The Real Looptopia Story
You may hear about weird street performances, over crowded destination points, and the unpleasant weather. But the real Looptopia story was a lesser known rooftop event that was the brainchild of a self proclaimed ‘mobile evangelist’, Mark Smithivas.
The concept was simple. Prove the value of mobile phones to drive business to local establishments while both creating value for business and incentives for the consumers.
From what I could tell, it worked. The turn out was good.
Mark, using the power of various resources such as online social networks, search engine listings, blog posts, and word of mouth created a buzz for this “Secret Venue” (Plymouth Restaurant). Those that would attend subscribed via txt messaging and were sent notification about the party location. Once at the event, people could use txt messaging to enter chances to win free drinks.
As someone in marketing who sees the potential of the mobile market for local business it was great to see this event be successful. And more importantly, it was fun.
Mark has many great ideas for using mobile technology in interesting ways - not just as a marketing tool. One example was a creative twist on the famous Chicago art exhibit ‘Cows on Parade’. In stead of cows, however, LCD screens or projections would be used to display the SMS messages generated by the public. But this is just the tip of the ice berg.
If Looptopia is Chicago’s attempt at becoming more of a cultured global city then maybe adding a strong mobile element is just what is needed to set us apart. Maybe Mayor Daley should give Mark a txt.
Related Links:
Live @ Looptopia Tumblelog
Looptopia Pictures
John Fitzsimmons
That’s just one possibility for Mobile Cows on Parade. The version I’d prefer is one where people could txt or call into a number shown on the LCD panel and get back a microhistory of that place, or a user contributed artistic piece about a memory associated with that place. Perhaps at that moment the caller could record their own story.