Location-Based Social Gaming

This is a trend to watch and think about. Combining location with social and gaming is a powerful mix. It’s easy for me to see how this could be adapted to a business to business game. Imaging a company connecting with their audience in a fun, engaging way like this. It takes your marketing out of the “push” model and turns it into a connection, content and a community, fostering a conversation. Exactly what the new marketing model should be built on.

MyTown Hits 1.5 Million Location-Based Gamers; Ups The Social With Version 3.0.

9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing

There’s an old saying in real estate…location, location, location. That’s about to become a new saying in marketing. When you combine the smart phone, with it’s always on, always know who you are and where you are abilities with shopping and gaming, you’ve got a powerful behavioral modification tool in people’s hands. The real question is, will marketers leverage this, developing their own channels with rich content and information or will they end up leasing the channel and buying annoying ads?

via Mashable.

Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy With My Blog and Building My Brand

Excellent article from the NYT on rise of the personal brand and the power of mommy…or grandma.

I was having a conversation the other night with a friend in marketing and shared this analogy for how the world has changed:

In the olden days when we all lived in villages, grandma would go to the local bakery and if the baker’s cookies were stale, she’d demand another one. If the baker refused, grandma would tell everyone in the village how much the baker’s cookies sucked. And that would be the end of the baker’s business.

With the rise of the mass triplets…mass production, mass media and mass retailing…grandma lost her power. The baker could overwhelm grandma’s complaints with his mass distribution, a massive customer base and of course, massive advertising. Not any more.

We’ve really returned to the days of the village, only now it’s a global village. Grandma now has her own mass media and if your cookies are stale, she’ll let everyone know how much you suck. Grandma’s post about how bad your cookies are is one blog post or video song parody on YouTube away from being viewed by millions and millions of people, who will then share it on their Facebook pages and their blogs, who will Twitter about it and pretty soon, you’ll be out of business if you make bad products or have bad service.  I think this is a good thing. No more using the power of mass to fool the sheeple.

Politicians are just now starting to wake up to this reality. Brands need to wake up to it as well…whether they’re product and service companies, media channels or retailers. Grandma is in change now and you don’t want to tick her off.

via the NYTimes.com.