Anyone connected with mobile has heard the “you’re walking by a Starbucks” and you receive a coupon story a bazillion times. This has been an LBS mobile marketing fantasy (and in many ways misguided) for literally years. But today Placecast formally introduced a capability that makes this fantasy real and improves upon it.
The company has announced “ShopAlerts” for retailers.
This is SMS-marketing that consumers opt-in to receive. There are many such solutions in the market already. However the novel and “Starbucks coupon”-like element is that consumers who’ve opted-in will only get these messages when they’re within a certain distance from a retail outlet. This methodology is called “geo fencing.”
Here’s the Placecast video explaining:
I also have a more extensive discussion on Internet2Go.
