More about CBS and Loopt’s location based mobile advertising campaign

I’ve already blogged about Loopt and CBS experimenting on location based mobile advertising technology. This, however, is considered a very important step in mobile advertising industry by many. There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly, not everyone is very enthusiastic about location based advertising. There are lots of concerns over issues like privacy and spam. With this being the case, this step is considered a very important one, based on which others might follow suit.

Second, the way Loopt and CBS have made things easier for customers in this mobile ad campaign is very impressive. To get an ad, you should turn on the locator button in your phone. The locator button will help advertisers find your location, even without GPS facility, as the technology pings cellphone towers and finds the location. Then, when you check out mobile websites like CBS News or Sportsline, you’ll get a banner ad based on your location. The idea of banner ad has a couple of advantages. First, it doesn’t clutter your phone’s inbox and second, it doesn’t interrupt you with rings.

You can turn it off at any point and you can opt out of the service any time you wish. What this means is – you opt in for the service, you get ads only when you want, and you can stop it any time you wish.

With this kind of a setup, Loopt and CBS are hopeful that customers will find this ad campaign interesting. If everything goes well, this might be the most prominent step in taking location based mobile advertising to customers on a large scale.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Location based mobile advertising from CBS finds takers

A few days back, I blogged about CBS’ partnership with Loopt to experiment with location based mobile advertising. I am of the opinion that their mobile advertising campaign, despite the recent uproar on privacy issues concerned with location based advertising, will find a lot of takers, as they have very good arrangements to make sure customers don’t feel that their privacy is being taken for granted.

Now, it seems people tend to agree with me. Erik Larkin says that people will not find it intrusive and might opt in for it. Wait; did I hear someone say ‘wise men think alike?’

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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CBS joins hands with Loopt to bring location based mobile advertising

A few weeks back, CBS announced that it will experiment with location based mobile advertising and based on the results, will think about taking the advertising campaign to the next level.

It was announced that CBS Mobile unit will team up with Loopt, a famous social networking service, in this advertising campaign. The team has got two tailor-made mobile websites to run this advertising campaign – CBS Mobile News and CBS Mobile Sports.

As of now, these ads will appear on your mobile screen only if your phone has GPS capabilities and if you are a customer of Sprint Nextel or Boost Mobile, who have signed deals with Loopt. However, CBS is confident of getting more carriers sign a deal with them to reach out to a larger customer base.

Loopt’s GPS based technology will help advertisers send targeted ads based on the mobile users’ location. Now, to stay clear of controversies and privacy issues regarding location based advertising, CBS and Loopt have announced that this advertising service will be made available strictly on an opt-in/opt-out basis. Meaning, if you are interested in getting the ads, you can opt in and you can opt out of the same at any time. Also, they have announced that the mobile ads will be delivered anonymously and they will not store your location history.

Something that Cyriac Roeding of CBS said made a lot of sense to me. When asked further about the importance of adding value in mobile advertising, he said that this is a game in which the customer should win at the end of the day, for if he doesn’t, there is no game to be played. Spot on, I should say!

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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Say bye to GPS, locate everything through a chip - says S5 Wireless

Think of the situations where you would want to find out a specific location. When you’ve lost your pet, someone has stolen your car, or worse, someone has kidnapped you and the police needs to find your location. Now, there is a simple solution in the form of a chip, that too a very small one.

Utah based S5 Wireless has come up with a brand new technology which can potentially replace the need for GPS (Global Positioning Systems) devices. They have come up with a tiny little electronic chip which can be placed anywhere you want and can be used to track the location perfectly. Once the chip is placed somewhere, you can track the location of the chip using cell phone towers and can pinpoint the actual location of the chip within two seconds.

The most important fact about this chip is its manufacturing cost. It is way cheaper than you imagine – it takes only about $1 to manufacture a chip of this kind. This ideal combination of low-cost and technology can potentially replace GPS devices which are way too costly and can track the location only if the direct line of the satellites is not obstructed. The only requirement for the chip though is that there needs to be at least three cellphone towers in the area where the chip is located in order to track its location perfectly.

Before you privacy advocates jump on me for promoting such an “intrusive” technology, let me make it clear. The chips will come with an on/off switch which you can use to your convenience. You can keep it switched off if you don’t want to be tracked.

Now, here’s the thing which caught my attention. Though the technology was developed to address the issues of emergencies, it can also be used very effectively for – you guessed it right; mobile advertising. The CEO of S5 Wireless, Mr. David Carter said this technology could very well turn out into a path-breaking one and he also added that if such technologies were to be used for mobile advertising, it would be far more effective than what it is right now and the advertisers will be able to reach out to the customers more effectively. He also said that there will come a day when people can actually enjoy cell service free of cost, thanks to location based mobile advertising.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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