Location has been hot on the minds of marketer and technologists. Some have even been so bold as to call the ability to know a person’s exact location the holy grail (not really – OK – maybe a piece of the grail). At BlogWorld NY 2011, Mike Schneider, Aaron Strout, Josh Karpf, Tom Aronson, and David Wolf sat down with attendees to talk about this new piece of personal marketing. Mike and Aaron, keynote moderator, started with fie rules for location-based marketing:

1. Have an established presence. Even if you don’t yet use it, you want to claim your names and make sure you’re ready in case some of today’s minor players  become major players in the future.
2. Reach out to influencers. You want to get on their radars.
3. Create a great offer. A great offer from businesses has three components: 1) It’s awesome, 2) it’s easy to use, and 3) there’s a competitive aspect to it.
4. Test, learn, and optimize.
5. Make sure your company is ready on the operational level (the staff needs to be trained) and make sure people know – this should be a part of your marketing material.

Here are some of the best quotes from the keynote:

“We are closing the loop, finally.” – David Wolf

“Our core values as a company is not changing in this changing time. We just have to adapt.” – David Wolf

“We need to know now how to understand this before it becomes mass media.” – Josh Karpf

“For us, it’s much more about the engagement.” – Tom Aronson

About the Speakers

Mike Schneider (@SchneiderMike) is vice president, director digital incubator for Allen & Gerritsen, ranked by Advertising Age as one of the Top 50 Independent advertising agencies in the US. He is responsible for building products rooted in ROI that enable richer user experiences while defining “what’s next.” Recently named to Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” Mike has crafted owned and earned media strategies, built award-winning communities, segmentation strategies, content management, and customer relationship management solutions.

Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) is the head of location based marketing at WCG, a global agency offering integrated creative, interactive, and marketing communications services to clients in healthcare, consumer products, and technology. In addition to his knowledge of the interactive and social media landscape, Aaron has more than 17 years of online marketing and advertising experience, with a strong backgroun in integrated and online marketing. Aaron is a founding member and former president of BIMA and a member and former board member of MITX. Aaron is also on the advisory board of the prestigious Social Media Club.

Josh Karpf (@jkarpf) is currently a member of the social media team at PepsiCo, where they are working to develop a conversational communications strategy across our brands that involves bringing the outside in, building transparency and connections with consumers.

Tom Aronson (@taronson) is the director of digital marketing for The Walk Disney Company’s Disney Parks.

David Wolf’s team is focused on delivering integrated Amex experiences within 3rd party applications.