Mobile Media & Geo-Marketing

Marketers are on the lookout for new ways to reach coveted and increasingly difficult to target demographics. A variety of new, mobile media and geo-marketing models have emerged that may provide an answer.

Chris Anderson provides a nice backdrop: "Adding to the evidence of a shift from mass culture to niche culture, the latest Nielsen numbers...confirm that network TV is losing young men at an accelerating pace. For the September 04-April 05 period, broadcast (network) TV viewership by 18-34 year old males was down by 7.8%."

While moving away from broadcast media, this and other key demographic segments (e.g., Gen Y) seem to be gravitating towards mobile media and opt-in, on-demand entertainment. And, many advertisers are seeing increasing opportunities across the long tail of niche consumer behavior and new, micro-marketing channels.

In a move designed to leverage niche demand and aggregate advertising revenues, Google recently acquired DodgeBall.com, a mobile messaging service that lets friends SMS their location to stored buddy lists. Google will use the location SMS to push geo-targeted advertising to clusters of friends. A recent ClickZ article describes one application, (which seems particularly appealing to this Minnesota native):

"In a June 2004 campaign, vodka marketer Absolut sent opt-in subscribers messages that said, "What a gorgeous day! Reply with @venuename telling us where u are. Dodgeball & Absolut will send the closest outdoor patio." When users responded, the company followed-up with information about the closest place where they could enjoy outdoor drinks."

Via We-Make-Money-Not-Art.com: Similarly, a research project by students at the University of Surrey has given birth to a brilliant mobile application idea that will inevitably make its way into mainstream marketing. Kat Jungnickel describes the concept for "pocket conductors" in a public transit context:

"As soon as you enter the bus your mobile would alert you to the available service (which you can ignore or engage with, much as you would a conductor on a bus). Linked to the existing bus stop countdown system it would feature journey mapping (follow the route), stop alerts (beep in your pocket one stop before you get off), other routes (all transport connections), timetables (alert you when you are in the pub about the last bus approaching), local info (about a particular area), plus info about your bus (the conductor who used to manage this route, other conductors on the route), add a story, picture or sound or read others (like an urban mobile flickr), add some digital graffiti or see who else is accessing the system or recently uploaded something or maybe graffiti from passing buses."

This model could achieve multiple objectives for the marketer tasked with targeting niche communities. On the one hand, you have geo-specific attributes available through the pre-established transit routs and destinations, such as sporting facilities, business districts, specific retailers, bars, coffee shops, university campus locations, concert venues and nightclubs, shopping districts, theater districts, government centers... the list goes on and on. On the other hand, the notion of digital graffiti is intriguing for its viral marketing potential. Consumer Generated Media (CGM) and the ability to store an ongoing flickr-like catalog of multi-media content (collected during public transit experiences to share with friends or make public) seems to provide countless branding opportunities for the savvy marketer.