Foursquare, Buzzd, Loopt, BrightKite and DoubleDutch Face-Off

NEW YORK, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The leaders in the evolving mobile social media space met Friday, May 7, in the first face-to-face discussion on the opportunities for location based mobile marketing at an event hosted by Ogilvy & Mather's Digital Innovation Labs.  Despite their differences, all agreed that the entrance of Facebook into location-based mobile applications validated and supported their own unique offerings.

The participants spoke to a standing room-only crowd of over 250 who tweeted questions and thoughts on a screen provided by Aerva linked to #mobilebattle that the speakers frequently looked to for feedback.  Speakers included Naveen Selvadurai, Co-founder of Foursquare, Brian Marciniak, VP of Global Business Development of Loopt, Lawrence Coburn, CEO of DoubleDutch, Nihal Mehta, CEO & Founder of Buzzd and Rob Lawson, Co-founder of BrightKite.  The panel was moderated by Maria Mandel, Executive Director of Ogilvy's Digital Labs.

"Targeting consumers based on their behavior and location provides an opportunity for marketers to better build relationships and add value to their customers.  This is the promise that mobile social media delivers," explained Maria Mandel.

Naveen Selvadurai noted that if one of their users shows an interest in an offering – be it from a movie theater, restaurant or other venue, "we can target them directly" with specific offers or rewards.  And Buzzd's Nihal Mehta noted that the "better the user experience, the better the brand experience."  He urged marketers stepping into this space to make those experiences "fun."

BrightKite's Rob Lawson gave specific examples of how Starbucks is using location and time of day to create specific drink apps and that its experience has found that "targeting local customers with relevant information is a service brands can provide to consumers."

For DoubleDutch, the opportunity has been to tailor make location-based applications for tradeshows, conferences, and other corporate events as a way to build relationships while the audience is at a location they are not familiar with.

The Friday "Mobile Battle" is part of an ongoing series of events developed by Ogilvy's Digital Labs to bring leaders in new technology and media to the agency and its clients.  It follows presentations on new out-of-home digital marketing tools for in-store and outdoor as well as a series on gaming, mobile marketing, multi-touch experiences, augmented reality, 3D and Hologram technologies.

Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather (www.ogilvy.com) is one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world.  Through its specialty units, the company provides a comprehensive range of marketing services including: advertising; public relations and public affairs; shopper and retail marketing; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion, relationship marketing and digital production.  Ogilvy & Mather services Fortune Global 500 companies as well as local businesses through its network of more than 450 offices in 120 countries. It is a WPP company (Nasdaq: WPPGY).

SOURCE Ogilvy & Mather

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