Why Location Is About More than the Check-In

The marketing opportunity in location-based services

The check-in got a lot of press in 2010 although it was still an activity limited to early adopters, with the Pew Internet & American Life project reporting in November that just 4% of US internet users participated in location-sharing services.

Like social networking on mobile devices, location-based services are still in their infancy. eMarketer projects the number of mobile social network users will more than double between 2010 and 2015, and adoption of location-based services will rise with it.

“Savvy marketers know there is more to geolocation than just the check-in and immediate proximity to the consumer,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “Beyond the Check-In: Best Practices for Location-Based Marketing.” “Location services enable marketers to deliver a compelling offer when consumers are near the point of decision, yet they also help marketers understand the context of their target audience—their intent and state of mind.”

Explosive growth in usage of location-based services in 2010 suggests that checking in is ready to move into the mainstream. According to SNL Kagan, the number of location-based services users nearly tripled in 2010, reaching 33.2 million (including users of family tracking and navigation services provided by wireless carriers). Having Facebook in the mix will only help to familiarize people with the check-in and push it toward mass adoption.

“Checking in to take advantage of an offer will be the direct-response end point of a larger user location-based campaign that starts with branding and awareness-building,” said Elkin. “Proximity data will help guide marketer messaging at each stage of the purchase funnel, starting with building awareness about the location of a store or product, and becoming progressively more specific to include promotions or offers as a consumer gets physically closer. Success will come from the combined power of reach, relevancy and the ability to drive offer redemption.”

Stay Safe Using Location-based Services

Walk by The North Face store in several major cities in the near future, and your mobile phone may suddenly buzz with a new text message -- a coupon from the store.

That’s because the company is planning to push offers over your mobile phone whenever you're near one of their stores. The service is available to anyone who signs up for ShopAlerts.

It will be easy enough to sign up -- at the store, on The North Face Web site, or via text message, mobile Web sites and even Facebook. ShopAlerts also plans to carry coupons and offers from American Eagle Outfitters, REI and others.

It sounds like a very useful new service, but the technology holds dangerous pitfalls, say the experts.

Services that track your physical location through your mobile phone or other mobile device send information about where you are to various sources. Some sources are legitimate, such as retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. But some sources that get access to the information about where you are may intend to do you harm.

For example, if you use a service that publicises where you are, such as FourSquare, a tool you can use on your phone to “check in” at a restaurant, cinema or other location, you are also indicating that you are not at home. A Web site called PleaseRobMe has popped up to point out that this very public information can alert thieves and the like that your home might not be currently occupied. As the site states, “The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not ... home.”

Most of us -- 95.7 million, according to research group Gartner -- don’t think twice about allowing these services to know where we are. We get in our cars and turn on the GPS map to help us get to our destination; it couldn’t function without pinpointing our exact location. We are thankful when 999 is automatically clued in to where we are in times of trouble, like car accidents. And when a service on our phone lets us connect with others by broadcasting our location at that moment, it seems just as harmless. That’s just what thieves are counting on.

“Knowing where a target is is crucial,” says Richard Weinblatt, director of the Institute for Public Safety at Central Ohio Technical College, who runs the TheCopDoc.com. He advises that you give out information selectively and that you consider whether you trust the service with your information before you sign up.

In addition to the risk of having your home burgled, you are also putting some crucial data in jeopardy when you give the OK to services that ask for your location to help you find what you are seeking. There are two primary ways these services find you: Your cellular service approximates your location based on your distance to nearby cell towers, or the GPS software in your phone relays your spot to satellites. Your wireless provider then transmits your location to the service company, which in some cases stores that information on its servers.

The good news is, location-based services find out where you are only when you let them. Whether you’re actively posting your location or allowing a service to use GPS and cellular service technologies to find out where you are, it’s because you’ve made the choice of letting them know. What this means is that it’s already within your control to manage what information gets out there.

Here’s what you can do to protect yourself, your belongings and your personal information while still participating in these useful location-based services:

• Don’t link your home address to your account. This is the easiest way for thieves to find out where you are not. Most services either won’t make this information public or will allow you to choose what information you share. Pay special attention to ensure control of this information.
• Don’t use your full name. Robbers can easily look up your name if there is a record of your home address available anywhere online or even in the local phone book. To limit broadcast of where you are, hide your full name.
• Be selective about which services you allow to pinpoint your location. Many applications will automatically ask you if they can find out where you are so they can offer you content and services most useful to you. Allow them access only where you feel most comfortable.
• Be selective about who sees your location. In social networking applications involving your location, set limits on who is able to see that information -- everyone, all your contacts, select contacts or no one.
• Read the privacy policy. Above all, arm yourself with information on how each service works. Each privacy policy should indicate how the service uses any of the data it requests from you.

So-called location-based services can be as innocuous as the GPS-enabled maps you use in your car or on your mobile device, and they can even help save lives. But be vigilant about your use of them, and you will enjoy only their benefits.

Story by Laura Rich, Laura is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado.

Trends in Consumers’ Time Spent with Media

There are only so many hours per day that consumers can spend watching TV, reading newspapers and surfing the internet. But as marketers may suspect, the time devoted to media is undergoing some not-so-subtle changes.

eMarketer recently conducted a meta-analysis of data from dozens of research firms using a variety of methodologies. The result is a series of estimates of how much time consumers spend with all major media, regardless of multitasking or simultaneous usage, from 2008 to 2010. The estimates apply to average media usage of the general public, not solely to the users of each medium.

The average time spent with all major media combined increased from about 10.6 hours in 2008 to 11 hours in 2010, according to eMarketer. TV and video (not including online video) captured the lion’s share of all media time, about 40% each year. The internet’s share of media time increased over the same period, from 21.5% to 23.5%, as did mobile’s share, from 5% to 7.5%. The share of time spent with magazines and newspapers fluctuated between 10% and 7.5%, while radio and all other media—video games, movies in theaters and outdoor media—declined.

To account for multitasking, an hour spent watching TV and surfing the internet was counted as 1 hour for TV plus 1 hour for internet use. Also, use of each medium is discrete: Time spent listening to the radio does not include streaming stations from the internet, for example.

In 2010, consumers spent an average of 4 hours and 24 minutes each day watching TV and video, while being online for 2 hours and 35 minutes. Mobile devices received an average of 50 minutes’ worth of attention every day—the same amount of time allotted to newspapers and magazines combined. eMarketer expects that time spent with mobile devices will continue to increase, most likely taking time away from print media.

In fact, time spent with mobile devices is rising faster than all other media. In 2010, consumers spent 28.2% more time with mobile devices, which covers all mobile activities on all mobile devices. That gain was even higher than the 21.9% growth in 2009. Time spent on the internet showed moderate but steady gains, at more than 6% each year since 2008. All other major media posted declines: TV and video lost 1.1% in 2010, while magazines and newspapers lost 9.1% each. However, as consumers continue to consume more media every day, those losses are not immediately significant.

Marketers need to pay attention to these trends as they project budgets and develop marketing strategies for the coming year—and years. Mobile devices will claim more and more media time per day, while TV, print and radio will slowly lose ground to digital media. Those trends have been most apparent with print media in recent years, but are now beginning to show up in TV and radio usage as well.

How Tweens, Teens and Parents Decide What to Buy

Teens more influential with parents and more reliant on web for information

Teens and tweens have very different approaches when deciding what electronics they want. For tweens, most just “know what they like,” according to the “TeenFluence Survey” conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ConsumerSearch.com. Ads were the second most common factor affecting their decision-making. Just 10% cited online reviews and 17% checked out the product website.

Teens, meanwhile, were much more price-sensitive, likely starting to realize that money may not in fact grow on trees. More importantly though, the internet was a much bigger factor in forming preferences. Two in five teens said online reviews influenced their computer product preferences, and 37% cited product websites.

A study by Mintel similarly found that the influence of online information becomes more important as kids get older. "At the upper end of the age range, kids 9-11 are more likely to turn to more diverse resources for information, including online ads and social networking sites, while the younger kids, aged 6-8, have a stronger reliance on parents," said Fiona O'Donnell, senior analyst at Mintel, in a statement.

Parents surveyed by Harris gave responses very similar to teens. Online reviews and product websites were the biggest factors behind price when deciding on electronics to purchase. And while the children themselves were not the biggest influencer overall, 18% of parents with teens said they asked for their opinion. Parents of tweens were not likely to do the same.

Electronics are an area where teens are particularly influential. A May 2010 survey from Ketchum found teens were more likely to recommend electronics to their friends than any other product category besides entertainment. The Harris study also separately asked parents and their children who they thought knew more about different kinds of electronic devices. Unsurprisingly, it depended on who was asked. Teens said they knew more about each kind of product than their parents, while parents said they knew more than their kids. There were two exceptions, though: Parents admitted that their kids knew more about video games, and parents of teens reported that their kids knew more about smartphones. Neither tweens nor their parents said that tweens were particularly knowledgeable about anything other than video games.

The takeaway is that overall, the internet plays an outsized role for helping teens and parents decide what electronics to buy. Teens are also particularly influential with smartphone purchases. Tweens are easy to market to, but they have little influence.

Top Viral Videos - Dec. 2010

Sports, especially of the extreme variety, were prominently featured in four of the 10 most-shared online videos tracked by Unruly Media during December 2010. These included the top two videos: “Gymkhana Three, Part 2″ from DC Shoes and “Way Back Home” from extreme biker Danny MacAskill. Physical feats have always transferred well to the screen, and this month, online video viewers were impressed enough with several videos featuring athletes and athletic accomplishments to make them among the 10 most-shared.

Leading the way was an installment in the “Gymkhana” series of stunt driving videos from professional rally racer Ken Block promoting DC Shoes. This video rose from number three in mid-November to the top spot this month.

Another installment in the Gymkhana series was shared enough to rank ninth on the list for December, proving the global popularity and visual excitement of motorsports.

The second-most-shared video featured extreme biker Danny MacAskill performing a variety of eye-popping feats as he travels across the rugged terrain and crowded cities of Scotland. In addition, the more mainstream sport of basketball is represented by the number five video from Nike Basketball, featuring legendary NBA icon Michael Jordan telling modern-day NBA star LeBron James to quit making excuses about his many public relations gaffes and play ball.

Other Top Videos Run from Somber to Silly to Cute

The remaining six videos on the top 10 list are a mixed bag of somber, silly and cute, with some crossing multiple lines. The number three video, celebrating 20 years of anti-drunk-driving ads from Australian government agency Transport Accident Commission (TAC), struck a serious tone about the deadly effects of driving while intoxicated.

Much lighter in tone were three videos making a repeat appearance from MarketingCharts’ last analysis of the Unruly Media most-shared video list in mid-November 2010. Evian “Roller Babies” features roller skating infants, T-Mobile “Welcome Back” is a recording of a presumably genuine ambush singalong performed for arriving travelers at London’s Heathrow Airport, and NSFW “A Hunter Shoots a Bear” is a slightly off-color satire of bear hunting.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola “Snow Globes” sets a heartwarming holiday tone with Santa Claus manipulating events in a city which exists as a snow globe on his desk. And the oddest entry this month, number 10 “The Entrance” from Heineken, is hard to categorize.

Combining humor, athletic feats, music and sex appeal, it features a suave young man making what can only be called the world’s greatest entrance to an elite cocktail party, exchanging numerous traditional greetings with people of different cultures, performing acrobatics, martial arts and magic, displaying some serious basketball skills, and heavily flirting with an attractive female singer. It is certainly eye-catching, which is really the effect any viral video ultimately aims to achieve.

Top 10 Most-shared Online Videos December 2010

1. DC Shoes - Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three, Part 2 – Ultimate Playground, L’Autodrome
2. Danny MacAskill – Way Back Home
3. TAC Campaign – 20-Year Anniversary Retrospective
4. Coca-Cola: Snow Globes: Coca-Cola 2010 Christmas Commercial
5. Nike Basketball: Michael Jordan’s Response to LeBron James What Should I Do Commercial
6. Evian – Roller Babies
7. T-Mobile – Welcome Back
8. NSFW – A Hunter Shoots A Bear
9. DC Shoes – Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two, The Infomercial
10. Heineken – The Entrance

8 in 10 Marketers Using Online Video Seek Higher Engagement

Close to 80% of marketers using online video on their sites do so to increase visitor engagement, or time spent, according to a recent study from TubeMogul. This is by far the most popular reason. Another 60% use online video to strengthen their brand, and almost 60% use online video to increase overall visitors (more than one answer was permitted).

Apple, Android, RIM in Tight Struggle to Lead Smartphone Market

The race for the lead in US smartphone operating system (OS) consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been, according to November 2010 data from The Nielsen Company. Nielsen research indicates the popularity of the Android OS among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (41%) makes it the leading OS among recent acquirers, while Apple iOS retains a slim lead in overall market share.

Android Surges among Recent Acquirers

As mentioned above, Android captured a roughly 41% share of Americans who had acquired a smartphone in the last six months in November 2010, well ahead of number two Apple iOS (about 27%). Both of these OS platforms grew in popularity among this demographic from June 2010 (27.5% and 21%, respectively).

In contrast, RIM Blackberry lost close to half its formerly leading share of recent acquirers in that same time period. While 35% of recent smartphone acquirers used the RIM Blackberry OS in June 2010, only about 19% did in November 2010, placing it a distant third.

Race for Overall Share Tightens

Despite its surge among recent acquirers, when it comes to overall consumer market share, Android OS (about 26%) is still behind Apple iOS (close to 29%). RIM Blackberry’s position is less clear. Its share (also about 26%) puts it within the margin of error of both Apple iOS and Android. In other words, RIM remains statistically tied with both Apple for first and Android for third. Apple’s clear lead over Android notwithstanding, Nielsen says this race might still be too close to call.

However, RIM Blackberry has lost its clear number one position in June 2010 (34%), while Android has gained more than 50% market share from 15% in the same time period.

More than 4 in 10 Recent Acquirers Choose Smartphones

All three smartphone OS leaders, Apple iOS, RIM Blackberry and Android, are benefiting from strong demand for smartphones. In November, 45% of recent acquirers chose a smartphone over a feature phone, while 31% of all consumers owned a smartphone.

Growth in smartphone ownership among both overall consumers and recent acquirers grew briskly from June to August 2010 and then moderated between September and November 2010.

Android Top New Smartphone App Platform

A leading 29% of smartphone application publishers say they will begin supporting the Android platform next year, according to the Millennial Media November 2010 Mobile Mix report. This outdistances the second-most-popular new smartphone app platform for next year, iPad (20%), by a healthy margin. Twenty percent of smartphone app publishers also plan to begin supporting Windows Phone7 next year. No other platform has anywhere close to this level of planned new support, with RIM coming in a distant fourth (12%).

2 in 3 Web Users Pay for Content

Nearly two-thirds of internet users (65%) have paid to download or access some kind of online content from the internet, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Music, software, and apps are the most popular content that internet users have paid to access or download. The online content assessed by Pew includes only “intangible” digital products such as software, articles and music that need not have a physical form.

Almost Half of Users Have Paid for 1-2 Content Types

Of those internet users who have purchased online content, nearly half (46%) have purchased only one or two of the types of content covered in the survey (see below). Some 16% have purchased six or more types of content.

In addition, 15% of users who have purchased online content have purchased three types, while slightly more have purchased five types (12%) than four types (11%).

Subscription Service Leading Payment Method

Concerning methods of accessing online content, the majority of the internet users pay for subscription services (23%), as opposed to downloading an individual file (16%), or accessing streaming content (8%). As shown in the accompanying chart, most internet users who have accessed online content have utilized only one method of access and payment (66%). No respondent has used more than three methods.

Digital Music, Software Most Popular Downloaded Content

Pew findings show that:

• 33% of internet users have paid for digital music online.
• 33% have paid for software.
• 21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers.
• 19% have paid for digital games.
• 18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine or journal articles or reports.
• 16% have paid for videos, movies or TV shows.
• 15% have paid for ringtones.
• 12% have paid for digital photos.
• 11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it.
• 10% have paid for e-books.
• 7% have paid for podcasts.
• 5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games.
• 5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games.
• 5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services.
• 2% have paid for adult content.

And 6% of internet users said they had paid for another kind of content not mentioned in the list of 15 the survey offered.

Typical User Pays about $10 per Month

The average expense for those who have paid for content was approximately $47 per month for material downloaded or accessed, including both subscriptions (an average of $12 per month) and individual file access (an average of $22 per month). However, some extremely high-end users push the average higher, with most purchasers spending about $10 per month.

4 in 10 US Adult Cell Phone Users Have Apps

Of the 82% of US adults today who are cell phone users, 43% have software applications on their phones, according to another recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

When taken as a portion of the entire US adult population, the previous figure equates to 35% who have a cell phone with apps. This figure includes adult cell phone users who have downloaded an app to their phone (29% of adult cell phone users) and have purchased a phone with preloaded apps (38% of adult cell phone users).