'Smart Spots' App Helps Do The Impossible
Local advertising, design and production company Hub Strategy announced today the launch of a new iPhone app designed to make finding tiny parking spots—where only smart cars will fit—easy. The app also uses social media to share the “smart spots” among a wider network of smart drivers. The app uses GPS tracking and aggregates location tips shared by users to pinpoint “smart spots” - those enticingly empty pieces of curb where only a smart will fit.
A San Francisco-optimized version of the app will be available in the Apple App Store beginning in early 2014.
"Finding parking in any big city is a hassle, and San Francisco is no exception,” says Hub Strategy Founder and Co-Creative Director DJ O’Neil, who invented the app. “The smart Spots app is a simple way for smart drivers to find the spots where only they will fit, as well as share and comment on new spots with the wider smart community.”
In order to build the app’s database of locations, Hub Strategy put teams of college students in smart cars and unleashed them across San Francisco in search of 9’-13’ parking spaces. The information they brought back was subsequently aggregated and coupled with GPS coordinates in the app. App users can locate these spots, as well as add new spots and share them with fellow smart drivers, making it much easier to find a needle in the proverbial haystack. Users also will be able to comment, review, rate and recommend specific spots and easily share this information on Facebook and Twitter.
“We have a smart at the agency,” added Hub Strategy’s O’Neil, “and we've gotten to the point where we drive right by spots big enough to fit "regular" cars and park in “smart spots” instead. Hopefully this will improve our overall parking karma.”
Credits
Client: smartUSA
Advertising Agency: Hub Strategy
Creative Director: Peter Judd, DJ O’Neil
Design/Development: theConspiracy, NYC
Copywriter: Hugh Gurin
Group Account Director: Chris Ferko
Account Manager: Jeremy Cook
Account Coordinator: Valerie Nerio
