ideas

Dear Travelers, Wanderers and Branders,

Having just moved back to the US and not having a smartphone while I wait for the new iPhone 5 to come out (October?), I’ve really come to realize how crippled I feel without a mobile map GPS to get me places. It’s like losing my 7th sense… geosense. Of the mobile apps I use on a daily basis, maps have the best utility and I use most often (a close second to search and email.) And it also reminds me of how many interesting ways maps can be integrated into mobile apps. Nothing new here but building an app on top of the Google Map API is a real shortcut to some cool functionality for your brand or startup. I won’t give too much away, but we are tossing around a few mobile app ideas using existing map and location based features which we’re excited to build as standalone products. We’ve found ourselves coming back to maps again and again since they really take advantage of mobile technology when combined with specific activities. By combining them with existing content about specific locations, a lot of value can be unlocked by giving people the information or functionality when out and about (any Canadian travelers in the audience?)

But What About Maps As Branded Utility?

As brands struggle to reach new and old customers with advertising messages that people find useless at best and outright annoying at worst, one solution is to offer “branded utility” that give people what they need and enjoy while reinforcing what that brand represents. Maps are an easy choice for brands that can provide information when its needed the most, out in the world at large. In many ways Yelp has already capitalized on this function providing GPS positioning and user reviews on practically every category of business through their smartphone app. But there are plenty of other unmet information/geolocation challenges that haven’t been met fully that an entrepreneur or brand alike can discover.

Just a Few Business Ideas

This is the part of my job that I really like, thinking up ideas that may or may not get implemented. Here are just a few to make make my point about maps as branded utility:

1. A map app that helps you discover the hidden history within San Francisco (“Jack London lived here!”) with text passages, photos and streaming video, sponsored by the city government, Starbucks or City Lights Bookstore.
2. A map app that helps desperate parents find kid events wherever they happen to be provided by RedTricycle.com, Toys R’ Us or the school district.
3. A map app that let’s city residents find streets that don’t have street cleaning that day and have the highest chance of open spots based on past traffic data brought to you by a car dealer, AAA, or of course the city.

The Current Failures in the Geo Deal Genre

What about all those deal apps tied to maps (Facebook Deals, Yelp Deals) that are just getting the axe? It seems that the map based coupon app hasn’t pleased as many people as marketers had hoped? This is rather sad as deal finding when you’re no where near your Sunday newspaper seems like a utility that people would naturally want. But some things are either ahead of their time or have substitutes that are doing the job well enough. My theory is that if apps can mix deals with other content and functionality then they could get more attention from users. As they are right now, the geolocation deals feel like coupon books thrown onto a street map. I for one am not that eager to get deals that I’d use the app. If I noticed a deal while perusing local information I might bite. I was pretty excited about the potential of mashing up a variety of services like social networks and shopping but deals do not seem relevant enough enough for the over-saturation that has occurred.

Brainstorm A-Go-Go Sometimes ideas come from unintuitive combinations. Here are just a few bonus ideas that might lead to interesting utilities.

Map + Other Services Brainstorm…

• Map plus audio file download
• Map plus live event
• Map plus specific content tweets
• Map plus calendar
• Map plus skype call
• Map plus print-on-demand
• Map plus social network feed relevancy filter

Quick Use Case Brainstorm…

• Map plus happy hour announcement
• Map plus playgroup
• Map plus live show
• Map plus wifi connection plus cheap coffee
• Map plus bicycle route
• Map plus current traffic status
• Map plus free museum day finder
• Map plus religious ceremony
• Map plus lecture finder
• Map plus poetry reading
• Map plus real estate open house locator
• Map plus park bench locator
• Map plus sunny place indicator

Parting Words

Keep in mind that without a business opportunity attached to them even the best utility ideas can die at the altar. However, letting loose with even the seemingly silly ideas listed above can bear fruit. Whether you are on the brand, startup or agency side, the important thing to keep in mind is the design process: problem to solve, identify a large number of possibilities, narrow possibilities based on parameters (relevancy to the brand and user, doability, potential payoff, etc.), prototype (or pretotype with paper mockup), design and build final, and then and only then market. I am talking about maps in this article but it could really be any functionality. Have a good week and happy sailing.

– Lance Shields