Incorporating Affiliate Marketing into Proximity Based Advertising

I’ve already discussed the huge marketing potential bluetooth proximity advertising would have on small businesses, organizations, events, malls, etc. But another thought I had was incorporating affiliate marketing banners, text ads, and SMS/MMS messages into these bluetooth models. They could serve not only as a new revenue stream for the business, but it would supplement the cost for such a system. This would make it cheaper overall and make for a much quicker wide spread adoption.

The thought of blasting out affiliate ads does have it’s boundaries. First, the merchant you’re driving traffic to has to have a WAP site, or a site that is usable via a mobile device. Second, there’s always the issue of it being considered SPAM, and therefore being deleted immediately, or blocked all together.

I recently set up a bluetooth hotspot at my home, using some open source software and a bluetooth USB Dongle. It’s somewhat amusing to watch people reach for their phones while walking or jogging in front of the house, and surprisingly, most people open the link request to receive the content. It’s just for fun, but it’s exciting to think of the possibilities of such a service.

The future of Proximity Marketing in the US.

While bluetooth hotspots are being installed in nearly every shopping mall and public event in Europe, and especially Asia, the use in America has been a bit sluggish. While there are companies currently offering and/or developing systems for large commercial deployment, it’s just not as popular as I think it should be. There could be some reasons for this…

One, the entire mobile industry in most foreign countries is much more advanced in the way of wide spread technologies, handsets, and data transmission speeds. Two, places such as Japan and China are much more densely populated in urban areas. This density is the perfect environment for proximity advertising, especially by means of Bluetooth proximity marketing. Since the range on one bluetooth hotspot is roughly300 feet, you need to have a steady flow of new traffic to distribute your content to, for it to be worth it. Three, people living in these countries are more technologically oriented, and advanced. Not saying that the US doesn’t have the perfect environment for these technologies, or can adapt to new emerging technologies, we just do it slower.

Once American advertiser’s realize the intense potential of MMS, SMS, and Bluetooth marketing, especially at large shopping centers and public events, it’ll have to become a bit more mainstream. By targeting directly to the consumer standing right outside your business or event, or walking toward your kiosk or restaurant, merchants can maximize their marketing budget while incorporating a new, cheap and effective form of advertising.

Proximity Advertising via Bluetooth Connectivity.

Another feature that most everyone has available on their cell phone, that again I think is under-utilized, is Bluetooth Connectivity. Many think the only logical use for this technology is for use with bluetooth handsfree headsets, but from a marketing standpoint, I think it could prove to be a very scalable and trackable mode of advertising. By puting a small box in the business that wishes to advertise, anyone that comes within a pre-determined area around the business will receive a connect request from the bluetooth ad server. If the user accepts, (and opts-in) they could accept the connection and instantly download any type content the business wants the user to see. This could include coupons, links to WAP sites, Vouchers, etc. The best thing about this type of advertising, would be the auditing capabilities. The advertiser would have complete control over the entire marketing campaign. They would only have to pay for the accepted bluetooth connections, and the small box that simply plugs in, to run the system. Advertisers could also track the effectiveness of the campaign easily by tracking how many acted upon the advertisement opposed to how many connections were made in any given time period.

Other than the marketing benefits of bluetooth, businesses and organizations could incorporate terminals at their stores, tradshows, etc. for users to connect to and easily download information and content. Instead of wasting money to print an endless amount of brochures, you could let users quickly stop by your booth, quickly connect via bluetooth and download all the information you need. No more having your brochures thrown away, or mixed in a huge bag with all of your competitors. Users might even share your marketing message with friends and family to increase brand awareness through viral marketing as well.

I know this technology is already in place in Europe and Japan, and it’s only a matter of time before US companies join in and compete against each other to bring this technology to market. Something to think about…

Location Based (GPS) Mobile Coupons, Future of Mobile Marketing

When technology is already in place on mobile phones, it baffles me that it’s still under-utilized even after years of widespread adoption. A good example of this, is the GPS locater on basically every single cell phone made (at least in the United States) for use with the E911 location-based system. To me, this is a huge feature that everyone is carrying around with them. Especially for marketing. Imagine walking down the street and being a block away from a hidden sandwich shop that you never knew about. As you get closer, your position is recognized by the GPS sensor in your cell phone, and a coupon is automatically dispatched to you in the form of a text message. You can then walk to the sandwich shop and use your 2 for 1 coupon from your cell phone.

Imagine the benefits of such extremely targeted marketing efforts for the businesses using this technique. They would only have to pay for the dispatched text messages to people that are in a pre-set radius around their business, say everyone that comes within 2 blocks, will get a text message dispatched to them.

A system that could detect GPS-featured cell phones that come within the radius of the business and automatically send the mobile coupon via text message would be all that you need to make this happen. Privacy could become an issue with this technology, so an opt-in system would probably be more effective.

This is probably what Google is banking on with the launch of the alleged gPhone. By utilizing GPS, and Google maps, Google will use the ad revenue from the location based ads to supplement the subscription fees for the user, if not eliminate it all together. We all know that if Google starts doing this, there will be many that follow, and try to emulate. Again, Google will ignite the industry by bringing good ideas to fruition before anyone else.

Google’s Open Platform gPhone, Open to Genius Ideas…

Back in December 2004, Google VP Urs Hoelzle stated that the growth of the mobile market is being held back by a plethora of mobile devices. There’s software available for at least 200 platforms, and this creates a problem when trying to develop a widely used application. Nothing will be totally adopted into mainstream, unless it can be accessed by everyone. It looks like Google is setting out to change that. When Google quietly purchased Android, inc. in 2005, they obviously began development on a new Google mobile operating system. Judging by the open development environment Google provides that has made way for very useful and innovative products and services for PC’s and laptops, they will definitely make for a very open mobile application development environment for their mobile OS.

Google has already shown just what might be coming using their new open mobile OS. They’ve recently filed a patent for new mobile commerce patent that would allow users to conduct financial transactions via SMS. Obviously this technology is in it’s infancy, but it’s nice to see what might be available in the near future. With Google’s openness, we’ll all see it much sooner.

Google may not be launching an actual handset either, as so many people have been talking about. Rather, they might just make their new Mobile OS platform available to mobile device manufactures, and network carriers, to develop and profit upon alongside Google. Google, in the past, has really never been worried about providing actual tangible products, but rather an environment to place highly profitable contextual advertising.

Door to Door Coupon Advertising, The Right Way..

I don’t know if anyone has experience with receiving bags of coupon’s on their front door, but it can be very useful for saving money all around town by using the many coupons stuffed in the bag. The problem is that you only get one coupon to use until the next distribution, and that you might not always have the exact coupon you need, when you need it. For suppliers of such a service, it can be rather costly to print that many coupons over and over again, as well as getting them to each and every front door in town.

An idea we’re working on is utilizing barcoding to not only distribute the re-usable coupons, but using the coupons as well. Instead of printing, and handing out bags of individual coupons, you could simply distribute one 11×17 folded paper with all the advertiser’s along with a barcode that the consumers could scan with a small piece of free software on their mobile phone and get several re-usable coupons that are redeemable at the merchant. Better yet, just deliver a monthly text message chocked full with money saving coupons that are re-deemable at the merchant by simply scanning the barcode.

The consumer could simply hang the coupon sheet on their fridge, and whenever they get the notion to go out, they could simply scan the sheet for somewhere they like, scan the barcode, and take several coupons with them to save a little money. They’re never stuck without coupons, because everyone always has their phone with them. If they’d rather, they could enter a three digit pin on a simple website, and get a long sheet of printable coupons to print and take with them.

This is great for advertiser’s because it will bring the consumer in over and over again instead of just when they have that one coupon for the month..

Check back to see new developments….

Mobile Social Networking, Advertising, & Barcodes….

“Mobile Social Networking” is one day going to top the mobile phone content market, and don’t think advertisers and mobile application developers aren’t going to hop on the bandwagon.

Mobile dating and networking sites will see a huge rise in users in the coming years, as more and more people become adapted to accessing content via their mobile phones. User’s that are in rural areas can benefit from this even more, because they might not have access to traditional broadband internet where they live. Companies like MySpace and FaceBook will obviously develop mobile versions of their communities for access anywhere, like user’s have been asking for. With these companies having their content accessed via mobile phones, they’ll be able to utilize a position-based marketing platform that can use information such as the mobile user’s current location, and preferences to serve very relevant advertisements. As Google is obviously entering this market, all the big competitors will follow, making for a lot of content, and even more relevant ad revenue…..

Mobile application developers can develop new ad-serving platforms that will enable new ways of serving un-obtrusive and non-annoying relevant advertising that will garner more revenue because of a higher click probability.

Mobile barcode recognition technology can easily be incorporated into social networking, as well as business networking. Imagine meeting someone, and needing to copy down all their info, be it a social situation, or business and being able to just scan a barcode on their business card, or something along those lines, and have all the person’s information automatically stored in your phone as a new contact.