Research suggests that location-based mobile advertising is more appealing than ever.

Celtra’s Q3 2012 Rich Media Monitor Report last December found that although only 7% of mobile campaigns had location features, those aspects of the ad had the highest rate of engagement (18.8%).

Admittedly this study was in the US, but here too location-based ads are taking off. Logically, of course, they’ll be a real shot in the arm for companies that work primarily locally, such as restaurants, taxis, hairdressers, plumbers/electricians etc. Used correctly, they can help attract new customers and build relationships.   Read More »

This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.

To say that the future of social media belongs to the mobile will come as no surprise to most. But it is unusual to find such a significant area of opportunity gift-wrapped in inevitability; after all, there is no retro in mobile communications – the upgrade cycle is built into pay monthly contracts. OFCOM’s Communications Market Overview report last year announced that 74% of handsets sold as part of pay monthly contracts were smartphones and, each time we get to the end of our contract, we inevitably move up to the next generation of handset. This endless sequence of upgrades is driving the increased use of the mobile internet too – at the end of last year, nVision Research told us that 27% of the UK population were using the mobile web at least once a month. By 2015 this will increase to 53% and will top 70% among the under-35s. Read More »

As Facebook Places is rolled out across the UK today we can expect to see a big leap forward in people sharing information on their whereabouts.

Unlike dedicated location-based services Gowalla and Foursquare, which you have to make a conscious decision to sign up to, you’re probably already on Facebook. And this new feature is just ready and waiting to be used.

So if there’s going to be a big take-up among the UK’s 24 million Facebook users, who’s going to benefit most?

Read More »

In an interview with The Telegraph Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, has revealed that the location-based social service is in talks with the major search engines, hoping to strike a deal which will use Foursquare’s check-in information to enrich local search results.

Read More »

This will excite a lot of people who not only like to tell their Twitter followers what they’re doing, but where they’re doing it – the social networking site has launched a one-click-and-here-I-am function called Twitter Places, which comes with Foursquare and Gowalla integration. Read More »

‘Are location-based services all hype?’ is the question asked by Chris Treadaway, the founder and chief executive of hyper-local advertising platform Lasso. Read More »