Last week was an interesting one for advocates of location
targeting and tracking technology.
Some demonstrated a clear value for accuracy over inferred preferences,
others identified valuable use cases and one highlighted the importance of
anonymity as marketers work to cultivate this data set. This last point will be the difference
between applied data that takes us not much farther than what we’ve achieved on
desktop in terms of location and truly crafting strategies that understand and
impact a user’s journey to in-store purchases.
As a major advocate of location technology myself, I’ve
vetted a lot of the big players.
I’ve been sold a lot of BS and even more generic capabilities described
as major breakthroughs (if you still think geo-fencing is the coolest thing in
location, find another way to differentiate yourself), so it is very refreshing
when you see someone doing it right.
For instance, Foursquare announced they will only use data supplied directly
by the user (check-ins, email address for matching, etc) and no “applied” data
(predictive, look-a-like, etc).
This is massively important since physical behaviors (how we move, why
we move, physical distractions) are unique to every person. Sidenote:
Israeli start-up Shopcloud whose product Inside tracks movements of individuals
via smartphone camera & gyro technology highlights the specificity of
movements between people. Most
ad networks have gotten away with selling applied data for way too long and
mobile is highlighting the importance of accuracy. It’s one thing to target based off of inferred data sets,
but as tracking online to offline metrics becomes more plausible, advertisers
will come to demand more attributable insights.
Take the vision of Mastercard as an example. Last week they announced a partnership
with Syniverse that will allow them to better understand the validity of
purchases to improve customer experiences. The idea is to link a customer’s real-time location to the
time and place of a potentially fraudulent transaction to indicate if the
transaction should be processed or declined. The use case here is phenomenal and one I hope to see
executed right away. Accuracy
however will be an imperative and of course privacy will remain a challenge as
well.
Especially following the story regarding dating app Tinder
that identified a huge hole in the security of their data and the lack of
disclosure after it was found. As
data privacy continues to be in the spotlight given the rate of innovation
we’re experiencing, incidents like this, and more the mismanagement of them,
simply cannot happen if we hope to alleviate the fears of the public and
prevent future legislation that disallows the use of this valuable data.
Overall, the week was a great reminder of the wild frontier
that is still mobile marketing.
While there are more challenges to be overcome and risks to be taken,
there are also innovations to be discovered and champions to emerge. Stay informed, keep pushing and enjoy the ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment