The rise of Geo-marketing

Geo-marketing is marketing targeted by location. We think it will be huge. Think of things this way. Currently with above-the-line advertising such as billboards you can target by location, but you are never 100% able to match the demographic of your buyer with the location of the ad space. Therefore there is a huge risk that the majority of eyeballs that see your advert are not relevant. Another location-based example would be a local Indian restaurant taking out an advert in a local paper. Some won’t see it. Some that see it won’t live in the area. Some that see it won’t like Indian food. Some will see it but are loyal to another restaurant. If they are very lucky, some people in the area who like Indian food might be willing to try their restaurant. Advertising has always been about risk. It might work. It might not. Online advertising mitigated much of that risk by showing clear routes to customers and ways to track sales. Geo-targeting is the next step.

At the moment only a tiny percentage of people use any geo location service. 2011 will see this change. It is not only that more people will get the smart phones that enable them to use these apps, but more and more apps will appear that make use of the device location.

These apps will allow marketers to target users with offers, deals and promotions directly as they are in the vicinity of a restaurant, bar, shop or whatever. As this becomes the norm, users will proactively search for geo-targeted offers. They will expect to log on, look at the Google Map on their phone and see which restaurant is doing a two for the price of one on meals. The possibilities are endless.

It will form part of a new type of marketing, something that brings technology right back down to street level. It will be new and exciting and something I believe the majority of top retailers are going to be clambering all over.

I’ll be writing quite a bit over the year on this subject, as I am really keen to see how it goes. I really think this will form part of a huge industry moving forward, and all of us in marketing will see a seismic shift towards this type of customer targeting.