The buzz is building up over location-based marketing. At a recent Mobile Monday networking event, the venue was packed by technologists, marketers and social media practitioners who were there to witness the launch of the Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA) in Singapore and to listen to companies participating in the location-based services space.

Mobile Monday Singapore is an open community platform that brings together different players in the mobile industry to foster brand-neutral cooperation and cross-border business opportunities through live networking events to demo products, share ideas and discuss trends from both local and global markets. The latest event was held at The Hub Singapore.

The Location Based Marketing Association launched its Singapore chapter during the Mobile Monday networking event.

Delivering the keynote was Mr Asif Khan, Founder and President of LBMA, a non-profit organisation focused on education, research and advocacy on all things location-based. In his presentation “Why location matters”, Mr Khan described location-based marketing as “the intersection of people, places and media”. It is not just about the mobile but the integration of all media which also include billboards, television, radio, and the Internet, he said.

He cited the example of how payments can be blended with augmented reality technologies layered onto an advertisement at a bus shelter. If there is a pizza advertisement, for example, commuters can use an app to scan and order a pizza, which will be delivered to their home just as they arrive.

“Augmented reality represents new (advertising) inventory that never existed before,” said Mr Khan, Billboards today are limited by what can be depicted on the physical space, and the content may be subject to different regulations in different cities or countries. “With augmented reality, you can have a giant location-based ad anywhere you want it.”

Mr Khan also emphasised the point that location-based marketing has the potential to reach out to all people, irrespective of location. He cited the example of how a music download service was being marketed in the fitting room of a fashion store, based on the premise that music and fashion go hand in hand. Clothes at the store were tagged with RFID chips and RFID sensors were installed in the fitting room. As customers tried on the clothes, they were streamed music that matched their style.

However, despite these and many other exciting projects that are taking place in the location-based marketing space, one of the “biggest missed opportunities” remains the gap between social and location, said Mr Khan. While many brands are investing heavily on increasing the number of followers they have on Facebook or Twitter, the real question is, “How do they monetise this?” “Do you know where those people are right now, relative to where they can consume your products? That is the gap between social and location. If we know their location through Facebook, we can push them incentives. It is about connecting social media to location.”

This discussion thread was taken up by Mr Leon Leong of Tech Sailor, who spoke about SoLoMo, or the integration of social media, location awareness and mobile technology. He shared tips on how businesses can embark on SoLoMo marketing, for example by socialising mobile apps, using Facebook Sponsored Stories to synergise check-ins and likes, and making use of Facebook mobile web apps. This will help businesses track the entire customer journey from the time the customer sees the brand through the whole interaction cycle that converts the customer from awareness to advocacy. “Mobile bridges the gap between offline and online,” he said.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has been working with Tech Sailor and other companies developing indoor positioning technologies to help them engage opportunities to benefit the nation’s industries.

Two other Singapore companies also shared their experiences in the location-based marketing space. One of them was Y-Find, which is focused on creating location-intelligent buildings through indoor positioning solutions that can detect the location of specific individuals with a higher degree of accuracy. Y-Find’s WiFi-based solution tracks mobile phones, allowing businesses to send targeted messages to people within a building. It also helps retailers and building owners to have a better understanding of how people are moving within the premises.

The other company is 2359 Media, which has deployed a mobile-centric location-based solution aimed at enhancing the visitor experience to Sentosa. Based on its CUBE mobile application, the solution is targeted at free independent travellers, providing them with interaction points across key attractions and allowing them to build social trails where they can place comments, notes and photographs which can then be shared with other people.

Y-Find and 2359 Media are part of IDA’s Digital Concierge programme, which seeks to drive the adoption of mobile solutions to enhance productivity and business competitiveness in the tourism, hospitality, retail and food and beverage sectors. Under this programme, IDA recently launched a Mobile Positioning and Analytics Services (MPAS) platform which aims to offer accurate, easily accessible and competitively-priced location positioning and analytics services to enterprises and consumers scalable across multiple sectors.

For more information on MPAS , visit the IDA page on collaborations.