Open up your mind and say, ahh...

This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.

Long before Foursquare was even conceived, another location service by the name of Loopt was connecting friends via location. Today the location network boasts upwards of four million members and promises to debut a new growth-accelerating release late next week.

Over the years, Loopt has evolved to incorporate checkins and amalgamate into three spin-off experiences designed for iPad discovery (Loopt Pulse), location-based branded rewards (Loopt Star) and serendipitous meetings (Loopt Mix).

Along the way, Loopt has also shaped trends around location and pushed the boundaries of mobile phone technology. Still, the company’s best innovations may still be in front of them.

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Loopt Innovation

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Loopt is anything but the also-ran location service living in someone else’s shadow. While Foursquare focuses its service around tips and to-dos, Loopt is busy ramping up the features in all of its mobile apps.

Innovation is the name of Loopt’s game, and the most significant technological update to date has been Loopt’s triumphant return to automatic location-sharing functionality.

In June, the startup launched a new feature for letting users automatically discover nearby friends. Tapping into background location and proximity awareness on iPhone and Andriod, Loopt can figure out when you’re friends are in the immediate vicinity and will send you an update accordingly.

The automatic proximity awareness functionality actually makes possible the idea that both Foursquare and Facebook Places promise — serendipitous get-togethers.

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Location and X-Ray Vision

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CEO Sam Altman won’t disclose the specifics on what we can expect in next week’s big release, but his vision around the evolution of the app may hold some clues to the truth.

“One goal of ours is for Loopt is to become your super x-ray vision,” Altman says.

He paints a picture where augmented reality meets location in a practical but futuristic fashion.

“You’re sitting in your office or in a bar looking at your phone; we can help you see things in the real world you couldn’t normally see — a cafe three blocks over that your friends are in right now, a special offer down the street, a restaurant that a lot of your friends frequent, etc. We can bridge the virtual and real worlds and help people have a better experience in the real one; this seems to really resonate with users,” he tells us.

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Mass Market Potential

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Loopt has never openly disclosed revenue, but in February of this year, Altman told BusinessWeek that his company makes most of its revenue from advertising and has been approached by potential buyers in the past.

Loopt’s real revenue potential could be in how can it delivers for brand partners. Loopt Star is the mobile app that offers branded-rewards and badge-like achievements for checkins. The experience is tailored to the mobile consumer looking for a deeply discounted location-based deal, and is proving to be a big money-maker for partners.

Virgin America, for instance, worked with Loopt on a promotion that offered two-for-one tickets to Cancun and Los Cabos to members who checked in — using the Loopt Star iPhone app — at special Virgin America taco trucks or SFO and LAX airports.

It was a four hour long promotion that netted 1,300 checkins at a single San Francisco taco truck and resulted in 80% of those individuals going on to book flights. The day became the fifth highest sales day in Virgin America’s history.

Such a remarkably successful endeavor means that Loopt can help its partners make big bucks and profit by pocketing a percentage in the process — a revenue-friendly formula we already know works thanks to Groupon’s success.

Loopt has the members and the startup has proven that it can deliver the goods, but Altman believes the company’s carrier and device partnerships will help it extend its reach even further. “Preloads have been a large driver of growth for us in the past and we’ll have some new announcements around that soon,” he says.

Image courtesy of jlapoutre, Flickr

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Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

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BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

A Finnish designer has drawn up a concept solar hovercraft that may soon be ferrying passengers among ports along the Baltic Sea.

The AirFlow, penned by Lukas Medeisis, was designed to solve transportation woes in the coastal city of Helsinki. He wanted to get the public transit infrastructure out of crowded urban areas and give passengers a waterfront view, all without hurting sea life with massive propellers. Another problem in Helsinki is that it gets cold, cold enough for the brackish waters of the Gulf of Finland to freeze over and halt marine traffic.

For Medeisis, there was only one solution: a hovercraft.

“A hovercraft is one of few vehicles what can be used on any surface – water, snow, ice,” he said. That means it’s ideal for a country where all three are a frequent presence.

The AirFlow isn’t just any hovercraft. It’s got a roof full of transparent solar panels that power a hybrid electric drivetrain and let the sun shine in.

Solar power is ideal for at least part of the year in Helsinki, where the sun can shine for 19 hours at a time in the summer. When it’s sunny, the light isn’t even blocked by buildings. “As Helsinki does not have skyscrapers and buildings are as low as six to eight floors at the coastline, the hovercraft’s solar panels can all the time be affected by sun,” Medeisis said.

Aside from the solar panels, the AirFlow incorporates other design improvements over other vessels. “Different from other hovercrafts, AirFlow has two steering propellers in front,” said Medeisis. “This technical/design feature was affected by problems of steering hovercraft. By forwarding or reversing spin, the propellers help to steer the vehicle more precisely, which adds more speed and increases braking efficiency.”

Additionally, bicycle storage is on the sides of the hovercraft, allowing public transit users to bring their bikes on board without taking up passenger space.

Medeisis says that such a vehicle may seem futuristic, but isn’t that far off. “In my point of view this type of vehicle could be designed in five to eight years if engineers use a hybrid engine for thrust.”

Images: Lukas Medeisis

Apologize

Defer to others

Avoid shortcuts

Tell the truth

Offer kindness

Seek alliances

Volunteer to take the short straw

Choose the long-term, sacrificing the short

Demonstrate respect to all, not just the obviously strong

Share credit and be public in your gratitude

Risking the appearance of weakness takes strength. And the market knows it.

Rather than let this interesting discussion sink to the cavernous depths of my inbox, I thought I’d share it with you here.

1. You’re known as a visionary of future media as well as a trendspotter… what drew you to this position?

Not sure that they’re as much professions as they represent a labor of love.

In the 90s and early 2000s, I focused all of my research and work on technology, understanding its impact on culture and consumer behavior and also how to build new channels for corporations between individuals – mostly brands and businesses to customers as well as their peers and influenced who affected their decisions. At the end of Web 1.0 and at the first site of Web 2.0, it was clear that questions were omnipresent, but insight and analysis were scarce. I decided that it was the right moment to share my experiences, observations and predictions and therefore started blogging regularly, writing books and research papers, and also toured the world to help everyone learn and eventually answer their own questions. It was essentially a necessary step. I was vested in a particular vision based on my work and therefore, if I didn’t take a proactive role in the evolution of socialized media, I would not have a say in its direction.

2. What trends do you see occurring right now in social media?

Social Media is merely a chapter in the progression of new media. Trends and permeations are two very different things and both have my attention at the moment. Education and literacy are momentous. As consumers we’re empowered with new found recognition and reach. We’re given these powerful platforms and channels to build audiences and communities around our interests and passions at will. Their state and stature are determined by us as well as how others react and participate. Our roles in community are either cultivating, expanding, or regressing their state. At the same time, as human beings taking to social media, our privacy and the privacy of our loved ones is affected by what we share, consume and with whom we connect.

We are already judged by what’s online whether its a result of our direct or indirect actions. And as services such as Klout demonstrate, we are already earning a “credit score” based on our social capital. I believe education is critical to help individuals use this social currency in a way that benefits their capital online for work, school, and also in ways that shape their personal brand and persona favorably. We are by default becoming a more open society and as a result, we are in control of creating our own destiny. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.” It has never been truer than now.

On the horizon, we’ll see more contextual based social networking or what I refer to nicheworks. We connect not only with friends, families, and peers, but also individuals we know and would like to know and in turn those who know us and who would like to know us. At the root of those connections is context…commonalities that unite us. But as we’re complex individuals, so are our relationships. No social network as it exists today, leverages those ties in how we communicate and share. that will change.

For decades brands basked in the glory of control, control over consumers’ perceptions, impressions and ultimately decisions and ensuing experiences. Or better said, business leaders enjoyed a semblance of control. While businesses concentrated resources on distancing the connections between customers, influencers and representatives, a new democracy was materializing. This movement would inevitably render these faceless actions not only defunct, but also perilous.

Fueled by the socialization of media, content and connections served as the foundation for this new democracy and “we the people” ensured that our voices were heard. Social Media would forever change the balance of power within markets, placing the fate and stature of brands in the words and actions of consumers and the people and groups that influence their decisions. Brands didn’t just “lose” control of defining impressions, businesses lost the ability to govern shared experiences.

Suddenly people enjoyed the freedom to publish their thoughts and the capacity to earn prominence in these fledgling social ecosystems. No longer was it an era of brands saying what they wished us to think; it was now clear that people were in control of their impressions and more importantly, how, where and when they shared them.

It’s no longer about what we say, it’s what they say about us now that counts.

Sometimes truth and reality awaken us to a new reality. And in this case, everything changes…for the better.

Contrary to popular belief, social media didn’t invent conversations, it just allowed us to organize and surface them.  But, when we look at the importance of branding, the mechanics and methodologies for defining, protecting, and growing the brand profoundly change. As such, the value of brands are at risk of dilution based on the aggregate of shared experiences by the new social consumer. And, perhaps the greatest challenge that faces brands in addition to dilution, is the inability to right its course in real-time. As media democratized, the meter for establishing prominence started to accrue varying levels of influence for its participants while many businesses missed their calling. It’s not too late for brands to engage however, the difference is that everyday people have earned greater reach than some businesses within these social channels.

The Evolution of Brand Marketing

The medium is no longer just the message. In social, the medium is the platform and as such, people now represent both the medium and the message where reach is defined by a blending of the social graph, the context of the story and ensuing connections, and also by the state of the attention aperture of those to whom we’re connected.

Simply stated, social media is changing brand marketing and forcing a (r)evolution that will unfold differently within each organization.

MiresBall and KRC Research recently conducted a study that found 4 out of ten brand marketers believe that social creates challenges to maintaining brand integrity. In addition, more than a third believed that social networking affected brands to the point where marketing strategies would require new thinking. This new direction however, is rife with new challenges as well as opportunities.

Belief that Social Media Creates New Challenges for Protecting Brand Integrity, 2010

Belief that Social Media Provides an Opportunity to Reach New Customers

Brand marketers realize the importance of social media, but they’re unclear as to how it can specifically help with engendering loyalty. 35% believed social lends to loyalty, but 30% disagreed and another 35% were neutral on the subject. While marketers were split on loyalty, over one-half agreed that social media serves as bridges to reaching customers and prospects.

Update the Brand Style Guide

The study also revealed a growing concern among brand marketers on how they engaged with consumers today. The consensus was that in order to successfully connect with consumers in such a way that reinforces brand attributes, representatives require training, messages, and empowerment.

When it comes to brand dilution, consumers aren’t alone in their endeavors. Brand representatives and the lack of a prevailing strategy, mission, or purpose in social media causes the breakdown of branding and messages directly from the source. At the moment, a disconnect exists between the brand, its representatives, and consumers in social media. This disconnect starts with understanding the brand’s voice, presence, and personality and what it is it needs to say to the varying roles of the social consumer.

I refer to this series of fragmented touchpoints as The Last Mile. And in order to establish connections with individuals in their domains where they are in control of their experiences, it takes empathy combined with value, reinforced by branding elements that strengthen the story, the engagement, and the resulting activity. Without first defining the brand in these prominent social networks, how can we expect it to thrive and flourish let alone inspire consumers?

To prevent the dilution of our brands in social media, everything must begin with revisiting and revising the brand style guide. This style guide must be embodied by brand representatives where engagement is clearly led not by the “brand you,” but instead the brand “you represent.”

In an era where brands are both created and co-created, defining our brand, its meaning, and its value and humanizing it, will set the stage for collaboration and brand concentration.

Losing control in an era of socialized media and equalized influence, actually gives birth to an important form of empowerment. With a new found ability to listen to conversations tied to brands, products, and experiences and also analyze associated sentiment in real-time is stirring and enlightening. If ignorance is bliss, awareness is awakening. We now have the ability to understand impressions and perceptions and through engagement, we can contribute to their accuracy as well as define our brand relevance and legacy through every profile, conversation and social object we introduce.

Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism:
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