The discussion panel between Adam Dunne, JT Klepp, and Jonathan Barouch, that was moderated by Jennifer Wilson, provided some great insights into the way companies can interact with a consumer's location.
The topic of the panel was Knowing where you are – Commercial opportunities arising from knowing the location of the consumer at the point of sale, and offered insights from three different perspectives, namely:
- Adam Dunne, CEO, AURA Interactive, has a background in marketing, but also specialised in mobile content distribution.
- JT Klepp has extensive experience in strategic development and product development in the wireless, technology and social media sector.
- Jonathan Barouch is the founder and CEO of Roamz, a mobile content aggregation service with a focus on the user’s location.
The topics they covered included the rise of NFC, and its potential not just in information sharing – including its placement on billboards – but also its potential in monetised games.
According to Adam Dunne, opportunities to get a consumer to interact with a brand have never been better, with 4-5 million people in Australia have interacting with brands through QR codes, Bluetooth or WiFi hotspots. This number is growing.
Of course, with all this talk of location, privacy also had to be discussed. What right does the consumer have in keeping their location private? What right do firms have in using the consumer’s location? One audience member asked if it was just a matter of time before this information leads to serious consequences, even the death of someone (using a location-based service to walk off of a cliff, for example). Are our fears grounded?
There is certainly a change happening in the privacy landscape, with younger generations being much more liberal with the information they make public, but the need for privacy education is definitely strong, and will only become more important when we start revealing more and more about ourselves to the world.
Jennifer Wilson, moderator of the panel, is a director of The Project Factory, a specialist producer of creative multiplatform and transmedia projects across web, mobile, social media, games and virtual worlds.
