Author: Lucy

Location based marketing is growing in importance over mobile

| April 3, 2014

Success in advertising over smartphones is beginning to require this vital component.

Although location based marketing may not be the entire issue when it comes to mobile, it is easily proving itself to be the most important factor over this channel, says a new report from Thinknear.

The company specializes in this area and is now claiming that it is vital to advertising success on smartphones.

General Manager Eli Portnoy of Thinknear, a mobile advertising firm that focuses on location based marketing, explained that “The phone is a portable device we carry in our pocket and is a part of what we are doing all day and every day. You have your phone with you when you are commuting, when you are at work, when you are seeing friends, when you go home. It’s ubiquitous. And you use it to interact with your world and what’s important to you.”

That said, Portnoy pointed out that many businesses forget how precise location based marketing can be.

He pointed out that many mobile marketing firms and advertisers forget that smartphones are an exceptionally portable device and that people take them along no matter where they go. This makes it possible for “very precise location capabilities.”Location Based Marketing - Mobile Growth

Using the geolocation technology that is built into the majority of smartphones, these days, can give companies the ability to better understand who their main customers actually are and what they typically do. This insight can be invaluable to being able to provide those consumers with just what they want, at the time that it is most relevant to them.

The main issue standing between companies and their ability to actually obtain accurate location data, which they can then use, is the same as the one standing in the way of the use of many other parts of the mobile marketing industry. While the technology is out there, it isn’t always possible to use it to capture the valuable data. Portnoy explained that “Users have to have their GPS on, give the app permission to use their location, have a clear line of sight to a GPS satellite, and so on.”

Therefore, not every impression will provide usable location based marketing data. However, there are ways around it and firms such as Thinknear appear to be able to help to provide strategies that will guide companies and show them the mobile ropes.

Smartwatch collaboration begins between Google and Fossil

| April 1, 2014

The technology giant and the designer accessory brand are coming together for wearables fashion and functionality.

As soon as the Android Wear operating system for wearables such as the smartwatch were announced, Google stated that a number of large brands such as LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Asus would all be powered by the OS later on this year.

That said, Google also dropped another important name, though not of a tech brand: Fossil.

Fossil is a designer brand of accessories and clothing and will now be working with Google in the design of its smartwatch, causing its shares to rise considerably. The designer brand is based in Richardson, Texas. Its chief strategy and marketing officer, Greg McKelvey said that it is a company that is driven by design and innovation in the creation of products with which customers will simply fall in love.

Now the brand is hoping that a new kind of accessory, the smartwatch, will be something its customers love.

McKelvey released a statement in which he explained the company’s perspective on these wearables. In it, he said that “We believe we are uniquely positioned to develop and bring to market products for our fashion customers that marry the beauty of our designs, the promise of our brands and now the function of new technology.”Wearable Technology - Fossil Watch

He pointed out that this form of wearable technology is “still very much in the formative research and development stage,” but that they are actively taking part in a drive toward wearables that will bring tech and fashion together.

As it is becoming widely believed that one of the primary barriers standing in the way of the widespread adoption of wearable technology is its clunky, large, science fiction geek look, the development of a device by a fashion designer could mean that this struggle could be overcome. Many feel that companies need to work together in order to speed up the development of devices that people will actually wear, instead of releasing one generation after the next that draws curiosity but doesn’t generate the necessary sales.

It will be interesting to see what designers do to the smartwatch over the next few months, as it could change the face – so to speak – of these devices, altogether.