Mobile marketing is about to take off!

Mobile marketing becomes interesting when the phone can connect where we are standing with an offer from a business. I am sitting outside a pizzeria in Florida and have already tried getting a discount by checking in on my phone. It may look silly, but I think there is something very exciting in that kind of marketing.

It is January 2010, and I am meeting my friend Craig. The pizzeria uses Foursquare. That is my reason for discussing location-based marketing and encouraging you to play with the new possibilities.

A pizzeria, a phone and a ten per cent discount

The restaurant is really just a pizzeria. What makes it special is that it uses modern marketing. Foursquare is a little application where you can say you are at a particular place. You can download it to your iPhone and find it online.

The first time you see it, it may seem completely ridiculous. I think myself that perhaps it is mainly for teenagers who want to meet up. But try playing with it anyway. What is interesting is what businesses can use it for.

Craig had told me to go to the pizzeria because they have good pizza. When I went there the other day and told Foursquare I was there, I got a message: I just had to say Craig sent me, the guy with the website worstpizza.com, and I would get a ten per cent discount. I did, and I got the discount.

Now I am there for the second time to meet him. I check in again and am reminded of the opportunity to become mayor of the place.

Mobile marketing with mayors and discounts

Craig is the mayor of the pizzeria on Foursquare. It is a title you can earn by visiting the same place several times. If someone else comes more often, they can take it over. That way, people can start competing for the title.

What the hell can a restaurant use that for? Imagine customers starting to compete to visit most often to get a discount. The restaurant could say, for example: Whoever comes most gets 20 per cent. The next gets 19 per cent, and the next 18 per cent.

That is an example of an opportunity I see, not a description of the pizzeria’s existing discount scheme. The more often you visit, the more you could get out of it. You show your phone, and the restaurant can see you are mayor and should get the associated discount.

There is also something viral in it. We can go around boasting about being mayor somewhere. Friends can see where we hold the title, and it gives the pizzeria a way to get people talking about the place.

It feels like collecting stickers

When you use the application, you also get badges. They are little symbols you earn for visiting different places or doing particular things. Travel a long way, for example, and you can become an Explorer.

You feel like a three-year-old collecting stickers. I cannot explain it in a particularly sensible way, and perhaps you think Thorborg has bloody well lost his last screw. But try it. It only takes a few minutes to play with, and it is quite fun.

Try the possibilities while they are new

I believe the combination of smartphones and advertising will explode over the next few years. In 2010, Foursquare and Gowalla are among the applications you can try. I also expect Twitter to introduce something in this area.

If you only start taking an interest when you really grasp the opportunities, you will lack the experience of having played with it. So my encouragement is: Try the applications, even if they seem ridiculous at first. Also read E-pusher about my experiences with online sales and marketing.

I believe that if you watch this video in two or three years, you will think an incredible amount has happened in location-based marketing. That is my expectation here in 2010. It is incredibly interesting.

Hi friends, here is a little about mobile marketing. It stopped rather abruptly because I accidentally switched the bloody thing off. In this episode, I am horizontal for you 😉 Or my iPhone fucked up…

Location:NE 1st Ave,Boca Raton,USA