The digital media landscape just got a bit blurrier.

The long anticipated roll out of facebook’s geo-location based feature called “Places” has been heralded as the end of foursquare, gowalla, yelp and other geo-based social media platforms.

Geo-based social media is not about location

This is a lesson that Google learned a few years ago when they rolled out Lattitude – one of the first geo-based services. It became know as the stalker app because all it really did was show you exactly where your friends were at all times.  That was a bit creepy for most to handle and the service never took off.

Location is merely the enabler to an engaging user experience

The reason foursquare and Gowalla have had great success is that they are essentially social gaming platforms that are enabled through location based check-ins. The experience is fun, easy and engaging. Add rewards for check-ins or earning badges and suddenly marketers were salivating at all the opportunities to build loyalty and word of mouth for their brands.

Facebook Places can do for mobile web and applications – as American Idol did for SMS

Much like voting for your favorite soon to be pop star on American Idol via text message really ushered in the era of mass SMS adoption, Facebook Places has the potential to bring mobile web and mobile applications to the masses as you can’t carry around your desktop to “check-in” to your favorite restaurant in the Toronto Entertainment District.

You also can’t carry around the old flip phone or first generation smartphone, so bringing geo-based social media to a mass scale could accelerate the adoption of new generation smartphones that are location aware through GPS and have great mobile web browsers or a platform that supports enriched mobile Applications.

Should Marketers abandon services like Foursquare now that facebook Places has arrived?

Although it’s true that facebook has 500 million users (150 on mobile) while services like foursqure only have a few million, let’s keep in mind the following things:

1. Places is only available in the U.S. currently – although I’d expect it to come to Canada and other countries by the holiday season.
2. Facebook became the king of location overnight but just because the media is declaring this to be true, it’s the consumer who has the ultimate say.  Remember Google Buzz? It too was heralded as a new giant in the social media space.  The problem was that consumers didn’t really want their Google services to be linked and used in a different context from which they subscribed to.  There is a good chance that many facebook users will feel the same way about their profile and will instead start limiting their time on facebook or abandon it entirely.
3. Facebook is making their location based API available to developers – so marketers can create digital experiences that leverage facebook Places – much like how facebook connect for commenting, liking and sharing has been incorporated into many sites today. For example, this means you can roll out a foursquare program that leverages a proven social gaming platform and then extend reach and frequency by incorporating the new facebook Places extensions.

Regardless if you or the brands you are working for think existing geo-based social media gaming platforms or the new facebook Places is the future, the only bad choice to make right now is to ignore geo-based social media and the impact that smartphones will have on shopper marketing and all consumer communications.

As I was packing for my trip to China this week I realized how much lighter my back pack was compared to other big trips from just a few years ago.

When I went to Peru I had packed an HD video Camera, an SLR camera, my laptop, a mobile phone and a DVD player along with all the cords, and batteries adapters.  It was perhaps a little over the top to carry a virtual media studio on my pack through the mountain of Peru, but i wanted to capture every great moment with the best tech available.

This time my mobile device is acting as my video, photo, and media device while my iPad is giving me the larger media consumption platform I need for movies or catching up on whatever news i’m allowed to access here.

So far finding Wifi has not been a problem but accessing my usual social media platforms has been a different story. I can’t access facebook or twitter directly and even foursquare has been blocked – so no check ins, badges or new mayorships.

How will I survive a week without social media?

I think I’ll somehow survive with all the movies I picked up in an alley yesterday. 20 movies for less than $20 – all in high definition. All the rage here is to buy a hard drive pre-loaded with hundreds of movies. The hard drive sits in a cradle with an HDMI output so you can easily stream blue ray or other hi definition videos directly to your TV.

Assuming I have some $$$ left at the end of the trip I may pick up such a system for some R&D in Canada

• how to make flash run on your iphone 4… http://tinyurl.com/29jqb5z ->
• QR codes reaching mainstream – AR codes won't be far behind: http://tinyurl.com/2df6j5u ->
• 3 reasons why people still love their blackberries: http://tinyurl.com/2abdrut ->
• @RobertPaege – probably not worth it on the 4, but on my 3gs that is doing nothing but gathering dust right now, yes it's worth it in reply to RobertPaege ->
• blackberry integrates QR codes into summer campaign – slick! http://tinyurl.com/2dbfe4v ->
• Report – iphone users have more sex than android or blackberry users: http://tinyurl.com/35u73km – more reason to buy the iphone4? ->
• Canadians paying up to double the termination fees vs. U.S. for mobile contracts: http://tinyurl.com/29sxud8 ->
• torch will please bb diehards – best one yet: http://tinyurl.com/26ubxlk ->
• Mall deal gives boost to smartphone coupons – http://tinyurl.com/29oma9e ->

• Quoted this week in Canadian Business magazine re: loyalty & foursquare: http://tinyurl.com/2evmmon ->
• i want the one with the extra gees http://shar.es/0n7Le ->
• 4 reasons why brands need to check into foursquare: http://tinyurl.com/2d8n3lc ->
• cardstar integrates foursquare into iphone app – how long until airmiles or aeroplan follow suit? http://tinyurl.com/2adwlu6 ->
• facebook best practices – how t get more likes: http://tinyurl.com/29agpgs ->
• Mesh Marketing lineup announced – looks solid! http://www.meshmarketing.ca/ ->
• WIRED believes mobile can't replace credit cards… not sure i buy into that as carriers think otherwise: http://tinyurl.com/24dwnkc ->
• marketers staring to figure out what we've know all along about mobile media: http://tinyurl.com/2azwcze ->
• @EricaGlasier – do both. run promotion on facebook and enable facebook connect on your microsite, best of both worlds! in reply to EricaGlasier ->
• @Franky_B – good point on carrier ego… but some would say that's what they've done by creating zoompass in Canada in reply to Franky_B ->
• RT @rww Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Our Newest Research Report http://bit.ly/bt0JNH ->

The iphone 4G finally arrived in Canada this week and I found myself in line to buy one outright from the Apple store.

Why buy one outright?

That was the question the Rogers sales person asked me as I tried to get my new phone activated today since their entire system was down yesterday. There are two main reasons why consumers should consider this

1) You don’t have to extend your current contract by three years. I don’t want to be trapped in a contract for another three years – especially one that may limit my ability to buy a new phone next year

2) Buying your iphone directly from Apple outright means it’s unlocked – so you can take your iphone to another network if you wish, or you can buy a pay as you go SIM card when you’re travelling in other countries to save big $$$ on roaming fees.  This is exactly my plan as I travel to China and Thailand in a few weeks.

According to an Apple employee at Yorkdale, of the 500 or so people in line yesterday morning by 6:30am, around 50% were buying the iphones outright.

You would think that that on the third try (and three years later) Rogers would figure out how to handle the volume of activation requests, but once again they could not.  Bell and Telus had no such problems yesterday, but unfortunately due to the issues with Rogers the average customer was waiting 45 minutes to an hour to activate which had a brutal impact on the lineup to buy one.

I spent five hours in line waiting before I gave up. Lucky for me, my good friend Dave Shen stayed in line and two hours after I left he picked one up for me.

First impressions

I love the new industrial design and i’ve had no issues with reception or discoloration of the screen. The updated camera is outstanding and the display is crisp. I haven’t tried the video talking feature yet – but I will next week as the balance of my geeky friends finally pick one up.

I love the glass on the front and back – but the downside is that now you’re cleaning both sides of the phone instead of just the screen.

With more Android phones coming to the market as well this Fall + a new lineup of blackberries, it’s going to be a great year for mobile in Canada.

47% of new phone purchases in Canada in Q3 of last year were for smartphones – which was nearly double what it was in Q2. With 55% of Canadians looking to upgrade in the next 6 months, I’m predicting that with all the great choices on the market we’ll see 2/3 of new purchases being smartphones.

Brands who are now in planning for 2011 are missing out on a huge opportunity if mobile is still not part of the mix.

• one more reason to become mayor of your local starbucks – free wifi now rolling out to over 700 locations in Canada ->
• RIM tablet is coming soon… let's hope it's a better ux than their first gen touch smartphone! http://tinyurl.com/38glb34 ->
• 10 brands that have used foursquare for marketing: http://tinyurl.com/28qt5fb ->
• Canadian Wireless industry update from the CWTA: http://tinyurl.com/2dghujy ->
• 68% of Canadian retailers are using social media: http://tinyurl.com/2fdz2uz – how many have a mobile website? ->
• mobile facebook users grow by 50% since April. Represents largest growth opp: http://tinyurl.com/33pk8zl ->

• verizon expected to sell iphone by jan. likely first to sell next gen iphone that will support 4G network: http://tinyurl.com/26uv7lb ->
• @zunaid – good to see your "A" game again today. Next time we play for money? in reply to zunaid ->
• RIM App store 2.0 coming… hopefully it will be more findable & user friendly too! http://tinyurl.com/2a8whpu ->
• AdMob: iPhone Had 40% of Ad Requests In May – http://tinyurl.com/233skg4 – who will bet against 50% by dec? ->
• Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo will make all of its handsets Sim-lock free from April 2011. Perhaps a new global trend? ->
• Minorities more likely 2 own cellphones & more likely 2 use phones for greater range of activities: http://tinyurl.com/33szdah ->
• New bluetooth standard approved – can now also leverage wifi to extend range: http://tinyurl.com/2fydshg ->
• fonts do matter – http://tinyurl.com/239nruu ->

• @RobertPaege – Apparently both the wifi and service fails completely if you hold it the "wrong" way for long enough. in reply to RobertPaege ->
• nothing great was ever done alone – doug keeley @ DSA conference today in quebec city ->
• jennifer fong showing shift happens video – great video… even after 7 versions! ->
• global study – brands who engaged in social media heavily were up 18% in revenue, those who did not were down 6% – @liajen at DSA conference ->
• Foursquare close to obtaining funding: report http://r.reuters.com/gex44m ->
• @JenFongSpeaks – thanks Jen – really enjoyed your presentation as well! in reply to JenFongSpeaks ->
• RT @GadgetLab Four Reasons Why Microsoft’s Kin Phone Failed http://bit.ly/aPdqAY ->

• More reasons to build for mobile web vs. app: http://tinyurl.com/29s42bs ->
• speaking on a panel this morning on ip3 – iphone, ipad, iphone – the marketing opportunity #ip3 ->
• ajit jaokar from futuretext keynote begins. talking about how apple has wagged the dog – meaning the carriers #ip3 ->
• forget smartphones, we are entering superphone (unlimited functionality) phase.. ajit jaokar @ #ip3 ->
• content is being packaged as apps – i.e. nirvana app. ajit jaokar #Ip3 ->
• Ajit jaokar talking about the long tail opportunity for apps – i don't think the tail is long enough for most canadian marketers #ip3 ->
• augmented reality app coming to 1/3 of all smartphones. will this stimulate the space for more innovation in AR? http://tinyurl.com/2f44mod ->
• Even Wind mobile gets failing grade for customer service. Everybody in Canada earned an "f" : http://tinyurl.com/24hbc42 ->
• iphone 4 declared best device on the market. period. by WSJ, Engadget and consumer reviews. ->
• A summary of media review on the iphone4: http://tinyurl.com/23455mb – i think a trip to buffalo tomorrow may be in order! ->
• Wow that was weird – 5.5 magnitude shook our building at Yonge / Eglinton: http://tinyurl.com/37uz78b ->
• Apple acknowledges antenna problem with iphone 4 – http://tinyurl.com/3yqkv4n – hard to believe that made it out of beta! ->
• One more reason to not send HTML / template driven emails – most ppl now view email on their smartphone: http://tinyurl.com/365x7l2 ->
• Sharing a Social Media and Mobile case study at the Direct Sellers Association Conference http://shar.es/mII3R ->
• QR code fail http://shar.es/mIDF1 ->
• @RobertPaege – sure ALL phones have the same issue, but non as specific as the iphone 4. in reply to RobertPaege ->
• RT @blogtillyoudrop 5 brands already unlocking badges on Foursquare http://bit.ly/dbHOno ->
• @RobertPaege i would call doing anything intuitive that results in a device failing as being a problem. in reply to RobertPaege ->

I’m thrilled to see an accelerated adoption of 2d codes (most usually QR codes) in the Canadian marketplace. They’re popping up everywhere and at this rate they may actually replace SMS shortcodes as the most common way of engaging consumers in the “wild.”

Having said that, I’m also seeing many poor executions of the codes in marketing campaigns.

Today I was at a local burrito spot near my work hood when I spotted this LCD screen near the check out counter (pictured above).

There are a few things they missed that makes this execution a fail in my books:

1. No instructions on how to get a free QR code reader if the user doesn’t have one
2. The call to action is weak – why would i click on the QR code for more info? Who cares? What’s in it for me? Tell me there is a special offer, coupon, access to information etc…
3. I actually scanned the code and it brought me to their website… which is not optimized for mobile. If you’re going to have a QR code, at least ensure the end experience is made for the platform you are driving people to.  Better yet, make sure the experience is built specifically for the mobile context.

Do you have other examples of QR code fails in the marketplace? If so, feel free to comment & share