Location based marketing (LBM) is the current Next Big Thing. In which you know where somebody is and you bombard them with discount coupons redeemable at a nearby outlet. Or so was my take out anyway from a recent trade mag feature.
Now how Big is that ?
Hmm , lets see now. Big obviously for tactical promotions. Big for retail outlets (given reasonable pricing) . Biggish also for brand idea-driving contextual / creative placements. Lots more besides i guess.
But to my mind the really significant Big comes from Small : i.e.,LBM’s contribution towards further driving what i’d call an ‘incrementalizing’ of media. This is the move towards increasingly more of ‘smaller’ media selections : in terms of not only audience size and unit costs necessarily but also creative formats and , i’d imagine , communication effects. Think Search text ads versus TVC’s and glossy double spreads for a classic example. Two decades ago, who’d have thought a 10×10 text box ad would excite the Marcom industry ?
I guess this is a trend that’s creeping up on us sort of under the radar because we do not really think of it in those terms. The big sexy world of digital / New Media is mostly small and unsexy. Or perhaps , Small Unsexy is the new Big Sexy. It’s a matter of perspective – and you’ve got to get the right one ! The long term implications go beyond individual brand communication strategy and into landscape-shaping industry economics.
In Ballparks 7 , a look at market sizes of computing devices and 3D TV sets plus a snapshot of the Qatar telecom scene . (See Ballpark 7)
Cheers 
PS : By ‘small’ i mean in terms of Marcom from the marketer’s POV , not the underlying technology itself or its utility/usage from the consumer’s POV. There is a difference ! More on that later . . .
