Location Based Services – a Marketer’s Dream
Written By: Lisa Fields, Director of Sales, go2 Directory Systems

Like the name implies, Location Based Services (LBS) are services that utilize location as a key ingredient of providing relevant information to users. In mobile marketing, LBS applications are advertising or marketing services that use specific location information for delivering the right message to the right person at the right place AND time.  

It is because millions of consumers carry mobile phones everywhere that LBS applications can reach virtually anybody, at any time and anywhere, and today millions of these mobile consumers are already using LBS applications. Today, the most popular LBS applications are local Yellow Page directories and entertainment guides. Other types of LBS that exist, though less frequently used, include services that help to find a friend or send alerts when a friend is nearby. Here are some examples of how today’s LBS directory applications are used by consumers:

• a soccer mom finds the specific address and gets turn-by-turn directions to the closest pizza place to take her son’s team out after a road game win
• consumers obtain a list of nearby pharmacies that are open at midnight
• a college couple learns the show times of the movies playing at nearby theaters.    

Another way of looking at LBS directory applications is to categorize them as mobile, real-world, local searches. LBS directory applications provide relevant local information in a manner similar to the way Google provides relevant online search results. The primary difference is that LBS directory applications typically provide real-world information and focus on actual business locations. Imagine using your cell phone to find a nearby hotel when you are stranded in Chicago on business, or to use your cell phone to call and order flowers from a florist shop located just a mile up the road when your best friend is in the hospital—and getting all of this information on your cell phone screen, without ever having to dial an information hotline.  

LBS directory applications typically provide information related to a precise location – not just a city or even a zip code – but a street address or intersection. The critical element to LBS is adding specific location information so search results are more relevant. LBS can often be linked with automatic location information (ALI) applications, whereby various technologies automatically locate the cell phone (and thus its user) and then use that information to expand LBS application features. ALI is extremely helpful in making many LBS directory applications easier, but is not critical to the success of LBS. LBS directory searches can be generated by users who designate their precise current or future location in a variety of ways. The more robust LBS applications excel at making it easy for users to designate and select both their starting location and their destination.

go2 was the first LBS directory application in the U.S. when it launched in 1999 with Sprint, and then launched similar applications with AT&T, Alltel, Cingular, Nextel, and Verizon Wireless shortly thereafter. In May, 2002, go2 launched the first ALI-LBS directory application in the U.S. with AT&T, and go2 expects to launch similar ALI-LBS applications with other major wireless providers in the U.S. 2005. ALI technologies are still in their infant stages of deployment on most major wireless carriers, while LBS continue to boast millions of unique users every month. In 2004, go2’s LBS application (alone) delivered over 180 million page views during over 16 million unique mobile phone user sessions. The increased availability of ALI technologies in 2005 will put LBS services in a position to cross the chasm to mass market adoption ---- and provide a marketer’s dream in terms of providing both category and location targeted information, advertising and marketing messages.