Author Archive: ‘Rocket’

Thomas Carmody, Head of Automotive Connectivity Marketing, offers his views on what to expect at the Telematics Munich event, as well as giving his opinion on the latest trends in automotive infotainment. You can visit CSR at Telematics Munich at booths 40 & 41.

Thomas Carmody – Telematics Munich preview

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.

Ed Balls visited Cambridge last week to meet local businessmen, where he claimed in an interview that the Government needed to invest more in the innovative companies in Cambridge. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Paul Stainton was keen to get the views of Stuart Jackson, local MP, and Cambridge Labour candidate, David Zeichner, on the interview. Unsurprisingly Stuart disagreed that they weren’t supporting local businesses and the local area and claimed that without Labour’s over spending the economy wouldn’t be in a position where austerity measures have become necessary.

To get a different perspective Paul called on our own CEO, Joep van Beurden, to get his view on who was right. As a businessman, Joep feels it is his job, and the job of other businesses in Cambridge and the UK, to focus on what they can do to help kickstart the economy rather than relying on politicians. However, the fact is that we need to solve the deficit and Joep calls on politicians to sit down together and work out how to turn this around.

Following the announcement on Tuesday that Samsung Electronics will be paying $310m for CSR’s handset R&D operations and for the associated technology license, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Breakfast Show presenter Jeremy Sallis was keen to get our CEO Joep van Beurden’s view on the deal.

If you missed his interview, which aired live at 7.25am on Wednesday morning, you can catch Joep talking about how CSR’s connectivity and location technology will help Samsung differentiate itself in the smartphone market and allow CSR to focus on areas where it has a market-leading position on the link below. To listen to the interview just skip forward to 1 hour and 25 minutes into the show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00vhd5j/Cambridgeshire_Breakfast_with_Jeremy_Sallis_18_07_2012/