SXSW Archives ⋆ Mobile Commerce Press

Tag: SXSW

Gnomad launches Uber back seat mobile advertising at SXSW

Julie Campbell | March 21, 2016

The Houston based mobile ad platform will target the ride share program’s customers.

Gnomad took the opportunity to use the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in order to launch its mobile advertising platform which will make it possible to display ads to passengers sitting in the back seats of dozens of Uber vehicles around the Austin, Texas area.

The Gnomad mobile app was developed by a company called Poetic Systems, Inc., out of Houston.

The way it works is that it displays mobile advertising and content, among other features, that are geared toward travelers who are visiting from elsewhere and who are seeking to find out more about what there is to do within the area, particularly throughout the duration of the festival. So far, the mobile marketing content in the app is featuring the Greater Houston Partnership, which is a SnapStream based in Houston. It has also placed the spotlight on the Capital Factory co-working space and an assortment of startups in Austin.

Mobile advertising content was also assembled for Gnomad along with the Tasting Table culinary website.

That site is based in New York under Rich Winley, the co-founder and CEO. Ahead of the SXSW, he explained that “We’re expecting to be in about 75 Uber cars,” and that “We’re expecting 20,000 people to see the GHP ad over the weekend.”

That said, despite this mobile marketing agreement, Gnomad is not considered to be an official partner with Uber as each driver with the rideshare program is considered to be an independent contractor. This has given them the opportunity to create individual partnerships with Gnomad if they wish to do so. Those drivers, who are currently facing fare cuts, are frequently seeking additional opportunities to generate an income. By working with Gnomad, Winley explained that they can take part in a revenue sharing model.

Over the long term, Gnomad will continue these types of mobile advertising opportunities and intends to take its ad tech to New York throughout Fashion Week. For that event, it has partnered with a handful of ad agencies in New York, which had not been identified by the time of the writing of this article.

Geolocation technology to provide massive feature range at SXSW festival

Dan Gendro | March 6, 2015

There will be over 1,000 Apple iBeacons installed throughout the event for a spectrum of alerts, meet-ups, and other info.

This year, the SXSW music festival, which is taking place in Austin, Texas, will use geolocation technology in order to provide its attendees with a wide range of different types of onsite features, so that the people in attendance will always know exactly what is going on, and where they want to be.

The location based tech will offer alerts, information about meet-ups, and additional ways to connect with people.

This will be accomplished through the installation of iBeacons. That geolocation technology was first used by the event, last year, but to a much more limited degree. This year, though, the organizers have significantly boosted their use of location based tech. The Gimbal-created iBeacons use Bluetooth Low Energy to be able to give people attending the festival a whole new way to make connections with other people who are closeby.

The new SXSW Go app will include an “Around Me” feature based on geolocation tech so users can interact.

Geolocation Technology - SXSW Music Festival That feature will make it possible for the mobile app users to be able to introduce themselves to other people who are close by, through a quick message. This will help other people who use the same application to be able to find them and meet them if that is what they want to do. This iBeacon based feature has cross-platform support, being compatible with recent Apple iPads and iPhones 4S and newer, as well as the Android based Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 and the Nexus 5 and 6.

Users of the app will also be able to receive location based alerts and messages about who may have recently arrived at the festival and who can be found nearby. The iBeacons and the Bluetooth Low Energy technology are the same type of tech that Apple uses within its own retail stores so that it can provide customers with the latest updates, product reviews, and even upgrade eligibility for their devices.

To make this geolocation technology work, event attendees will need to download and launch the app, and ensure that their Bluetooth and proper notifications are enabled.