Tuesday, September 23. 2008

LBS Advertising by Backpack: Thumbs Down

I totally get advertisements in the backseats of cabs and in elevators. You are there with nothing better to do and ideally the advertising is location-related and thus relevant. The play by Pack Promotions I don't get. Pack Promotions equips individuals with GPS-tracked backpacks that provide static (outdoor, full sun I imagine) and video ads (best indoors or at night, per the website). Individuals wear these at events or anywhere an advertiser wants to get out their message. After the promotion the advertiser receives a map of where the backpack went; not sure how they manage indoor tracking, if at all.

The problem as I see it is that the advertising space is too small to be effective for crowds. Moreover, how does the wearer engage (if at all, that's not clear) if people are looking at their backpack? This just sounds silly. It might receive the same response I saw to a fleet of three "Citizen Bank" branded Segways I saw on my local bike path a few weeks ago. No one seemed to care; they were too busy walking the dog, chatting to a friend (live or on the phone) or in my case, running.

In contrast, wrapping cars and buses in ads works. But those are large platforms that move around. And, it's not rude to watch a car or bus go by! I look forward to when the MBTA busses get wrapped for holiday promotions. My favorite to date: dressing up the busses to look like a dozen donuts!

- Pack Promotions

Old Poll, New Poll

A few week back we asked for your reaction to Cloud Computing. 83 people responded.

34% Don't know what it is.
26% Will be significant in geospatial.
23% Is not yet stable/secure enough for geospatial.
17% Is just a lot of hype.
2% No opinion.

I suppose that explains the very high hit rate for this post.

Next up: your blog reading habits. Vote on the lower right hand side of our main page.

Podcast: Spatially-enabled Data Warehouse Appliances

This week two different vendors, Netezza and Teradata announced spatial extensions for their data warehouse appliances. Our editors explain the new offerings and explore what questions they prompt for geospatial practitioners and well as traditional database administrators. Is one of these solutions in your future?

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