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When I first came on board with the Mobilisms team, I thought I was up to speed with the latest mobile technology trends. That is, until a couple members mentioned the word “LBS” in a few conversations. “What does LBS mean?” I asked. “Location-based services, you know, like the ones where you check-in with your GPS” they replied. As defined by Wikipedia, a location-based service is “an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device”. Ah! I’ve used one of those before.

Why Brands Should Pay Attention

Location-based services are a barometer for what’s possible. According to research firm Gartner, the LBS market will more than double by next year. This is a brand new level of interaction for consumers. With the growing trend of the general population relying on their smartphone devices for everything, LBS applications are their friend-finders, navigators, virtual passports and matchmakers. Some tips brands should keep in mind are the adoption rates and use trends. They should follow these statistics closely, and at least one designated person in a company should study and experiment with mobile social platforms.

What are examples of how brands are using mobile social platforms or similar technologies?

Most of what’s happening today is through SMS, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. The concept of mobile social takes mobile strategy from transaction to engagement, and that’s where we see the real value and evolution of the space. Some examples of are the Adidas Marathon Tracker (a mobile campaign that let consumers track London Marathon runners), Terminate-A-Mate (a Terminator campaign which used an GPS based mechanism that allowed users to precisely locate their friends around town) and the AdWhere location-base advertising platform which generated greater consumer response by tagging location to mobile advertising for advertisers and ad enablers.

What does the future of LBS look like?

LBS applications have been and continually are going to be the game changer for mobile and social technology. Gartner predicts that over the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll see even more compelling LBS applications including coupons and points-of-interest search services which can include people-tracking, proximity-based payment services and proximity-based notifications and specifically asset-tracking. Many businesses will benefit from asset-tracking which uses radio frequency ID tags to track products around the world.

What is Mobilisms going to do with LBS?

We see the potential and want to experiment with mobile social networking, specifically LBS. After our user testing experiments in-house, we came to love and have fun with LBS. We plan to integrate our experiences into case studies and find unique ways to take advantage of the dynamic interaction and content these services provide. In doing so, we hope to discover prospect ideas that will help brands and consumers take LBS to the next level.