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Location intelligence continues to be a hot subsector of local media and commerce. Demand is growing, providers continue to enter the market, and location privacy sensitivity is hitting historical peaks. As that all happens, the survivors will be those who differentiate themselves from the pack.
With that backdrop, some location intelligence providers zero in on specific types of location signals. For example, can local events be a focal point for gathering consumer behavior and insights? The local version of “you are what you eat” is “you are where you go.” This is where the folks at Gravy Analytics hang their hat.
“People’s attendance to events conveys a deeper and much richer signal to their actual interests and passions,” said Gravy Analytics CEO Jeff White on the latest episode of Heard on the Street (episode above). “Twenty years of having this thing called a digital cookie to create deeper, richer experiences online based on behavior online, we simply believe that if we can understand the events that people attend, that’s a much deeper and richer signal. So it can be a pride event … or it’s attendance to any of your favorite passionate things: wine tastings or otherwise, we just anchor on that and try to glean aggregated consumer insights.”
The company has been able to draw notable insights such as degrees of passion and affinity that correlate to how far one traveled to go to a given event — whether it be a Nascar event, a political rally, or a book club gathering. In all cases, event patronage can provide strong signals to brand marketers.
“If someone were to cookie me, and see me searching for wine online, that’s a signal that I have an interest in wine, sure,” said White. “If someone were to look at my purchase behavior and see the $300 basket at Costco … that’s a signal that I like wine. But as a marketer, as a brand, if you were to understand that I actually took time out of my day, bought tickets, spent my weekend at a wine festival or a wine tasting event or a sommelier training class, those are the kind of visceral convictions and commitments a consumer may have that reinforces our ability to understand their level of interest.”
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