THE BACK END

Kids Know Where, But Rarely Why

A friend’s 4 year-old kid used to call me because he’d seen his parents do it. He’d say “I’m at McDonald’s” and then hang up. You can’t blame him: he has almost no agency whatsoever. He has little more to discuss than his current location because he rarely decides to be there, his mom does.

Riveting conversation huh? Well, some time ago I had the hard-fought pleasure of being first amongst my friends in Foursquare, and the victory was hollow. You don’t really get anything. This means there isn’t anything to brag about. And since I didn’t have anything to say about half the places I visited other than that I was there to be #1 on Foursquare, I felt lame working so hard for nothing.

The Worthwhile Test

In advertising we predict whether anyone’s actually going to engage with our work by asking the question, “Is the consumer getting more out of this interaction than they are putting in?” In human speak: “Is it worth your while to put time, effort or money into this?”*

While it doesn’t take much to open an app, wait to load, and tap a few buttons, you won’t do it if you get nothing back. Which is probably why, now the SXSW hype is fading, fewer and fewer users continue checking in.

Foursquare would be worthwhile again if it let us choose like adults, rather than treat us like children. Let me explain in Part II on Thursday.

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*Also a great way to determine the value of pretty much anything.