The explosion of smartphone ownership over the past few years has brought with it all manner of software designed to tie mobile devices with a person’s experiences in the real world. I’ve got friends developing some pretty exciting location-based game apps and I’m sure these will get richer and more immersive as more people move through the world equipped with GPS + online devices. “Have Smartphone Will Travel” now reads the card of a man?
I recently visited a tucked-away new restaurant that featured a tie-in back to the mobile world in an interesting way. As the picture shows, the restaurant chose to adorn the entry wall with posterboard-backed blowups of favorable Yelp reviews, some featuring the reviewer’s autograph. While not the most stylish way to decorate a place, it’s just a small non-franchised burger joint that probably wouldn’t ever win people over with ambiance alone, so they felt appropriate hanging there. Of course restaurants have hung up favorable reviews on their walls for years, but I liked the way this specifically addressed the tribe reviewer and took the opportunity to reinforce and encourage information sharing for the masses. I even drafted a brief review while sitting there, something I don’t usually do unless I’m on vacation.
In contrast, I visited a tailor last night because I found them on Yelp with several favorable reviews. The owner asked me how I found out about them. He looked puzzled when I said, “Yelp”. I showed and explained it to him and he seemed amazed by it all. (Some tailors are seriously old school I guess.) Merchants with storefronts should be aware of mobile phone apps that affect their business and do what they can to improve their profiles on top apps such as Yelp. EatMetrics wrote an interesting analysis about Yelponomics that provides useful guidelines specifically for restaurants, though much of the content can apply to other industries as well.
Have you seen creative ways that real-world locations try to integrate with mobile experiences? We’d love to hear about them.
