Image via Wikipedia

Brian Morrissey had a quick piece yesterday morning that analyzed how “location” is increasingly tying together our virtual and physical environments.

If I’m a brand marketer or digital strategist, one of the nice by-products is I can now spend more time on engagement strategies. Here’s the way Morrissey described location’s impact on marketing.

This evolution has major implications for brands, giving them the possibility of tracking the success of digital campaigns to the store level and changing how they market to consumers.”

Think about the way check-ins and geo-fencing [a la Placecast] are changing the tactical approaches to one-on-one marketing and customer loyalty.  In essence, brands can now have their own content delivery networks (CDNs] and almost automate the entire opt-in process within the mobile experience.

It’s really pretty simple, if I’m near your storefront and you reach me with something valuable, there’s a good chance I’ll share at least some of my information or social profile. And as socialCRM gets more sophisticated and things like Twitter are more deeply entrenched in customer service, the brand experience will be much more fluid. Savvy organizations will proactively engage with you based on your preferences.  It’s that level of personalization, coupled with the ability to track behavior, that has so many folks excited about location’s impact on marketing.

Posted via web from George Dearing dot com

Image via CrunchBase

• Success Factors for Brands on Facebook [ADWEEK]
  "There’s no media cost to setting up on Facebook, but brands often find the quickest way to build a sizable following is through — you guessed it — paid advertising.

  Take Little Debbie. Nearly six months ago the snack food brand set up shop on Facebook with a standard fan page. It posted updates, uploaded old TV spots and waited. Crickets. Then, last Thursday, it rolled out an engagement ad "reach block" that messaged 21-49-year-olds touting a sweepstakes for a Smart car with the option to become a fan. Within 12 hours, Little Debbie’s fan base went from 5,000 to over 125,000. It welcomed people with a message asking their favorite Little Debbie snack. It got over 6,000 comments." (tags: facebook brands social+media social+networks)

• M-Commerce’s Big Moment [BusinessWeek]
  "Yet, m-commerce may finally be hitting its stride. And some analysts who in recent years became more conservative in their forecasts are now having to make upward revisions. In January, consultant ABI Research projected North American sales of physical goods ordered via cell phone would reach $544 million this year, up from $346 million in 2008. Now, Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI, is considering updating his 2009 forecast to $800 million. "I thought hockey-stick growth was going to come in 2010, but it looks like it’s already a hockey stick," Beccue says. "Next year, it will double again."
  (tags: retail iphone mobile m-commerce mobile2.0)

TreeHugger’s post on Green iPhone apps got me thinking about the upside that exists as mobile content and apps continue to explode. With such clear demand, you’d think it would be easy to find apps.

I like 3rdWhale President Ron Williams’ idea of simply adding a "sustainability" tag to the iTunes store and homepage. And with Apple’s recent Green push, you’d think they’d be all over the opportunity to boost firms with a green gene.

What this also shows is how much opportunity there is for brands and content providers. If I were a media company or brand I’d be looking to cut content and licensing deals that put my company front and center alongside these niche providers. Not to mention iPhone apps are the gateway interface to other brand touches and interactions. And guess what — a lot of those interactions will ultimately be tied to transactions. Think M-Commerce.

via treehugger.com

And according to Nielsen and Interpret Research, gamers have a recall rate of more than 70% for in-game ads.

"Market researcher Screen Digest estimates the global in-game advertising market will reach $1 billion by 2014. The rationale is that people are watching less TV and so advertisers are trying to reach them via new media, including video games. While the recession has hurt game sales, Massive contends people are spending more time playing games. (That means gamers are playing the games they buy for a longer time and are consuming less traditional media). Massive says it can reach 40 million Xbox 360 and PC gamers in 31 countries."

Posted via web from George Dearing dot com

It’s amazing how far the U.S is behind in mobile payments. I don’t really go to Starbucks but I’m certainly interested in how this plays out. There’s big implications for brands, especially as their experiences move to the handset.
I can see all sorts of mashups spawning from the convergence of location-based services, micropayments and of course social networking.

This deal,coupled with a redesigned MySpace Music homepage, seems to signal the social network’s heavy focus on entertainment is taking shape. If MySpace can continue to unify its properties and improve brand recognition (what it is), the social network land grab gets a heck of a lot more interesting.

Image via Wikipedia

• Barnes & Noble unveils store for digital books [Reuters]
  More details on Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore launch. Big shot across the bow here: "Eschewing Amazon’s Kindle-only approach, the bookseller said its digital books could be read on the iPhone or iPod touch, Research in Motion Ltd’s Blackberry and most Mac and Microsoft Corp Windows laptops or desktop computers."
  (tags: barnes+noble amazon kindle plastic+logic digital+distribution downloads ebooks ereaders)

  

• Announcing the NYT API Tool [Open Blog - NYTimes]
  Good to see publishers thinking about this kind of content portability. content.
  (tags: NYT APIs web nytimes newspapers media developers code mashups)

  

• Hub using Twitter, Facebook in hunt for stolen bikes [BostonHerald.com]
  "Stolen Bikes Boston" using Twitter and Facebook for theft alerts.
  (tags: social+media socialnetworking boston+herald community online internet)

• Hey Newspaper Guys: Google’s Not Making Money From News | Techdirt
  "So if you built a news aggregator, powered by journalists, this would somehow unlock the value and get to $1.5B in annual revenues?
  NO…startups would be actually making a ton of money and chewing up the pop charts. Or Digg for that matter, or the Huffington Post." – [Chris Tolles,Topix]
  (tags: newspapers topix aggregator publishing google online+content content+distribution)

Image by George Dearing via Flickr

• Digital Domain – Just Browsing? A Web Store May Follow You Out the Door – NYTimes.com
  Abandonment Tracker Pro will alert a subscribing Web store when a visitor places an item in a shopping cart or begins an application and does not complete the final step.
  (tags: ecommerce analytics online+commerce web2.0)

• Common Sense Media Group: Return on Information – Why Social Media Requires New Thinking
  "Customers want us to know their preferences, so they can get information or alerts they want when they want them that are actionable."
  (tags: bob+pearson social+media ROI online+conversations CSMG+Holdings)
• Clean Energy 2030 – a knol by Jeffery Greenblatt
  Good to see Google trying to kick-start the conversation on clean energy.
  (tags: google energy green knol alternative+energy fossil+fuels)
• Know and Master Your Social Media Data Flow – louisgray.com
  Good things to think about as you develop your digital footprint.
  (tags: louis+gray social+media data+portability online+conversations tech+tools web+apps)

Image by George Dearing via Flickr

• Practical Traveler – The Economics of Hotel Wi-Fi Fees – NYTimes.com
  High-end hotels and fee-based Wi-Fi? Don’t get it.
  (tags: wi+fi travel road+warriors)
• 12 Rules For Bringing ‘Social’ To Your Business
  "If you’re not sure where your organization ends and the network begins, you’re doing it right."
  (tags: social+computing digital+strategy online+communities)
• Recession forces new focus in e-commerce marketing
  Search engine marketing being cut, dollars shifting to social media and social networks.
  (tags: SEO SEM social+networking social+media)