We already know that the live event is the new locus of technology, but much of that has been developing along parallel and distinctly different tracks, between pro and consumer. Back of house, we’ve seen tremendous strides in areas like control systems, automation and LED’s. Out in the audience, smartphone apps have become ubiquitous, and we’re starting to see patrons texting and Twittering in their seats — possibly even more annoying than seeing them talking or making out. We now see them interacting with apps that, if they didn’t get them into the venue in the first place, told them where to park and where they can go for a bite after the show.
Get Ready for Geofencing
But what if those parallel app tracks began to converge? The current Matchbox Twenty tour is featuring an interesting proposition: geofencing — apps that can accurately and efficiently locate users within the boundaries of a venue and be used to push through ads, promotions and deals increasingly tailored towards individual users. Matchbox Twenty is using the technology to alert fans in the venues to upcoming shows, merchandise availability and other offerings that are hopefully of interest to them. The apps work on both iOS and Android phones, and are rather complex, created by a combination of developers including Mobile Roadie, Daqrui (augmented reality), Fliptu (social aggregation) and Crowdzilla (geofencing messages).
Matchbox Twenty’s management, Lippman Entertainment, has said that the
user-experience feedback has been positive, though neither they nor Live Nation, the tour promoter, would quantify that any further in terms of additional merchandise or tickets sold. But it’s apparently working well enough for them to have committed to a v.2 of the app, one that further refines the geo-location element of the technology. Instead of just sensing that the fan is in the venue, it will know exactly where he or she is in it, and if that’s near a merch table or food stand, it will be able to flash a discount code to them to encourage an impulse sale.
Professional Applications
We’re moving ever closer to a realization of that creepy scene in Minority Report, in which Tom Cruise’s character is wirelessly bombarded by retail come-on’s tailored exactly to his perceived needs and wants. So it’s just a matter of time before these kinds of technologies cross over into the professional side. Think about the costs involved in schlepping large pieces of equipment to demonstration sites, a regular part of sales and marketing budgets in the SR business. Now imagine that you know where potential customers of those kinds of products are when they’re in venues where those products are already in use. Those could be anywhere from large concert halls and clubs to theaters or shopping malls. Suddenly, Tom is no longer worried about being caught by the authorities while being ethereally pitched on a new pair of sneakers; instead, while he’s in that mall shopping for those sneakers, he’s being wirelessly alerted to the fact that the background music is coming from a certain manufacturer’s type of ceiling speakers. And yeah, they do sound pretty darn good, don’t they? Imagine how good they’d sound in your establishment!
You get the idea. Much the hardware of sound reinforcement and live-event production remains very 20th century in its form factors. With the exception of LED’s, Wi-Fi, Cat-5 connectivity and digitally controlled consoles, much of what’s found in theaters and rental houses everywhere can trace its genealogy back down a copper wire to a late-19th-century predecessor. Most of the changes in staging technology have taken place in the last 30 or so years, well within the digital era. Certainly, the control of lighting, staging, video and sound systems has moved to a digital platform, and even more recently over to mobile ones like smartphones and tablets, which have increasingly taken over the control duties of these systems. The sales and marketing processes around them are ripe for the same kinds of migrations and disruptions.
The New, Non-Virtual World
Take trade shows, like this month’s PLASA in London or AES in New York. Nothing will ever fully take the place of face time when it comes to making points about a product or service. While at the same time, the growing popularity of virtual trade show experiences, from companies like INEXPO, reduce conference costs and travel costs while providing features, such as networking, which are difficult to execute in a nonvirtual environment. These are increasingly integrated with social-media tools, and that’s where the geofencing elements come deeper into play. Social media apps — anything from Facebook to LinkedIn — are often left active on mobile devices, and the devices’ auto-location sensing capabilities are usually on. (They default to always on, as anyone who’s ever jumped through the hoops necessary to try to turn Google’s off, can attest to that.) As we move deeper into a culture that’s increasingly used to, and even comfortable with, being watched, the integration of highly targeted virtual advertising becomes easier.
That’s key to the coming Renaissance in the relatively stodgy worlds of AVL sales and marketing, where increasingly, high-tech products and platforms continue to be marketed and sold on a very analog basis, relying on eye contact, a firm handshake and blue ballpoint ink. Modeling technologies allow prospective users to virtually experience the effects of lights or sound in their own spaces. Combine that with being able to direct them to implementations of your products and systems already physically in place in some location convenient to them and the sales process goes to a new level.
We know what you want, we have what you need, and now, we know where you are. What might have once been the philosophical basis for a sinister Ray Bradbury Sci-Fi epistle about the dangers of ubiquitous power is being transformed into a quotidian B2B retail transaction. Not the end of the world, perhaps — but probably the beginning of a very new one.
