Go Back to
www.IndependentRetailer.com MARKETING Facebook’s Location Feature
MARKETERS ARE excited by the recent an- nouncement by social networking giant, Facebook, of an upcoming location based feature. The new feature would allow users to include their location as part of their status updates, and it is already being investigated by corporations and indepen- dent retailers alike, as a means to increase brand awareness and drive offl ine sales. Many companies are already planning location
based campaigns to possibly be built around the new Facebook functionality, including the fast food titan, McDonald’s. Marketing fi rms are work- ing on Facebook location features to be used by their retail clients. As of this writing, it was not known exactly when the feature would be avail- able, but marketing execs want to be prepared. This would not be the fi rst example of location
based social networking, and in fact Facebook would be directly threatening much smaller plat- forms like Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown, all of which have recently enjoyed interest from marketers looking to get into location based cam- paigns. Once Facebook enters the game, however, it’s possible that these smaller players will be left in the dust. Major companies that have tried loca- tion based campaigns with other entities in the past include Starbucks, Pepsi, Bravo and MTV. However, it’s not been made clear if Facebook
will be charging marketers for the opportunity to take part, or if it will be a strictly user-generated feature, i.e., consumers opting to include a com- pany logo with their own status updates. “We never launch a functionality with the intent of monetizing it,” explained Kevin Colleran, Face- book’s director of national sales, in a recent article in Advertising Age. “The best case in point: would- be advertisers are frustrated. We will not allow them to buy an ad on mobile.” ■
68 September 2010 Visit
Location A Factor In Video
WHEN IT comes to video content, it’s long been conventional wisdom that mindset can be a de- termining factor in the consumer’s interaction. For example, if a commercial for a product airs during his favorite TV show, he might be annoyed by it; yet if he is in the market for said product, he might view the same commercial as highly informative. But there are also indications that physical loca- tion could be just as much of a determining factor in consumer response. For example, a consumer in a brick and mortar
store is not likely to view a video demonstration for more than a minute, at best. Yet place that same consumer on his couch in front of his TV, and he may be willing to sit through a 30 minute info- mercial demo of the very same product. “Where a person physically is can dictate how you can have their attention,” said Brian Bradley, EVP at HSN (formerly Home Shopping Network), in an interview with
StorefrontBacktalk.com. “Out on the street? She’ll have seconds. In-store? A minute or two. On the web? Maybe 15 minutes. But on the TV? Hours. People go to the web with certain goals in mind. There’s a lot of bouncing back and forth as they’re trying to solve a problem.” The thinking here is that consumers fi nd video
watching most acceptable on their TVs, and see brick and mortars as places to see and touch the products, not watch videos about them. Bradley believes this has something do with viewing expec- tations built up culturally over many years. For the time being, even though video content viewed on a computer is often in the home, the tolerance there is lower than it is for TV video content, even if that Internet video is viewed on a TV screen. ■
Visit
IndependentRetailer.com, For Today’s Business News & Updates. Online at INDEPENDENTRETAILER.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104