Things are hopping at Location Labs - and it's not just due to the new Italian espresso machine! We just wrapped up an exciting conference by BIA/Kelsey on the heels of the Mobile Marketing Forum in LA. Conferences are great opportunities for us to meet our partners, pitch to prospects and see their excitement about everything we are doing; and BIA/Kelsey outdid itself. The conference itself has gotten quite a buzz since some major players were in attendance e.g., Yelp, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Groupon… and of course Location Labs.

$2BB LBM Market by 2014

So, what is the excitement about? $2BB projected spend in location-based marketing by 2014 from the current $400MM according to BIA/Kelsey, a 57% CAGR. However, the story of how we get there is not all that clear. Besides Groupon (and their recent insane valuation) "no one has figured this out", as Facebook said at the conference. Specifically in the mobile context, is check-in where it's at? Is it barcode scanning, or tracking a user's location with special devices installed in the store like ShopKick does? Or is it geofencing?

Retention vs. Acquisition

Let's step back and think what matters to brands, retailers and local merchants – it's customer acquisition and retention. Check-In and scanning provide proof-of-presence, which if done right (walking inside a store for a few Kickbucks doesn't count!), can be great tools for measuring and increasing loyalty and retention. But, what tools help drive and measure customer acquisition?

Geofencing, a customer acquisition tool

Enter geofencing - aimed dead center at customer acquisition. Let's say you are Macy's... wouldn't you want the person who just pulled up at the mall to know what's for sale in your store and walk over to Macy's, not the other stores? Location Labs' geofencing product enables you to message users who enter the geographical proximity of a store location with an offer custom to that store – and across thousands of such stores. Importantly, the product helps you message customers with shopping intent, and not just someone driving by the store. What if you want to reach customers within a 5-mile radius of your store, and given them a timed offer? We have technology for that. What if you want to know who among these users recently checked-in? We have technology for that. We are seeing several big retailers, brands and local merchant solution providers step up and leverage geofencing to drive store traffic and customer acquisition. And this is how you get to the $2BB figure. You can learn more about geofencing and our other products here:

http://www.location-labs.com/products

In fact, this is the heavy-lifting in location our engineering team is doing (see Scott's recent blog post): locating using hybrid GPS data, determining shopping intent, addressing the complex problems of spatial storage and triggering, optimally managing device battery life... to mention a few things.

2010 is not yet over (we have more announcements coming). We are amped up about the future the New Year ushers for our technologies, products and customers. Here's to a happy & prosperous 2011 -- stay tuned!