GeoGraffiti has announced new features for its ‘Voice Mark‘ mobile advertising service. The service allows a small business to record a voice ad over a mobile phone. GeoGraffiti then “geotags” that ad – so anyone who calls the Voice Mark number in your area will be able to listen to your audio ad. The service now also has an on-line map search function, and a Twitter integration feature.
How does this work?
If you’re a small business, you create an account and let GeoGraffiti know what your geographic location is. Then you call Voice Mark and record your ad. The rest is automated. Your ad goes live on Voice Mark, is tagged on the on-line map, and a tweet is sent about it. To actually hear the ad, people have to call Voice Mark and search through the ads available in their area.
From the release:
“In the current economic environment, small business owners have plenty to worry about. GeoGraffiti helps by providing a free and simple tool to connect with patrons and communicate vendor offerings,” said Mr. Rodriquez co-founder of GeoGraffiti. “Business owners or store managers record Voice Mark messages with any telephone and our technology implements the geomarketing. The process is simple, takes literally a minute, and works over any phone – just record a voice message by calling GeoGraffiti’s automated system, and it takes care of the rest.”
What we think?
There are pros and cons to this service, but I think that ultimately the negatives far outweight the postitives. In support of it, it’s got a very low tech barrier. You don’t need any specialist knowledge to avail of this service. You don’t need to know how to use Twitter… or even your computer. You just need a mobile phone. As a result, pretty much anyone can use or access this service. It’s also automated. Once you’ve told GeoGraffiti where your offer is located, it handles all of the GeoLocation for you.
But after that come the cons. This service is totally reliant on someone ringing the Voice Mark service when they are in a certain area and happen to be looking for a deal. That’s not pro-active for a service like this. Other coupon/promotion services have a certain amount of push to them – they can offer users special offers when it’s relevant. They can let users plan ahead and make sure they have special offers ready for when they go shopping. This service is completely focused on impulse purchases, and their are other services available which do that and more.
Finally, the “twitter” aspect. I’m sure it looks good on paper, but a twitter audience isn’t something that just happens. It has to be carefully grown and maintained. If you just link your Voice Mark to a twitter feed and pay it no more attention than that, then no one will ever see those tweets.
Hi Cian,
Thanks for the honest summary. I wanted to add that GeoGraffiti does have some proactive “push” features whereby we SMS your phone with a notification when a new Voice Mark is published. But to avoid ‘spaming’ the users we require that the recipient elect this feature and designate who (or what biz) they want notices from.