Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Location-based Marketing Panel at WOMMA

Last week I had the opportunity to represent Gumiyo on a panel to discuss the latest developments concerning location-based marketing.  Conducted by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, the panel included Ethelbert Williams, VP of brand development at Mr. Youth; Alice Lankester, VP of Marketing at Loopt; and Anthony DiResta, partner at Mannatt, Phelps, and Phillips.  The session was moderated by Tony Pierce, the Blogs Editor at the L.A. Times.

The event was attended by a number of agency professionals along with a number of advertisers interested in how the combination of new mobile devices, GPS, the Mobile Web and SMS have created new opportunities for local businesses to reach consumers who are on-the-go.  In addition, Mr. DiResta was able to shed some light on some of the interesting legal and privacy issues that arise from such a shift in advertising tactics.

It is wholly appropriate that the Los Angeles Times hosted this event.  Newspapers have been doing location-based marketing since there have been newspapers, and advertisers have historically used them as the most effective way to reach consumers within a specific geographic area.  However, the modus operandi is changing dramatically with so many new options available to consumers in order to find local deals and information.  Clearly, the newspaper is intent upon maintaining its claim to this space.