Thinking global, acting Local
Chris Bennett, director of media and business development at Blyk, says globally rich, expanding businesses are building locally relevant features and making their money from local businesses, which means the mobile industry is well placed to win the hearts, minds and marketing dollars of brands…
When I started out on my career path in the world of marketing and media we were still listening, watching and reading local media. Local businesses were the kings of consumer engagement and local advertisers underpinned many balance sheets. We lived in a big old world but local issues dominated consumer attention. The ongoing and enduring appeal of the BBC’s Eastenders should tell you this is right. How else could such a miserable TV programme remain the nations favourite for so long.
Fast track to 2011 and today we live in a global community. Everything is global – movies, music, media, and meltdowns all come from that place we call ‘global’. To support this we look to other markets for lessons on KPI performances, case studies and and best practice to import to our own business. Equally we all communicate in global speak.
Last year I was lucky enough to spend some time in the globally mighty United States of America as a guest, come missionary, of a UKTI organised trade trip. (Check them out at http://www.ukti.gov.uk) The purpose was to connect some of the best small and innovative digital interactive UK companies with our best, albeit much larger, counterparts on the West Coast. The fact that over 100 companies applied for the 16 coveted places and Blyk was selected makes me enormously proud of what we have achieved and confident that our proposition will be a winner on the global (!) media stage.
We were in San Francisco, California. A State that houses the rising and global gargantuan media houses of Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter. Actually we were in the ‘Valley’ as I now know to call it where there is a reported $140 billion of investment liquidity held by some 12 companies all eying the global market for smart people, smart ideas or smart solutions. Of course my new best friend Apple sits on nearly half of this ‘honey pot’ and it was interesting that pretty much everybody I met carried Mac over PC. Toys of choice are iPhones, iPads, Powerbooks. Everywhere. The amount of venture money available means ideas can really get tested with funding. No need for Dragons Den out there, just park your Mac in a coffee shop, check into Foursquare and chances are someone will approach you promising riches in return for at least 3 years of your life.
We met with the aforementioned Facebook and Twitter. These two businesses must take line honours in securing the most media column inches across the world. Both play on a global stage, and are successful in engaging the largest brands either as advertisers, friends or tweeters.
Equally we met with Yelp. This is a terrific business with some innovative opportunities for regional and local advertisers.
And then it struck me that they all have stuff in common – all these globally rich, expanding businesses are building locally relevant features and making their money from local businesses in the long tail and not the globally strong brands that feature prominently in events like The World Cup or The Olympics.
As businesses we want to know what is going on in other markets. And yet as consumers we still want to know what is going on around us. Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon all play to this consumer need. We want information, opportunity and financial savings on our doorstep, rather than a ‘carbon unfriendly’ flight away. Indeed witness the most recent rumours about Groupon and Foursquare potentially playing the dating game for more evidence that these businesses do have something special.
I wonder what is driving this shift back to local – certainly rapid development of technology is ‘enabling’ a better and indeed faster consumer journey. But then, ultimately I believe consumers need to equally drive a change in business models rather than the other way around. Our own data tells us that ‘where I live’ is an easy to capture profile point and allows us to serve a multitude of locally relevant content and advertising. ‘Where I live’ will merge into ‘Where I am’ at some point soon and further opportunities arise from any number of bricks and mortar businesses.
If so – we in the exciting mobile industry are well placed to win the hearts, minds and marketing dollars of brands as they too seek to find a local fit with consumers. For a great example take a look at a wizzy business in the aforementioned valley – Placecast – who are betting their silicon funds on ‘local relevancy’ sticking around for a while. Having met these guys I for one would place a few dollars on then succeeding in this new local world.
If you are reading this and care please feel free to pen me your own thoughts…
Read Blyk’s blog here.