We at CSR are always looking out for innovative ways that GPS and location based services (LBS) are being used, and this stunt by confectioners Nestlé certainly caught our eye.
In a Willy Wonka-esque campaign, Nestlé has inserted into selected chocolate bars a GPS-enabled device which, when a lucky winner pulls the tab, notifies a delivery team who will locate them within 24 hours and hand over a cheque for £10,000.
There is an obvious potential pitfall; used wrappers don’t tend to stay on a person for very long and there is a large likelihood that if the winner doesn’t notice the device, Nestlé’s hit squad could end up surrounding an unassuming trash can than the intended lucky winner!
But the idea is without doubt an inventive use of the technology by a consumer-facing brand. It’s a sign of how such brands are beginning to realise the many uses LBS can facilitate, especially in their marketing activities.
Whilst GPS has been used in this case to support a creative PR stunt, we envisage how LBS, most notably indoor location technologies, can be optimised to target consumers with highly directed advertising. For example, handsets with indoor location technology can be used to find specific shops or products in a shopping centre. Then, if a consumer checks in to a certain shop, that retailer can, by way of complementary wireless technology, fire that shopper highly relevant adverts and in-store offers.
Nestlé’s campaign may not be the first UK stunt to drive awareness of LBS, but it certainly won’t be the last. There is a lot of discussion nowadays of the idea of the ‘Connected Home’ – where all your home devices communicate wirelessly with each other – but this is a sign of the not-too-distant ‘Connected Shopper’, in which LBS and other wireless technologies all combine to make consumers’ shopping experience as seamless and painless as possible.
