Let your iPhones do the walking

Yellow Pages' updated iPhone and iPad app provides restaurant owners with a new means to target customers looking for eateries in their particular area. Now they have the opportunity for visibility on the app when consumers search for related businesses among the app's more than 18 million local business listings.

Building on the app's popular local search and browse features, the latest version of the free Yellow Pages or “YP” app features a new homepage that encourages further discovery of new businesses within three popular categories: Eat, Play and Live. This new feature helps users discover new local hot spots to visit now – or later – by showcasing popular businesses within top lifestyle categories. For businesses they find, consumers can check out descriptions, user ratings and reviews, and even video profiles. 

The demand for the updated app is well-documented: According to comScore, an average of 46.5 million mobile subscribers per month accessed local mobile content, as defined by comScore, during Q2 2010(i), emphasizing consumers' need to access information about things nearby while on the go.  

The specific upside for restaurants that want to get in front of these one-the-go users? “For increased opportunity to be seen, businesses can invest in advertising opportunities so their business stands out when a consumer looks for restaurants,” said Dawn S.  Benton, AT&T director of corporate communications. “These ad opportunities include video profiles for instance that allow businesses to give a visual of their restaurant from a consumer's computer or iPad/mobile device.”

The opportunity is a new one for the restaurant industry: Though geolocation-enabled apps have gained some traction in the quick-service world, particularly in the United Kingdom, via search sites and location-based ordering apps, none have involved the name recognition or resources of Yellow Page’s program. 

Some facts and features of the new app include: 

1. Between May and September, 90 percent of searches on the YP App by iPad users were category-based (e.g. pizza, plumbers, wine bars). The new homepage takes advantage of the tablet's wide screen, filling it with images that encourage users to explore new local businesses and categories. Users searching for something specific have quick access to search and category carousel browsing features with results presented in a split-screen list and map view.
2. During the same May and September timeframe, more than 60 percent of searches on the YP App by iPhone users were for specific businesses. iPhone app users benefit from the same Eat, Play and Live categories and businesses, wrapped into a lighter-weight design for one-handed use – while not getting in the way of text and voice search or connecting with a business by calling or getting there with built-in maps and directions.
3. YP.com users are doing both: Beyond mobile, searches on YP.com shows an almost even split between category and business searches between May and September. Nearly 60 percent of searches were for business categories - highlighting the opportunity to help users discover something new locally with the new Eat, Play, Live feature.