Post by Walt Doyle, CEO of WHERE

Today we announced WHERE Ads™, one of the first hyper-local mobile advertising networks available in North America. I wanted to take the opportunity to explain a bit about the WHERE Ads network, and what motivated us to build it.

WHERE has been in market for over two years and now has millions of active users. Like many mobile publishers we have been working hard on two fronts – building a great experience for our audience while simultaneously integrating tools to monetize our audience’s engagement. WHERE Ads is focused on the monetization part.

Like many others, we work with mobile ad networks. Our closest partner has been Quattro. Quattro has been delivering high quality branded campaigns to the WHERE audience for over two years. They’ve done a great job and are a best-in-class partner. However, given the vast amount of mobile inventory available, we struggled to keep our fill rates high. When we had a high quality campaign running, everything looked great. However, when those campaigns ended we were forced to fill the inventory from a mediated group of sources and encountered content quality issues. We needed a better solution.

In our discussions with numerous other publishers we found that they shared this same issue. Some of them were big media companies with an owned/operated sales force that would sell a small percentage of their inventory and then fill from a mediated network of sources. The mediated content often conflicted with their o/o inventory, performed at a sub-par yield, and provided an unflattering experience to their audience. We recognized that if we built something for ourselves, there would be an opportunity to provide it on a network level as well.

The three big questions we needed to answer before getting started were:
1) What would we build that could provide value to our audience and make money?
2) How would we differentiate our offering in the market?
3) How would we design to scale?

Providing Value. We had witnessed a much higher yield from advertising offers, discounts and coupons delivered at a local level. We experimented in the past with various third party solutions, and while our audience responded to the content, the solutions didn’t scale. They required heavy SDK integration, didn’t work on certain platforms, and generally lacked a comprehensive DB of content. We wanted something better. As a company, we are very good at aggregating third party content at the platform level. We pull over seventy different content feeds and dynamically push that content to our users based on preferences, location, profiles, etc. In short – we already had a lot of the platform components in place to deliver a solution – we just needed the right content on the back-end.

We went to work, and now have a comprehensive DB of third party content, much of which is new to mobile. We are constantly adding new content into the database and will continue to improve on optimizing not just breadth, but also context.

Differentiated Delivery. Location is a funny thing – there are many flavors about how to acquire the location of a handset. As a company that has been operating in the mobile LBS space for four years, we use just about all of them. When thinking through optimal delivery of hyper-local ads, we were fortunate to have some unique assets. Specifically, we have access to network-based location from most of the North American operators. Technically speaking, network-based location allows you to see the location of a handset (once consumer permission is granted) without having to have a client on the handset and regardless of whether or not it is a handset with a GPS chip inside. You utilize the network itself. This is very useful for improving what’s called the “time to first fix,” indoor location issues, as well as “pushing” content to the handset. We have been using network-based location to improve the WHERE product experience, and are now also utilizing it for the optimized delivery of WHERE Ads across all phones.

Designing to Scale. Scale means many things depending upon the context – for us it was about reach. In order to scale WHERE we needed the solution to work across ALL phones and operating systems. RIM, WEB OS, Android, iPhone, HTML5, BREW, J2ME, WAP, etc. This wasn’t easy, but it was absolutely necessary. When looking to scale WHERE Ads, we recognized the physical constraints of limiting the reach to only the WHERE audience. The more precisely we targeted our delivery, the faster we would target ourselves right out of an audience! We needed to grow our audience beyond our own walls if we wanted to deliver an audience of scale to the local advertiser. This is why we have opened WHERE Ads to third party publishers. The often mentioned, but rarely realized opportunity in local is about delivering a local audience into the local merchant in real-time. Opening our platform to third parties will allow us to achieve the scale necessary to make this a reality even faster.

It’s early days and we are tremendously pleased with the results thus far. Thank you for listening and check back in soon!

Walt

In the beginning of my journey with a smart phone (how did phones get so smart, and why can’t we have smart people along with the promise of new technology?) I had become an Apps Queen, downloading, giving them a test run, but sadly falling short. WHERE definitely stands alone!!

Where has become my daily connection with the clouds. On a business level, I travel to different parts of the state so using the WHERE Weather gadget I’m able to, with great ease, type in a destination city and get an hourly and weekly forecast.

Secondly, when I’m out of town, unfamiliar with my surroundings, searching for restaurants or a place to unwind with a drink, the interface makes it incredibly simple to search, which in turn compliments Google maps!!

On a personal level, going to the movies is a cinch, with all the theaters in my area, and showtimes, trailers etc.

When a program (app) works exactly like the developer promises, and all the time, all I can say is WOW!! Updates are interesting. I consider the program perfect, but then the developer updates features or adds new ones, in ways I never saw coming.

I don’t understand the logic in a great app offered to the public free of charge. In this case, twisted logic (how my mind works) makes my day!!!

Sincerely,

Kristina

(If you’re also a fan, let us know why you like WHERE. Send us a note at nicole@where.com to join our fan user panel!)

As a developer and publisher of a mobile application that utilizes advertising to generate revenue, we pay close attention to who is leveraging mobile to reach their audience. Mostly we see major brands in the consumer packaged goods, auto, and travel industries. Sign up for the daily newsletter from MobileMarketer.com to keep up with the latest. We also see lots of applications promoting themselves.

First, lets consider the objectives of mobile marketing. Since many mobile devices (think feature phones) lack sophisticated browsers, many brands are using mobile to simply drive brand impressions. Non smartphones are not great direct response vehicles. Due to this somewhat limited ability to interact, much of this marketing drives clicks to mobile landing pages that seek to educate the audience regarding a product or service.

Location however, allows marketers to turn mobile marketing into the ultimate direct response mechanism. Consider this – a mobile device is inherently local, local to whereever you are. Empowered with this information, marketers have the ability to drive foot traffic into their stores, dealerships, and locations. Not only can a marketer leverage location data to target specific audiences, they can drive action. Again, mobile is the ultimate direct response platform.

So, who can take advantage, and how do you get involved. For the big guys, it’s easy. There are a host of ad platforms/networks out there that are happy to take a fee to drive brand impressions on millions of mobile devices. The companies that will benefit disproportionately are the local merchants. Never before has there been a medium that gives power to small/local merchants to target a local audience. Through WHERE, we serve 2 local searches per second…that’s about 150k per day. The searches are performed in all cities and towns across the US, and focused on restaurants, retailers, services providers, etc.

Connecting consumers with local merchants has long been a goal for us. Stay tuned to learn more about how we are doing that.

Great news for all iPhone users – WHERE introduces an exciting set of updates today! WHERE v. 3.4 for iPhone is loaded with stylish enhancements including a fresh homepage design and new functionalities. Here are some of the new features you’ll find in WHERE:

Personalized Homepage

We’ve made it easier for you to find content and personalize your home screen. Personalize your homepage by dragging and dropping icons for quicker access to the content you want.  Simply press and hold any icon, then drag and drop to reorder them.

Expanded Dashboard

In v3.4, you can find the latest weather and news instantly. Based on user feedback, we’ll be adding more types of content to this stream so that you can see all local information that matters to you in one place.

Check-in

Use the new Check-in feature from the homepage to check-in at any location and post updates to Facebook and Twitter. You can also check-in from any detail page while viewing location information.

Placebook

Placebook keeps track of all your favorite places and reviews you’ve written. Your Placebook is also available on the web at http://www.where.com/local/profile, where you can easily share your places and reviews with friends.

We’ve enhanced the Check-in feature, and as you build your Placebook (an address book for your places), we realize that in addition to being able to “Check-in” at your current location, you also want the ability to keep track of the places you have already visited. Therefore we’ve added a “Been Here” button into the Check-In feature. We see that you’re loving the ability to share your reviews and where you are with your friends through Facebook, so we’ve expanded this capability to Twitter, so you can easily share this information with your followers too! We’ve also added the ability to post a comment while sharing your reviews or location.

What’s new in WHERE 1.8.8?
-Enhancements to the Check-in feature and functionality
-Introduction of the “Been Here” button
-Publish your Check-in’s through Twitter
-Ability to post a comment while sharing
-New About page

We’re also continuously striving to provide you with the best user interface and the ability to customize your WHERE experience to meet your preferences. Therefore we’ve also made the following improvements in this version:
-New icons to keep the UI looking fresh
-New wallpapers so you can personalize the background

So Android users… we encourage you to download the latest version of WHERE today, start updating your favorite places in Placebook and sharing them with your friends and followers! And as always, we welcome your feedback. Let us know what you think in the comments below. And, if you’d like to join the WHERE user panel to get early access to new features such as adding photos and a rewards program, send us a note at nanllo@ulocate.com.

As always, there is so much activity across the spectrum of mobile at this conference. Literally everyone in the stack is in attendance and making deals.  It’s complicated, exciting, and ever changing – that’s why we all love being in the mobile business.

Sometimes you can learn as much about what’s happening in a market at these conferences by absence rather than attendance – this is certainly the case in Barcelona this year.  I was impressed with the massive presence of RIM, Samsung and Microsoft – welcome back team Redmond.  However, I was almost equally shocked by the complete absence of Nokia’s handset division.  In years past, one would have thought that this event was not just sponsored in part by Nokia, but rather produced by the Nordic giant.  Strange…

Thematically, 2010 was all about consumer service adoption and it’s radically clear that everyone wants in on the action.  OEM’s, carriers, even chip manufacturers are aggressively pursuing strategies to participate in the services segment.  To call this “lane changing” would be an understatement, and it represents what will become one of the most interesting dogfights in mobile to date. Who gets to create the ultimate relationship with the consumer?  The app store provider, the media company, the carrier, or the OEM?

Where you participated in the ecosystem used to be pretty clear (or at least a bit more clear), now it is more complicated than ever.  For example, think about HTC Sense and Motorola Blur, these are services developed by the OEM that come pre-loaded with the device offered directly to the consumer by the carrier.  They are now bypassing the carrier’s traditional application distribution channel and even the carrier’s application storefront.  A preloaded “out-of-the-box” media experience created by an OEM and shipped by the carrier?  Huh?

What about the App store itself?  Through a single carrier, on a single handset, the consumer may have three different App Stores.  There could be Android Market, the OEM offering, and the carrier storefront.  Wowza! Two years ago it was impossibly difficult to reach the consumer as the storefronts were locked down and not that great.  Now it feels like there are too many of them!

With the stakes as high as they are it’s easy to understand why everyone is getting into the game.  Many companies are participating up and down the stack (e.g. Google with OS, Services, and Monetization offerings), leveraging market position or technology to advance.  My two cents – rapid innovation and superior tactical execution will win the day. Game on!

Attention WHERE Android users, get ready for a new level of local discovery.

Today WHERE version 1.8.7 releases for Android, and we have some new features to help you keep better track of your daily travels, favorite places and connect with your social networks.

We have enhanced the My Places feature allowing you to backup your list of favorite places, places you’ve been and places you want to go. There is also a new feature that allows you to check-in at your current location right now.  The enhanced My Places feature is now called Placebook – think of it as an address book for your places. WHERE Placebook also lists all the reviews of restaurants, business and other places you’ve rated/reviewed and integrates with Facebook so that you can share where you are with your friends.

In addition to Placebook, we’ve added a few extra enhancements based on popular demand including a new theme selector and an option to tell us when a business name changes.

Download the latest version of WHERE on your Android phone today, and start updating your favorite places and sharing them with your friends!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Tell us how we are doing or suggest updates in the comments below.   If you’d like to join the WHERE user panel to get early access to new features such as adding photos and a rewards program, send us a note at nanllo@ulocate.com.

What’s new in WHERE 1.8.7?

My Places is now Placebook with expanded features that allow you to:

• Store all your favorite places
• See all the places you’ve been and the places you want to go to
• View all of your reviews
• Backup all of your places and reviews
• Check-in at your favorite locations
• Publish your check-in’s to Facebook

Enhancements were also made to meet users’ popular demands:

• A new theme selector
• An additional theme
• The option to indicate that a business has changed names when flagging a venue

 

Make WHERE a part of your romantic evening and you could win $250 for a night out on the town!

Step 1: Take a cute couples picture with WHERE. While out on your Valentine’s date, pose with your sweetheart and your other love – the WHERE app. Or, if you don’t have a date, let WHERE be your Valentine! “Couples” photos can either feature two people and WHERE, or just you and WHERE.

Step 2: Post your picture on our Facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/WHEREapp. Your picture will then appear in our “fan photos” section on Facebook. All pictures must be posted by Tuesday February 16.

Step 3: Vote for your favorite WHERE couples picture by commenting on the fan photo you like the best.

The person whose photo has the most positive comments will win a $250 Amex gift card to make the love last beyond Valentine’s Day!

Tips – Be funny, cute or creative. Show WHERE some love! The most important thing is to make sure WHERE, on any mobile device, is clearly seen in your picture.

1.      WHEREreviews:
Check the “Romantic Dinning” section in WHEREreviews before making dinner reservations. Don’t get stuck with bad food, long lines and awful atmosphere. WHEREreveiws are updated in real time so you can get the most current info from other locals about all the romantic hotspots in your area.
Don’t have a date for Sunday evening? No worries, WHEREreviews has a “Singles Bar” section that can lead you to love – or at least to a great party.

2.      Movies:
Use WHERE’s movies feature to decide which movie to see Sunday evening. Whether you love romantic comedies or tear-jerkers, WHERE can help you and your Valentine compromise by giving you all the movie info you need, including movie summaries and reviews, local theater directions, showtimes and trailers.

3.      Offers:
Still searching for the perfect gift for your Valentine? Take a look at WHERE’s “Offers” feature for gift inspiration – and great bargains too! If you’re already splurging on dinner, WHERE can help you find great presents and sweet deals.

4.      Traffic:
Don’t make a bad impression by getting stuck in traffic and missing your reservation! WHERE’s traffic feature lets you know about road incidents and construction beforehand, helping you avoid those sticky situations.

5.      Zipcar:
Planning a romantic get-away and need some wheels? Or have some, but need some sleeker ones to impress your Valentine? WHERE will help you find the closest available Zipcar.

Available on WHERE Version 3.3.2 for the iPhone, WHERE 3D Maps enhance your local navigation experience. Everyone’s been buzzing about augmented reality apps lately, which we definitely think are pretty darn cool. But we wanted to create something more useful. WHERE 3D Maps are more than just a cool virtual party trick, they actually give you a new and helpful perspective of the world around you. Featuring a unique multidimensional street view that includes pan and rotate modes to explore with full details on points of interest, WHERE 3D Maps make navigating the world around you easy and fun.

Try it out for yourself. Grab your iPhone and spin around and around – you may be dizzy, but you’ll still know exactly where you are and where you’re going.

Before you start spinning, take a look at just how useful WHERE 3D Maps can be when hunger strikes…