SXSW has no shortage of official events, but there are many unofficial events worth attending. One such event that the Lab team swung by was the Location based Marketing Association (LBMA) “Retail Loco” event in downtown Austin. It featured a series of presentations and panels covering location-based marketing with special emphasis on the retail environment. During the keynote presentation by Asif Khan I took note of the following location-based campaigns from recent years that I thought were relatively clever:
Parking Douche
Mobile app in Russia designed to shame people who park where they shouldn’t.
McDonalds Happy Table
NFC-enabled table triggers animated experience on a mobile device that follows you as you move it across the table. An entertaining game for kids.
Tesco Shoppable Wall
A digital OOH kiosk installed in Gatwick Airport that lets shoppers scan barcodes with their Tesco app and order groceries to be delivered to them when they return from their travelers.
eMart Wifi Balloon
A series of branded truck-shaped balloons floated around a city in South Korea. By connecting to these floating wi-fi hotspots, customers were served mobile coupons redeemable through the eMart mobile app.
Digital Billboard Collecting Donations
Users could donate to an organization supporting small business loans for African entrepreneurs. Donations from mobile devices are represented in real time by pennies forming a portrait on the digital billboard.
Volvo Trunk Delivery
A service called Roam from Volvo would arrange for your online orders to be delivered to the trunk of your car. Delivery people would have a one-time code to open your trunk and place your items in it.
