PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release
20 March 2009
The 2009 Location Innovation Awards ‘Get Somewhere’
Pretty soon you will be able to find out which bus to catch, get turn by turn walking directions to the bus stop, be
told to walk a little faster so you won’t miss it and be able to pay for your bus ticket, all on your mobile phone.
These concepts won Auckland University Student, Matt Weston a trip to the Where 20 Conference in San Jose in May this
year as winner of the Grand Prize of the Inaugural GeoSmart Location Innovation Awards with his mobile phone application
called ‘Get Somewhere’.
S packed house attended the GeoSmart 2009 Location Innovation Awards Prize Giving event at Sale St in Auckland to
celebrate the beginning of a new era in Kiwi ingenuity and to find out that LBS is going to change the way many of us
interact with the world around us, with location aware mobile phones.
GeoSmart Sales & Marketing Manager, Luigi Cappel presented research and examples from Europe and the UK and said, “If your mobile is
aware of its location, all sorts of wonderful applications can enrich your life. We were looking for some new Kiwi icons
to showcase Kiwi inventiveness for this new industry segment, and I believe we found a number of them. Matt Weston also
took out the Category Award for Proximity Based Marketing with Get Somewhere.”
“Other category winners included agency TBWA\WHYBIN TEQUILA\ who won the Location Based Games Category with Adipush, a
sports motivation application which appears destined for adoption in a number of countries around the world only weeks
after its conception. They also took away the Social Networking Category with Facebook Carpool Tree, which combines
social networking with viral marketing in a concept that has every likelihood of achieving what other carpool concepts
have missed. The application was extremely well conceived and their appreciation of LBS will give TBWA\WHYBIN TEQUILA\
and their clients an edge in a time when traditional marketing media such as TVC’s, Radio and Print Advertising are
dwindling in effectiveness. The Agencies that understand the concepts of associating brands with mobile LBS stand to
achieve CTR’s and response rates unheard of in traditional marketing, said Cappel”
The other major winner was Neil McCallum with House-Mouse in the AA Maps Widget Category. An application that is
designed to put the search for appropriate Real Estate back in the hands of the buyer who can find the properties they
are looking for based on their criteria as well as optimising the route and getting printable turn by turn directions to
take with them. “While the application was designed to print the directions from the AA Maps web site,” said McCallum.
“The next logical step would of course be to have the directions and route maps along with other relevant information
sent directly to your mobile.”
GeoSmart General Manager, Phil Allen said, “We have been so thrilled with the high calibre of entries and support from
the industry, that we have already committed to running this competition again in 2009-2010. “
ENDS