Social networks and other online aggregation phenomena have become more and more relevant to brands, which, with smaller budgets due to the financial crisis, are turning to digital content creation in order to nurture relationships with their customers. When it comes to marketing, it is cheaper and more surgical than other mass marketing tools. If brands use it well, it has the possibility to generate communities around the brand’s story. They turn users into message carriers and users “update statuses”, “tweet” and “like” stuff in their friends/places/interests networks in a way that’s good for the brand. This is a great advantage for brands but there’s a catch: it is very difficult to measure these efforts, since most of the brands have their points of sale in the good old “reality”, even if they have online stores or create pre-sale relationships with clients through their websites. Social media efforts can’t be totally measured by the same criteria we use in sales (this is an effort which produces other advantages, such as the ability to listen to consumers and build relationships). So it’s only natural that brands want to transform these efforts in real life meet-ups, in order for them to generate impact to consumers in more tangible, measurable events. And here’s where mass mingling appears as a marketing tool – as a way to turn digital investment output (Facebook page, Foursquare profile, blog, LinkedIn group, etc.) into sales outcome.

This trend gets serious when you introduce geotagging, for instances, in which it is possible to aggregate different types of media to a local and real context. The expected growth in the sales of GPS-equipped mobile phones, fast mobile Internet connections, accessible price tables and the natural increase in the number of applications and platforms using local information will make it easier to activate the brand “offline” using digital media.  This is true whether you invite users to enter your stores or you develop promotional actions regarding a specific point of sale, through platforms such as Gowalla, Foursquare, Google Latitude or even Facebook and Twitter.

In April 2010, NBA’s New Jersey Nets launched a marketing campaign using Gowalla: users that checked in with this geolocation service at specific zones – sports bars, parks, gyms – would receive virtual items that could then be traded for tickets for a real Nets game. The Nets offered 250 tickets during this campaign. About 12.5% of Gowalla users went to the game.

North Face, a Winter sports clothing brand, partnered with Placecast, another geolocation platform. They’ve sent text messages with virtual coupon discounts to consumers who happened to be around their San Francisco and Seattle stores during February 2010. Consumers could then register to receive information and promotions regarding the brand and to continue receiving text messages whenever they pass by a North Face store.

It is predictable that this kind of actions becomes more and more interesting to brands because actions like these envelop consumers and help brands take their digital marketing to the real world, which makes use of the communities developed online. And it is another important step to create tangible brand experiences that may help turn the brand’s digital presence into a rentable action. The future of communications is more about understanding that the online and offline worlds only make sense if they’re planned as a whole, as sort of an allline world.

(Published in Marketeer Magazine, July 2010)

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