Location is becoming a hot topic in mobile advertising these days. But thus far the discussion was more about futuristic views or early trials. However, since the beginning of the year we have seen in the United States and in Europe several cases of location-based advertising.

Our attention has focused more particularly on push campaigns via text messages. Two ad networks have launched their services in this field after extended trial periods: one is 1020 Placecast, based in California and the other one is SFR Régie, the mobile advertising arm of SFR, second biggest wireless operator in France.

SFR started trials in France at the beginning of 2009 and launched in February 2010 their offering, self-defined as “mobile street marketing”, that allows retailer’s brands to send text messages to 3 million opt-in SFR customers in a 200 meter radius around their shop’s locations. The advertisement text message can be linked to a mobile website that details the offer. At this stage the product is available for Paris and its surroundings; it will be extended to other French cities before the end of the year.

According to SFR Régie results of the various experiments made last year with retail chains (clothes, cosmetics and restaurant) are very promising with click-through-rate of over 8 percent on text messages.

This push SMS is targeting new customers while the solution implemented by 1020 Placecast in the United States is about increasing loyalty of existing customers, not acquiring new ones.

ShopAlerts
ShopAlerts is an opt-in location-based mobile marketing solution that lets retailers talk to their customers when they are near a store or other relevant locations. Consumers can opt-in in stores, website, Facebook page or via SMS. ShopAlerts will only send maximum number of 3 messages within a given week from a retailer and users can opt out of the program by texting “stop” back to a text message.

Launched in February 2010, the ShopAlerts service has run pilot programs since September 2009 across the U.S. with several major retailers including SONIC Drive-In, American Eagle Outfitters, and REI. Participants in the programs were surveyed with the following results:
- 60% of participants found the location-triggered messages to be cool and innovative
- 79% said it increased their likelihood to visit a store
- 65% made a purchase as a result of a ShopAlerts message
- 73% of participants would definitely or probably use the service in the future

At the technical level 1020 Placecast is using Alcatel-Lucent to query an opted in user’s location. Alcatel-Lucent is leveraging its Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) as a hosted service, tracks opt-in subscribers’ locations on behalf of the wireless operator and pushes mobile content to the subscriber when and where is appropriate.

These two examples show that push location-based advertising is not anymore a concept but has become a reality and probably set to a bright future.