YOWZA: Yowza is one of the
more interesting upstarts in location-based advertising. Users who
download
the Yowza app to
their iPhones are able to have deals and coupons pushed to them
based on their immediate location. Yowza is paperless too -- simply
let the cashier scan your phone to receive a discount. With
big-name retailers like REI, Crate & Barrel, Guitar Center and
CB2 on board, Yowza has the potential to completely upend the
Sunday circular.
YIPIT: Though still in its infancy, Foursquare
has opened up its API to create
a burgeoning -- if still fledgling -- location-based ecosystem.
Yipit is one of the most interesting service providers for
marketers. The startup scours sample sales, restaurant deals,
newspapers and much more to surface nearby sales and deals to users
based on their Foursquare "check-ins," and it predicts which offers
users are most interested in based on their profile preferences.
It's NY only, for now.
SIMPLEGEO: As location-based services take off,
a host of new companies like GeoApi, Geodelic, and, most promisingly, SimpleGeo are offering geo services to make
application development for publishers and brands much simpler.
SimpleGeo offers hosted services like a Context Engine that allows
developers to access geo-tagged content from the likes of Twitter,
Flickr, Brightkite and more; storage for location data; and even an
SDKs so you can get augmented reality up and running, fast.
Of course, location-based services won't be all smooth sailing.
It's still early days for geolocation, and privacy issues will
certainly come to the fore sooner rather than later. But
forward-thinking brands would do well to take note. It won't be
much longer until digital experiences -- whether mobile or
desktop-based -- start reacting to users based on their
coordinates. The co-mingling of social media and physical location
information is potent stuff, as Foursquare has proven. And just
think, Facebook hasn't even officially entered the arena, yet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Garrick
Schmitt is group VP of experience planning at Razorfish and the agency's
global lead for user experience. He publishes FEED,
Razorfish's annual digital brand experience report and in his spare
time flails about on Twitter @gschmitt.
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