By Vincent Tyson | January 9, 2009
Imagine…as you drive along the main street of an unfamiliar city, your phone alerts you to a restaurant that your friend visited last week. It interfaces with your friends “facebook” page, where they had commented on the delicious culinary delights of the establishment to your left. “The Prime Rib was great” the screen reflects, as you drive on. An on-screen button allows you to make a reservation for two, tomorrow night at 8. The mobile device sends your name and contact details to the restaurant where a table is reserved for you.
The journey continues. You pass a hotel where your sister stayed last year – you know this, as your mobile phone displays an image of the building and it presents an option to make a reservation. Beneath the reservation options, your sister comments that she was happy with the room, but the hotel lacked a gym, and the breakfast didn’t have a vegetarian alternative. As you are guided to your destination, the device offers up information on the town, its history, and the facilities available. Passing by the local movie theater, you receive coupons via your phone for the 7 o’clock show.
This isn’t that far off. Much of this technology already exists – people already have the ability to access restaurants, local bars, movie information, or whatever-it-is-they-want, using an application called “vicinity” on the iPhone. It does not have the usability of the Tom-tom yet, nor pride of place on the dashboard, but the concept is there and it’s only a matter of time before mobile marketing technology is refined and its use is common place.
So where does this leave the advertising community as society sits on the cusp of true mobile marketing? No one can be too sure, as this time may be some way off. At the very least, all service industries that allow customers to book online or make reservations through any interface, whether it is phone or internet, will need to choose a system that puts their brand at the forefront of consumers’ minds. The information that the device will use must be up-to-date, uniform in nature, and allow the booking to be intuitive, swift and convenient.
Our job as marketers, designers and web developers is to empower our clients to make the right decisions, be accessible in the right places and go on generating revenue until the next revolution.
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About the authorVincent loves to cook and read books like Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. In his spare time, he might be seen perusing the pages of PC Plus Magazine (always been a PC guy) or nurturing his African Violets. Vincent obsesses over the environment and tries not to waste stuff.
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