Update V: Tony Gentile takes another spin at this: thinking aloud about integration challenges. I frankly don't see integration happening. If history is any indication, google will simply add adwords to dodgeball's mobile messages and call it a day. I could be wrong, of course. I wouldn't want to figure out the navigation for an integrated gmail/blogger/dodgeball/orkut app, though.
Update IV: Maybe location based advertising by google isn't that farfetched. I didn't even think about the possibility of google adwords on your cell phone, but how obvious is that. Duh!
Update III: MIT Advertising Lab points out the advertising targeting capabilities that mobile enables.
Because users text dodgeball to indicate their locations, the company can use that information to target ad messages to users within a specific geographic area. The company says it can also target by date and time, weather conditions, or by city."
A bit of that is redundant. However, location, weather and time are 3 new variables that direct marketers never had access to when considering their promotion. Think of the possibilities:
- It is raining out on Sunday morning... go get a movie at Blockbuster.
- It is 2AM, you are leaving a bar. Go to pizza place A instead of sausage stand B.
Like Shawn suggests in "Update II": integrate this kind of capability with radio promotions and think of the viral that you can pull off. Somehow, I don't see google going after promotions as a revenue model, though.
Update II: Shawn Conahan of InterCastingCorp has a great post about what the acquisition of dodgeball means for Location-Aware Media Networking Operators (LMNO) and who else will be eyeing to get into wireless. His favorite bet is Infinity broadcasting. That seems like a match made in heaven. Radio could be a powerful medium for turning listeners into particapators... opening up direct marketing channels for the radio industry and increasing the accountability for radio promotions.
Update: Marc Canter has a shortier snappier post saying the same thing as below without the links to WhizSpark of course.
Google acquires dodgeball. Good stuff.
Now, how about adding a revenue model to that mobile social networking? Their brief stint in making money, I believe, came when they did promotions:
AR: So far our biggest deal has been with Absolut Vodka over the summer. The deal was akin to a traditional media buy. In this case, Absolut “sponsored” a nightlife channel. The deal involved Absolut getting a special spot in the dodgeball network where people could associate with the brand as a “friend” in the same way they would with people they know. Being highly aware of spam, direct-marketing, etc… being something we and our users wanted to avoid, we understood that positioning was key for our users. We had to get Absolut (and other potential partners) to think like content providers as well as brands. By content providers we mean that they provide something of value to our users – sending location-based messages containing information on good parties, drink specials, etc… that relate to the brand but aren’t solely the brand (spam). Location and interest relevance is something that is of utmost importance to us.
Wouldn't it be natural to tie that to online/mobile promotions for events? And apparently one of the founders is into throwing ragers anyways.
Michael Nguyen at Get Real has some more hypothetical in the comments:
You send a text message to Dodgeball that you are at CoolPartyPlace. A post is generated on your Blogger blog, inviting others to come meet you. Google then sends individual directions (Google Maps) to everyone’s Gmail accounts including basic information on CoolPartyPlace (via Google Web Search). In addition to directions and venue information, Google supplies everyone with social information of all the people planning to come meet you (via Orkut/Dodgeball data). As you are waiting, you can flip through your cellphone and look at images of the people coming (orkut portrait) - of course, its based on proximity (Dodgeball’s 10 mile radius) so you can know who is coming first.
Disclaimer: I don't know what dodgeball's business or revenue model plans are/were. Here's what others are saying. And the official:
The people at Google think like us. They looked at us in a "You're two guys doing some pretty cool stuff, why not let us help you out and let's see what you can do with it" type of way. We liked that.
Hey google... we're two guys two.
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