Location Matters The 3 Big Questions

I work here.

The basics
Location matters For us or against us Elements of location The Effect on Experience

Location is a matter for billboards.

One that allows an advertiser to send advertisements or other information to a mobile device based on its physical location. Location Based Services

1,000,000,000 Check-ins

Perhaps, weve missed the point.

We spend all this time thinking about cities in terms of their local details, their restaurants and museums and weather. I had this hunch that there was something more, that every city was also shaped by a set of hidden laws. Geoffrey West, Theoretical Physicist

People's movements appeared to follow a mathematical pattern. The scientists said that, with enough information about past movements, they could forecast someone's future whereabouts with 93.6% accuracy. The pattern held true whether people stayed close to home or traveled widely, and wasn't affected by the phone user's age or gender. Robert Lee Holtz

3X as many smartphones are being activated every minute around the world than there are babies being born

22% of smartphone owners have changed their mind in the store due to their mobile phone.
Google Ipsos Study of Hong Kong Smartphone Users, September 2011

Question #1 Are we removing a barrier or getting someone to stick around?

Location is something to overcome.

The obstacle of location.

Location is something to celebrate.

Consumers are telling us that they prize drama over utility, scarcity over ubiquity, novelty over the guaranteed sameness of the national brand. They want brands that are porous to the world, that integrate with the world. They are prepared to embrace brands that take a little more effort, especially if that effort rewards them with something that is exciting and rare. Grant McCracken, Anthropologist

Question #2 What elements of location matter most?

If only location was so simple. Location isnt a single variable, but a combination of several factors.

Place

Proximity

Time

Context

Digital Exhaust

Place Altering the experience based upon your physical location

SF Park

Tesco

The Fun Theory

Proximity Altering the experience by including those around you.

Communities and Networks. Communities present easier entry points for advertisers, often more so than friend networks.

Graph via Abhinav Singh

Proximity has power the biggest influences on your behavior turn out to be where you are and whom you are with. Yakob and Gehrt, MDC Partners, kbs&p

Blendr is a social networking experience unlike any other. Using your mobile devices location-based technology, you can connect with others nearby with similar interests, hobbies, profession and much more. Discover the world around you: make friends, and build connections and explore your surroundings. Blendr makes it easy to take that first step.

Grindr

FriendThem

Neighborgoods

Whip Car

Time Altering the experience based on when youre there.

Explore 9/11

Museum of London // Street Museum

Audi Frustration Index

Google Flu Trends

Context Altering the experience by playing with the environment.

Indifference for the people we create things for and the reality of their daily lives is not just foolish, it's wrong. Dieter Rams

Joshua Bell

RecipePad

TabbedOut

RunPee

Digital Exhaust Altering the experience by making data visible.

Tidy Street

Bundle

DontEat.at

Question #3 What should the experience be like?

The Brand
Branding helps people make quick, easy, intuitive and confident purchase decisions. Without thinking about them that much. Or worrying about the price. Or the quality. Or the competitive offers that might be available. Martin Weigel

No one is going to pick up your product and try it if they don't want to buy into the experience. Stanley Hainsworth, Founder, Tether Inc.

The Difficulty of Doing

If agencies want to think more like tech startups, they might focus less on clever storytelling and more on utility. Adam Glickman, Founder, the IdeaLists

The truth isnt the truth until people believe you, and they cant believe you if they dont know what youre saying, and they cant know what youre saying if they dont listen to you, and they wont listen to you if youre not interesting, and you wont be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly. Bill Bernbach

Because that's what we need to add to so many things, to give them that extra necessary magic. A pretending layer. So it's not just a useful or beautiful or functional object - it's got some little nod to who we're pretending to be when we're using it. Russell Davies

The Framing Layer

Nokia Drive Time

Zombies Run

Finding purpose. "I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company'sexistence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. David Packard

Ask yourself this: What cause are you a credible voice for?

How a brand acts How a brand talks

What a brand feels is important What a brand rallies the community around

Why a brand does it

Where am I? What is your purpose? Why do I care?

Unique Mobile Opportunity

"You learn to like the excitement of mild, ongoing risk takingSometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's the creation of possibility. Brad Blanton, Founder of Radical Honesty