Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk — There’s a ‘Mode’ for That
Drunk Mode is an app that helps users navigate their inebriation — and avoid making embarrassing calls at 2 am. (I’m looking at you every 22-year-old.) CEO Josh Anton, who will be speaking at Street Fight Summit, developed his suite of location-based apps after getting one of those late-night phone calls from a friend.
The New Proximity: A Second Phase in Mobile Brings Here and Now to Life
The first phase of mobile software relied on us to express a desire and thereby to enable a service. Our actions initiated services that capitalized on the phone’s ability to maximize proximity. Now we’re entering a second phase where, for many of us, connectivity and location awareness will be active for longer stretches of our days.
Yext Gets in the Customer Engagement Xone
Fast-growing Yext is broadening its suite of location-based targeting products with the launch this week of Xone, a beacon-based program for businesses to engage in-store consumers with relevant content. Xone’s central feature is Tips, which enables businesses to customize and deliver messages to smartphone users who pass within range of an in-store Xone Beacon.
Sense360 Launches Developer Platform to Unlock Mobile Sensor Data
Since leaving Telenav last fall, hyperlocal veteran Eli Portnoy has been working hard on a new startup called Sense360, which is looking to analyze data from users’ smartphone sensors to give additional context about where they are and what they’re doing. We caught up with Portnoy recently to talk about the platform, which officially opened to developers this morning…
Street Fight Daily: Ebay Tests Deals, CitySearch Announces Layoffs
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… EBay tests deals on services, takes on Groupon (Reuters)… Shrink To Grow: Citysearch And Urbanspoon Parent Company CityGrid Lays Off 15% Of Its Employees (TechCrunch)… DNAinfo, In Bid to Raise Profile Among Local Advertisers, Starts ‘Small Business Insider’ (Capital New York)…
6 Location-Based Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners
Roughly half of all smartphone users are now finding offers and discounts based on their current locations, according to a 2012 report, but only 9% of small businesses are taking advantage of popular location-based networks like Foursquare to promote their brands. Here are six tips from leaders in the location-based marketing field…
Case Study: Sotheby’s Uses Mobile iPad App to Attract High-End Buyers
Consumers purchasing multi-million dollar properties want to see more than just static photos and written descriptions when researching homes online. According to John Passerini, vice president of interactive marketing at Sotheby’s International Realty, high-end buyers want to understand the “context” of the properties they’re viewing. To satisfy this need, Sotheby’s used LBS-technology to create a “lifestyle overlay” for its mobile iPad app…
Case Study: Southwest Airlines’ Time Limits on LBS
Platforms like Foursquare and Facebook haven’t had any trouble attracting attention from national brands, but what’s the secret to attracting interest from these brands in lesser-known start-ups? According to Southwest Airlines emerging media specialist Christi McNeill, it all comes down to persistence, innovation, and a little bit of hand-holding…
Case Study: CKE’s Own Check-In App Lends Accountability and Control
How does a restaurant group with 3,000 locations spread across 43 states manage a robust location-based rewards program without sacrificing functionality or flexibility? For Brad Rosenberg, manager of digital strategy and marketing for CKE Restaurants — which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains — the answer was to build a mobile app that could work across multiple point-of-sale systems and still provide the accountability that individual franchise owners require…
Case Study: At Choice Hotels, a Check-In Consolidator is Key
For nearly a year, Choice Hotels has been running a special offer that rewards members of its Choice Privileges program with 50 extra points each time they check-in on Foursquare, Facebook, or Gowalla at more than 1,500 participating properties. By partnering with Topguest, Choice has been able to use LBS to build customer engagement without worrying about managing the infrastructure that a large-scale program requires…
Case Study: Non-Profit Uses Foursquare For Fundraising
At BART stations in the Bay Area in 2010, commuters were encouraged to check-in on Foursquare to posters placed by Earthjustice, a non-profit focused on environmental awareness, as part of an effort to gain traction in the tech community. They hit 6,000 in just a few months’ time and earned media as well, in the New York Times, Mashable and elsewhere. Senior marketing manager Ray Wan discusses the organization’s strategy.
Case Study: For Tasti D-lite Builds Loyalty with Passive Check-Ins
“They used to call it ‘stalking,'” said BJ Emerson at the LocNav Conference this month. “Now they call it ‘location-based marketing.'” The VP of technology at Tasti D-lite has tongue firmly planted in cheek, as the frozen yogurt chain has evolved its basic punch card program into a highly digital loyalty effort involving Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter.