May 1, 2000 was an incredibly important date in the history of communications. It’s the date that Selective Availability was removed from GPS data, allowing very accurate location-based information to be automatically decoded by handheld sized devices. This gave anyone with the hardware the ability to pinpoint where they were on the globe. Five days later a game was born called Geocaching.
Geocaching allows players to hide physical containers (caches) around the globe, share clues online with other players, and track progress compared to others in an online community. It’s still going strong now with over a million hidden caches in over 100 countries. The game was slow to grow as the handheld GPS devices were expensive and very clunky and difficult to use.
Ten years later smartphones, cameras, iPads, and cars all come with GPS built in even if it’s not a deciding factor in the purchase of the device. That data is slowly finding ways into everything we do and will increasingly provide you contextual search results and social communications depending on where we are as much as what you searched for. It’s no longer strictly a leisure activity shared only between geeks. If you have a smart phone you have most likely already used or shared your geolocation data with friends or applications that have enhanced the exchange.
Recently applications like foursquare and Gowalla have built communities around the evolution of Geocaching with the promise of better brand experiences. These social networks have grown in popularity incredibly fast and have gotten a lot of attention from the media much like Twitter did four years ago. Cities like Chicago and Boston are utilizing them to create tourism activities, while mom and pop coffee shops reward their top customers with free coffee or discounted desserts. These geolocation social networks are using video game style reward systems via virtual merit badges and points systems to encourage consumer behaviors. And it’s working!
So how does pharma get in on this action? How does healthcare build excitement and brand relationships while it’s still relevant and on the upswing vs. waiting until it’s passed as a fad or evolved into something else? A few thoughts came quickly to mind the other day when a colleague asked me a similar question. Immediately I thought of a few quick scenarios from my own life experiences and how Geolocation could have helped.
I’m a consumer searching for a medical specialist and need to know which one is closest to my house, no my office, or … wait a minute, my aging parents house.
I’m in a virtual support group for chemo recovery. Who else close to me has opted into a support program sponsored by Pharma Company X? What’s their public social profile tell me about what we have in common and where and when does the local group meet?
I need to prescribe an unusual drug for patient X. Which of the 900 CVS’s in town actually has the meds on the shelf… and are open right now?
I suffer from Celiac and need to avoid gluten in my food during vacation in another state. What restaurants or grocers near my destination will be able to cater to my dietary needs.
I’m a General Practitioner and need to get some samples for the upcoming allergy season ASAP. Which sales rep is close enough to me to get samples today?
These are all just off the cuff responses to underscore the fact that the possibilities are endless and can easily find meaningful ways into our lives as retail consumers, patients and caregivers. With the rise of consumers using mobile devices to access the Internet (remember iPads are mobile devices too) the potential to make a first and lasting impression is now. We’re just scratching the surface on how we can leverage this data usefully. Be there before your potential customers, provide truly meaningful content that Geolocation enhances, make it easily available to share and reward them for participating.
I’m more excited about the potential of geolocation than any other technology taking place on the Web today. And if you read my last post about HTML5 & CSS3 you know I’m excited.
Read more:
Will Foursquare be the new Twitter?
How VH1, The History Channel and Bravo are using Foursquare
Yahoo! might be offering $100m for the 20-person company … it’s that important.
