I’ve been in mobile for almost nine years and have always been keenly interested in how context can be affected by mobile.  At a minimum, I’m interested in things like:

• The location in which mobile is used
• How location can affect user’s modality (ranging from passive to task-driven activities).
• Which content people choose to consume
• How much content they will consume
• User’s receptivity to disruptive marketing messages
• The location awareness of the device and the opportunities that creates in terms of relevance of display advertising, search results, etc.

I’m privy to many of the question asked by agencies about geo-targeting.  It has been very common over the last year for our team to be asked “Can you do geo-fencing?”  This question often comes without the benefit of an understanding of the true client objective.  More often than not, we are not in the room when this idea first came to mind and are not in a position to challenge many of the assumptions that drove it.  Naturally scale is always an issue to consider with any targeting.

I like to go further and challenge the objective in the first place.  A lot of the questions about geo-fencing ignore some basic things we already understand about consumers, how they move through the marketing funnel and the timing involved.  For example, does a person move from consideration to intent just because they are 100 feet from a store?  Can you affect this timing with a display ad on mobile?  Is that ad best served in the same DMA, perhaps 8 hours before the consumer is front of the store?  How does the process change when considering big ticket vs. impulse purchases?  Much to consider.

This article is ADOTAS “Jumping the ‘Fence’ of Location-Based Mobile Advertising” by Gretchen Joyce does a good job of elevating this discussion to a more intelligent place.  Have a read and let me know what you think.