Whenever I travel, I set up casual “FOJ Meet-ups” [FOJ=Friends of Jeremy]
I invite all of my friends in a given city to meet me at a location, where we just hang out and chat for a while.
A few weeks ago, I was in New York and in planning for the FOJ Meetup, I looked at Google Maps for where my meetings were that day.
I figured I’d need to be close to my next destination so I found it on the map.
Then, I clicked Street View and I figured I’d just go down the block and find a coffee shop that would be suitable.
Sure enough, 2 blocks later, I saw what appeared to be an awning. I swiveled my mouse to the right and there was “The House of Brews.”
Their sign, which was built for people walking down 51st St., was now marketing itself to me…220 miles away.
Lesson: All of our marketing efforts are presented in ways we might not have envisioned. When you see a new technology, ask yourself: how would my company or my personal brand be represented in this medium?
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Comments
brad said on 5.25.2009 at 2:35 AM
Be serious. If someone invested in their signage for casual Google street view use at the expense of foot traffic consumption, they'd go out of business.
Jeremy Epstein said on 5.25.2009 at 11:14 AM
@Brad-- not sure they are mutually exclusive. Nor, am I suggesting that. Besides, what about a technology that makes a sign appear differently when viewed through a lens?
This is 2nd life meets real life...not so hard to imagine that people will look at real estate, business meetings, etc. using this technology. Why not be there?
brad said on 5.25.2009 at 3:06 PM
Why not be there? Because most businesses that promote their virtual presence really could care less about a physical presence (many even obscure their physical addresses). And most businesses that care about bricks & mortars expect their customers to approach them that way.
Maybe you pass the time going around Google Maps' street view looking for chicken wings and realtors. But most of the online world uses much more efficient tools for those purposes.
I know this is merely a "wouldn't it be cool if" exercise. But it's also fantasyland and reminds me of all the chumps in the mid-1990s who told us every storefront on the Web was going to have 3D catalogs rendered in VRML before the end of the millennium.
There's a fine line between being a dreamer and sending brain cell usage down a rat hole.