Engaging location-based services are finally arriving

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 | By Justin Pearse

Almost ten years ago to the day, I was reporting that location-based services were about enter the mainstream. A decade later, that dream really has finally come true.

It was a dream for so long. LBS, as it was snappily titled, was the holy grail for mobile content and services. The number of companies I met over the years that started up and shut down again fairly quickly to cash in on this nirvana are too many to count.

But finally, finally the hype is delivering on its promise. Two new mobile apps, Vouchercloud and Foursquare, have made me desperate for a time machine to go back and tell all those start-ups not to give up.

Both deliver exactly the sort of powerful experience only mobile can pull off. Years back, the biggest joke at mobile conferences was the concept of Starbucks sending you a mobile voucher as you walked past. It became shorthand for the folly of mobile. Well, over the last week I’ve walked into my local coffee shop and redeemed a voucher I received by walking past, thanks to Vouchercloud’s range of offers from local businesses. No hassle, no technical problems. It did wonders for my view of the shop and, with the number of people I’ve been raving about the service to, I’m sure it has increased the shop’s footfall.

Foursquare, a sort of location-based community where you ‘check in’ to venues nearby, has less obvious commercial appeal and at first glance is just another mobile novelty. You become the ‘mayor’ of your local bar, say, and gain points by checking in regularly. But it’s easy to see the potential. Demonstrating it to the owner of my local Soho bar last night, she immediately came up with the idea of rewarding the ‘mayor’ with a free pint.

If this all sounds a bit gushing, it’s meant to be. Mobile sometime really does have the power to transform a business in ways the fixed web could never hope to emulate. Location-based services are, finally, here to stay and there should be no brand, agency, media owner or retailer that isn’t immediately starting to investigate how it can transform their business.

Now, where’s my free pint?

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