The future of mobile marketing- the written account.

1. Location-Based Services:
The Future of Mobile Marketing
Anna Nelson
8 September 2016
English II GE 2411
The Art Institutes International Minnesota
Professor Christopher Title

2. Anna Nelson
Professor Christopher Title
English II
July 21, 2016
How Trending Technology Can Increase Engagement and Create Sales Research Proposal
Originally inspired by the explosive popularity of the smart phone game Pokemon Go, I
want to explore the use of location based apps and trending technology to create sales and
increase customer engagement for businesses. I’m always curious to try new technology, and
have believed since the early days of Facebook that there is a strong argument for taking
advantage of customer behavior in a creative, cost-effective way. Social media for business has
always fascinated me, and I’d like to delve further into the analytics of how creative tech
advertising has worked or failed in the past with location based apps to show some specific
arguments for success in this arena.
• How have businesses used trending technology to create sales and increase customer
engagement in the past?
• What are some examples of the use of trending technology in real life engagement
success and failures in business?
• Can businesses translate likes and engagement to dollars?
• How have location based applications like Pokemon Go influenced advertising
behavior of businesses?
• What is the future of trending technology’s relationship with business?

3. 1
Outline
Thesis: Businesses should include the use of location based services (LBS) in their mobile
marketing strategy to increase sales and customer engagement.
I. Location based services (LBS) allow marketers to reach customers at the right place with the
right message.
A. Google Maps is a GPS service that 74% of mobile users give their location to in order to
get directions.
1. Businesses tailor their Google presence to reach these consumers.
2. Customers click through to find out more about businesses.
B. Foursquare is a GPS enabled mobile app that allows targeted advertising and
gamification of deals to increase customer engagement.
1. Businesses add specials to hours or locations to target specific customers.
2. Customers search what’s nearby when making their choice of where to go and what
to buy.
II. A well-rounded marketing campaign that includes social media is common behavior for
most businesses today.
A. Customer engagement on social media is an important brand strategy.
1. Facebook pages give insight analytics such as number of likes, the demographic of
visitors, whether the visit is from a mobile device or desktop computer, and more.
a) Sponsored ads within Facebook give more detailed information, such as how
many click-throughs occur.
b) These sponsored ads have a Facebook specific algorithm that can limit
impressions, and de-value organic reach.

4. 2
2. Instagram is an important branding tool, but customer engagement and analytics are
more difficult.
a) Consumers spend on average 13 minutes per day on Instagram, and value seeking
inspiration and following celebrities.
b) This type of content is more brand messaging, which is important but on this
platform, hard to translate into sales.
B. Impressions on a Facebook ad often give an unrealistic expectation of sales.
1. Reach is the amount of people on Facebook that saw the ad, while impressions are
the amount of people that interacted with it.
a) A boutique in Colorado saw 18.2K likes on an ad, but soon went out of business.
b) The gap is not the targeted advertising of the ads, but the physical customer’s
location when they view the ad (not their listed zip code on Facebook).
2. Location based services (LBS) can close that gap when used correctly.
a) They allow the business to reach the customer at the right time and place.
b) LBS gather data to improve targeting and messaging.
c) LBS helps businesses use customer data to become more relevant to their
consumer.
III. Customers are becoming more tech savvy in this mobile market.
A. Millenial usage has skyrocketed, but so has use by their parents and grandparents.
1. “With almost two-thirds of Pokemon Go players in the 18 to 24 “millenial” market,
brands should embrace the opportunity this presents to target a market that typically
tends to reject direct advertising,” Jens Nielsen, head of UK Operations, Netbooster.
(Hobbs)

5. 3
2. Brands, in the past, would create their own app to engage consumers. Now, they are
partnering with existing apps that already have large user bases.
B. Some marketers see customer resistance to new trends or the opting-in of giving out data.
1. There is an anti-ad mentality, which means advertisers need to be more creative in
order to stand out, and more in touch with mobile trends in order to reach their
consumer.
2. Data mining resistance means advertisers need to value those who opt-in and adjust
to gathering those customers additional data, and those of their network.
C. Businesses can adjust to this information.
1. They can utilize mobile technology to express more creative messages.
2. The data LBS provides helps bring the business closer to the consumer, and more in
touch with their behavior, wants, and needs.
IV. The future of mobile marketing is certain, as spending on LBS is expected to reach $2.3
billion globally by the end of 2016.
A. Trends in customer behavior point towards expanding the tech savvy user community as
people get more comfortable with new technology.
B. Trends in corporate behavior point towards investing more dollars into mobile app
development.
C. LBS is scalable marketing that can help businesses increase sales and customer
engagement by closing the gap of the limitations of Facebook sponsored targeted ads,
becoming more relevant to the consumer.

6. 4

7. 5

8. 1
Location-Based Services: The Future of Mobile Marketing
With the explosive popularity of the mobile augmented reality game Pokemon Go, the
mobile marketing world has watched businesses either scoff at or capitalize on customer
behavior. “But when you see multiple generations jumping on a product and that product is
getting more news coverage than Donald Trump, it’s probably worth a look,” editor of
Advertising Age Ken Wheaton observes (Wheaton). Businesses have traditionally put advertising
dollars into banner ads and sponsored Facebook ads, but with the increase of GPS apps and SaaS
(software as a service) social media platforms, they should be spending those dollars elsewhere.
The rich opt-in data mines of applications such as Foursquare, Pokemon Go, and Snapchat
contain valuable information businesses can use to their advantage. Businesses should include
the use of location based services (LBS) in their mobile marketing strategy to increase sales and
customer engagement.
Location based services (LBS) allow marketers to reach customers at the right place with
the right message. 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was even quoted saying, “I don’t
know who created Pokemon Go, but I’m trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokemon
go to the polls.” Her campaign even set up a voter-registration event at a PokeStop (a local
monument or place of interest according to Google Maps) in Ohio (Moran). GPS services on
mobile apps are not new to smart phone users. Google Maps is a GPS service that 74% of mobile
users give their location to in order to get directions (Hobbs). Businesses tailor their Google
presence to reach these customers by adding their address, hours of operations, website, contact
information, and even delivery menus. Customers click through on the app on their mobile

9. 2
device to find out more about these businesses and immediately route directions via public
transportation, walking, biking or driving.
A slightly more sophisticated application, Foursquare, is a GPS enabled mobile app that
allows targeted advertising and gamification of deals to increase customer engagement.
Businesses add specials to hours or locations to target specific customers, and “gamify” the
experience for users by giving coins and connecting them with their social networks via
Facebook and Twitter to create a leaderboard for check ins. Users search what’s nearby when
making their choice of where to go and what to buy. According to Altimeter Group Digital
Advertising and Media analyst Rebecca Lieb, “Mobile and location-based advertising has a great
deal of potential. We’re already seeing national brands such as Walgreens and American Express
experiment with Foursquare as a marketing platform…Foursquare’s ability to harness behavioral
data in addition to location data will be key to the success of the units” (VanGrove).
A well-rounded marketing campaign that includes social media is common behavior for
most businesses today. Customer engagement on social media is an important brand strategy.
Facebook pages give insight analytics such as number of likes, the demographic of visitors,
whether the visit is from a mobile device or desktop computer, and more. Sponsored ads within
Facebook give more detailed information, such as how many click-throughs occur. These
sponsored ads have a Facebook specific algorithm that can limit impressions, and de-value
organic reach. In an interview with Secure Entertainment partner Brian Bell, operator of Rouge
at The Lounge, the longest running nightclub in Minneapolis, MN, he observes his customer
base is more likely to check in on Facebook when visiting his establishment, but those check ins

10. 3
aren’t helpful to his brand unless the customer adds a picture. Bell adds that social media users
are more likely to interact with photos than any other type of post (Bell).
Instagram is an important branding tool, but customer engagement and analytics are more
difficult. The Sensor Tower, a mobile research firm, recently found the average iPhone user
spends 33 minutes and 25 seconds a day on Pokemon Go, which is greater than Facebook at 22
minutes, Snapchat at 18 minutes, Twitter following closely at 17 minutes and 56 seconds and
Instagram at 15 minutes per day. The Sensor Tower claims Pokemon Go generates $1.6m in
daily revenue (as of July 18, 2016) (Hobbs). The 15 minutes per day customers spend on
Instagram is hard to translate into real sales for businesses because Instagram does not provide
native analytics for brands and businesses to learn from their customer engagement.
Facebook ads can also give an unrealistic expectation of sales. A boutique in Colorado
saw 18.2K likes on an ad, but soon went out of business (Bell). The term “reach” is the amount
of people on Facebook that saw the ad, while “impressions” are the number of times the ad is
interacted with. The gap is not the targeted advertising of the ads, but the physical customer’s
location when they view the ad (not their listed zip code on Facebook). Location based services
(LBS) can close that gap when used correctly. “All these cultural trends, we’re able to capture it,
and if you can’t figure out how to build a profitable business with that data, you should probably
go home,” Glueck, CEO of Foursquare stated in Tech Crunch magazine (Lynley). They allow the
business to reach the customer at the right time and place, gather data to improve targeting and
messaging, and overall can help businesses use customer data to become more relevant to their
consumer.

11. 4
Customers are becoming more tech savvy in this mobile market. Millenial usage has
skyrocketed. “With almost two-thirds of Pokemon Go players in the 18-to-34-year-old millennial
market, brands should embrace the opportunity this presents to target a market that typically
tends to reject direct advertising,” advises Jens Nielsen, head of UK operations, Netbooster
(Hobbs). A customer that doesn’t just ignore but rejects direct advertising deserves to be
understood and adjusted to in order to connect with. “Historically, brands would release native
gaming apps of their own in an attempt to gasify their brand. What we see more of today is
brands working with apps that already have massive audiences, integrating their brand in a
natural way,” managing director of North Europe for mobile gaming developer Gameloft
Antonin Lhuillier explains (Hobbs).
According to the Pew Institute, 74% of adult smartphone owners ages 18 and older say
they use their phone to get directions or other information based on their current location (Baus).
Use of mobile GPS has gone from being a perk of a fancy phone to a part of consumer’s
everyday phone experience. “A whopping 72% of consumers say they will respond to calls-to-
action in marketing messages they receive within sight of the retailer. With only 23% of retail
marketers using some type of geotargeted data in their mobile marketing, there is a huge
opportunity to give customers what they want when they want it” (Baus). With almost two-thirds
of the buying market already using GPS on a daily basis, and almost all of that group electing to
opt-in to apps that ask for their location and other data, the other 77% of retail marketers are
missing out on a huge opportunity.
Some marketers see customer resistance to new trends or the opting-in of giving out data.
There is an anti-ad mentality, which means advertisers need to be more creative in order to stand

12. 5
out, and more in touch with mobile trends in order to reach their consumer. Data mining
resistance means advertisers need to value those who opt-in and adjust to gathering those
customers additional data, and those of their network. “It is also worth remembering that
intrusive capturing of customer-specific data can damage customer relationships. Some
individuals will be put off by excess data gathering” (Farris).
However, businesses can adjust to this information. They can utilize mobile technology to
express more creative messages. The data LBS provides helps bring the business closer to the
consumer, and more in touch with their behavior, wants, and needs. A 2012 article in the
Huffington Post explains, “Proximity seems like a simple concept, but can be a huge determining
factor when potential customers choose a specific establishment over others. You can take
proximity a step further by using technology to partner with other businesses near you. Over
time, the network built by location-based services scales like a social network. Every business
that jumps on board gets a network benefit, so it will be easy for you to convince others to go in
on partner deals and other rewards to cross-pollinate. Non-competing businesses can advertise
for each other easily and inexpensively. Everyone wins” (Rogers).
Trends in customer behavior point toward expanding the tech savvy user community as
people get more comfortable with new technology. “It used to be possible to reach potential
consumers easily. According to an analysis by Willard Bishop Consulting, back in 1995 it took
the airing of a TV commercial just three measly times to reach 80 percent of eighteen-to-forty-
nine-year-old ladies. But five years later, reaching the same demographic required airing that
awful commercial ninety-seven times” (Laermer). The future of mobile marketing is certain, as
spending on LBS is expected to reach $2.3 billion globally by the end of 2016 (Hobbs). LBS is

13. 6
scalable marketing that can help businesses increase sales and customer engagement by closing
the gap of the limitations of Facebook sponsored targeted ads, becoming more relevant to the
consumer.

14. 7
Works Cited
Baus, Lynn. “Location-Based Mobile Marketing Is Where It’s At For Consumers.” Marketing
Land, 20 Feb. 2014, http://marketingland.com/location-based-mobile-marketing-
consumers-74256.
Bell, Brian. Interview. 13 Aug. 2016. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Farris, Paul, Neil Bendle, Phillip Pfeifer, and David Reibstein. Marketing Metrics: The Definitive
Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance. Second Edition, Pearson Education FT
Press, 2010, p. 166.
Hobbs, Thomas. “Why Pokemon Go is a Game Changer For Augmented Reality and Marketers.”
Marketing Week, 18 July 2016, http://www.marketingweek.com/2016/07/18/why-
pokemon-go-is-a-game-changer-for-augmented-reality-and-marketers/.
Laermer, Richard, and Mark Simmons. Punk Marketing. HarperCollins, 2007, pp. xxi-xxii.
Lynley, Matthew. “How Foursquare Hopes To Hit Profitability.” Tech Crunch, 9 May 2016,
https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/09/how-foursquare-hopes-to-hit-profitability/.
Moran, Victoria, Maureen Morrison, Adrianne Pasquarelli, E.J. Schultz, and Jessica Wohl.
“Marketers Aren’t Waiting for Pokemon Go’s In-App Advertising to Arrive.” Advertising
Age, 18 July 2016, http:adage.com/print/304998.
Rogers, Julia. “Location-Based Services: 5 Things You Need To Know.” Huffington Post/AOL
Small Business, 19 September 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/19/
location-based-services-5-things_n_917510.html.

15. 8
VanGrove, Jennifer. “With Promoted Updates, Foursquare Helps Advertisers Push People Into
Stores.” Venture Beat, 24 July 2012, http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/24/foursquare-
promoted-updates/.
Wheaton, Ken. “Pokemon Go: A Crazy, Over-the-Top Tech Fad That Might Actually Help Your
Business.” Advertising Age, 18 July 2016, http://adage.com/article/print-edition/
pokemon-a-crazy-tech-fad-business/304987/.