on everyone’s radar, and mobile coupons are expected to rise with the tide. Mobile coupon spending is expected to grow eight-fold from $5.4 billion to $43 billion by 2016 (Juniper Research).

Why Mobile Coupons?
Living Social, Google, Coupons Inc., and Discover have all spoken to their current focus on mobile coupons via NFC. They want to make coupons faster and easier for us consumers to use. Isn’t technology grand?

Currently, coupons or vouchers can be redeemed 2 ways. First is the good ol’ fashioned printing or cutting out of the coupon for the cashier to scan, which triggers the discount. Second is pulling the coupon up on your smartphone, revealing a QR code or a barcode for the cashier to scan. Neither of these are that seamless, as they require the consumer and cashier to do multiple steps. And as we know, consumers don’t like multiple steps.

This is where NFC technology comes in. With a simple tap of your smartphone against an in-store station, your coupons are automatically redeemed – no barcodes required! Additionally, with the development of mobile payments such as Google Wallet, a single tap of your smartphone will both redeem coupons and run the transaction against your credit card. Tap and go. Talk about seamless!

Advantages of Mobile Coupons for Customers:

• No scissors required. You can’t run with scissors, but you can run with your smartphone to redeem the coupon that just popped up!
• Less waste. Mobile coupons are digital, meaning less paper waste.
• Coupons will be fun. Before, coupons were reserved for household items, such as ketchup, cat food, and cleaning agents. Snooze. Now, coupons sent to you can have the variety of daily deal sites, with discounts on social outings and fun local events, all with seamless redemption.
• They will be targeted to YOU. Mobile coupons, like mobile advertising, will be tailored to you. For example, you can sync your phone to your loyalty membership program (club card) at your grocery store. Your purchase history can then be used to offer mobile coupons on products you may like, introducing you to new products. This is like the “Netflix Recommends” feature of mobile coupons, which has always lead to good discoveries for me.

Advantages of Mobile Coupons for Merchants:

• Secure. Mobile coupons can’t be duplicated.
• High redemption rates. Mobile coupons have redemption rates as high as 30%, vs paper coupon’s 2%.
• Excellent tracking. Instant access to who redeemed the coupons, where they were, and at what time.
• Instant insight into ad campaigns. Instantly see how successful a coupon campaign is and who it’s working with.
• Low Cost. Digital coupons are less expensive to distribute than paper.
• Enhanced data. Redemption data will be linked to purchase history and customer type, allowing for more precise research and future campaigns.

So, say goodbye to your scissors and coupon organizer. They are soon to be relics from the pre-smartphone age that future generations will never believe. I picture them picking up a coupon book, blowing dust off of it, and asking me, “What is this specimen?” Mobile coupons, I welcome your seamless money-saving discounts with open arms.

It’s already proven that shoppers prefer stores with a mobile app, and that location-based mobile ads are the new hot-ticket for bringing in business.  LBA (Location-Based Advertising) has arrived.

Don’t believe me? A recent study by Berg Insight forecasts that location-based ads on mobile phones will drive 28% of all mobile marketing dollars by 2016.  That’s  a compound annual growth rate of 91%. Do the math: total dollars spent on LBA in 2011 were $192 million.  Which means by 2016 marketers will be spending over $4.9 billion.

A 2500% increase in five years?  Why are marketers hot on LBA?

What is LBA? Location-based advertising (LBA) is advertising that uses a consumer’s current location to enhance the ad experience.

How does LBA work?  A consumer opts in to the merchant’s advertisements via their mobile phone (usually via SMS text), thereby allowing location sharing.  The merchant then sets up a geo-fence around their business that automatically sends advertisements to the  mobile devices when the consumer enters the targeted area.

Who uses LBA?   LBA ads may be time-sensitive coupons, such as half off a lunch special for the remainder of the lunch hour, or they could be strictly informative, such as information about upcoming events at the store. Instead of a customer receiving advertisements via email or (dare I mention) snail mail that typically get lost in the pile (we all have one), merchants can now send ads specifically when customers are nearby. This allows for a more polished and relevant ad experience for the customer, making them more likely to stop by and take advantage of that discount. (See here for companies.)

Do customers want LBA?  Yes.  The Berg study proves that more people are opting in to location sharing with merchants. Previously, consumers were weary of sharing their location.  But with the onslaught of location-based discount programs such as Groupon, consumers are becoming more comfortable and even pleased with the enhanced experience of LBA.

Chief Location Officer take:  One day I will get a text from my Starbucks barista when I am a block away, informing me that my grande no-whip white chocolate mocha is in the making and will be ready when I arrive.  Real-time location data is the new kid on the block in mobile marketing budgets. Customers (including CLOs) are now more finicky than ever. We want stores to know who we are, what we like, and send tailored information and discounts when it’s convenient to us based on where we are.  CLOs take note: your customers’ shopping experiences will dramatically improve with location-based advertising.

The Where challenge isn’t finding the store (walk 2 blocks and you will bump into a Starbucks).  The Where challenge is location relevancy in a mobile society.  We welcome you, LBA

Cited:

Berg Insight. (9 May 2012). Location-based Advertising will account for 28.3% of mobile ad spend in 2016 [News story] Retrieved from www.gisuser.com/content/view/26728/2/