Opportunity continues to emerge at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds, otherwise known as “phygital.” How is this being unlocked and how are existing local commerce players (e.g. Foursquare), positioned for this next tech shift?

Key Takeaways

Here are a few key messages or insights that we gleaned from this session.

• The real-world metaverse sounds intimidating to lots of brands and mainstream consumers, but it should rather be framed as the next era of digital experiences we’ve come to know on the web… just more visual and dimensional
• For example, rather than tapping in a search query to your smartphone, you can hold it up to utilize the camera as a search input. In tandem with developing tools like Google Lens, informational overlays are presented to the user.
• This has clear implications for the existing local media and search sectors. Could a new “flavor” of SEO emerge for businesses that want to be present and optimized in these visual searches?
• Furthermore, location and listings data will be needed for this all to flow correctly to the user, thus positioning the current leaders in location intelligence (e.g., Foursquare, Groundtruth, InMarket), as a key piece of the real-world metaverse value chain.
• Meanwhile, the name of the game is to educate brands and SMBs to participate in this next tech shift and optimize their marketing strategies accordingly. This will be a gradual process… just like the evolution of mobile marketing, and it will be led AR platforms like Zappar, and AR-focused agencies like RockPaper Reality

Finding Phygital: Adding Digital Depth to the Physical World

How will devices know when to activate localized immersive content. It’s all about spatial understanding and even good-old QR codes.

Scot Frank, Foursquare
Omead Sinai, Rock Paper Reality
Ed Morris, Zappar