The power of mobile and the magic of geolocation

When was the last time you forgot your mobile phone when leaving home? I bet it felt pretty Welcome to the club, you’re not the only nomophobic out there. Whether we want it or not, modern society is addicted to mobile phones. The majority of us spend hours per day compulsively looking at our smartphones.

Guilty as charged!

Already in 2009, Reuters’ global survey showed that most people can't live without their mobiles, never leave home without them and, if given a choice, would rather lose their wallet. A Global Media Study (2011) led by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA), University of Maryland, USA, went a step further: they asked students across the globe to unplug for 24h. The results were pretty distressing (both for us to read and for the students who actually had to go through with it). Here is what the students said following the brave attempt to abandon their digital lives for one day:

Source: https://theworldunplugged.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/addiction-grid-new.pdf

You think there’s a pretty high chance that the mobile addiction grew even stronger since then? You’re absolutely right. Deloitte’s study from 2016 concludes that people in the UK have never been more addicted to their smartphones. And we take their word for that. They’re a bunch of after all.

While such a strong response can be shocking, being a part of the mobile society has some bright sides too. The brightest one? It helps us to stay connected. Not only with friends or the big big world, but also the brands we like. And believe us when we say - people want to keep in touch with brands that they’re loyal to.

For brands, this creates a massive opportunity. With the rise of the smartphone society, the demands of modern customers have changed immensely over the last few years and a lot of the marketing game has shifted to mobile. And we’re sure you’ve heard it a thousand times already, but mobile really did become the ultimate tool both for customers and brands.

But in order for mobile marketing to work it’s wonders, you need context. You need relevance. You need to get physically as close to your customers as possible. And the closer you can get, the more conversion you can create, the stronger brand loyalty you can build and the higher engagement rates you can achieve.

And this is why geolocation is so effective. Yes, it’s not a mass market marketing solution, but the reality is - mobile requires something much more personal than that. Getting brand communication via a mobile phone is so much more intimate than via PC or a laptop. Or than walking past the ad on the bus stop.

Geolocation bridges that gap between the digital and physical and helps you to connect with them based on a real-life factor - something as physical as their location. It can’t get more contextual than that.

As mentioned by former Starwood CEO Frits van Paaschen at the Skift Global Forum last September: “Personalization is the next manifestation in the evolution of brands. If you have this emergence of brands being reliable, then having a personality through media, and now you have personal access with mobile. Brands really can deliver personalization now. The expectation of people of brands is ‘you should know me and know what I want’”.

To sum up, here are three reasons why we believe location-based push notifications can be the winning approach for communicating with your app users:

We’ll discuss these in more detail in our next post, so stay tuned!

Not convinced if geofencing is for you? Why not giving it a try, it’s free anyway. Fill in our quick form and request your free 14 days demo here. No strings attached.