Don’t take ‘a fence’

So #SecWed rolled back into Nottingham last night, & I, with a couple of blurry eyed work colleagues (@henry_france @myfirstraygun) went down to see what was going on. If you’re not already aware, Second Wednesday is a regional monthly get-together for Creative & Digital folks to drink beer, eat pizza and talk about all manner of binary nonsense.

The first thing which struck me, was it wasn’t the ‘sausage fest’ it sometimes used to be! (I’m being a bit tongue in cheek here, but seriously, keep that sausage away from me!) Great to see lot’s of women all involved in the mainly male-dominated industry, (There’s only so long I can cope with the smell of rotting men in the office!)

Two talks and two speakers up, Stefanie Sword-Williams talking about GeoFencing & Shopify’s Keir Whittaker talking about making your side project pay

I really wanted to just highlight my interest in GeoFencing really.

Argue about the invasion of privacy or not, its a powerful fact that the mobile phone you carry & hold tightly and love and cherish as much as anyone in your life, is the most direct way into your mind (and wallet!) Stefanie discussed the psychology behind geo-locational advertising, and how it could be leveraged by companies in both a good way and well, maybe not so good.

I welcome locational-aware advertising myself. If I’m walking by a coffee place, I want to know I can rock up with my ‘just-appeared’ discount voucher on my phone. It’s a good thing. Do I care about privacy!? Meh! Maybe it’s because I’m a Y-generation ‘youth’ but the privacy issues really don’t concern me, I can just switch my phone off if I don’t want to be caught (in Victoria’s secret, buying something tight and leathery, hmm, maybe Groupon have some deals going….!)

The Generational Creep Factor **

Mobile geo-fencing increases that feeling of Big-Brother-is-watching for certain audiences; it’s up to marketers to acknowledge this and help consumers get over this by being more transparent at the start of the consumer-brand relationship. In short, we need to educate them about what we are doing and how this will enhance their lives (save money, helpful tip, etc.).

Although consumers have contributed to their discomfort by downloading location-based apps and constantly checking in, the Creep Factor differs across generations:

• The Gen Y/millennials share, suggest, and expect to be sent relevant coupons upon entering the store. No Creep Factor.
• The Gen Xers, diehard Facebook and smartphone fans, embrace the technology (and ad retargeting) once they understand it, or it becomes mainstream. Low Creep Factor; they just need to understand it.
• Baby boomers/older generation are leery of, scared of, or do not understand remarketing. High Creep Factor.

There’s an amazing paper on managing GeoFencing for SME’s and it’s really worth a read (here) but I’ll leave you with a video….