
Wireless Advertising
Present this information to your students…
Vindigo.com (vindigo.com) has a large database of customers willing to
accept promotional materials on their wireless devices. This is known as
permission marketing. The users download special software on their
smartphones or PDAs that allows Vindigo.com to deliver timely, accurate
information about places to go and things to do in their area. Along with
every listing, the company can deliver a customized message to the users at
a time and place where it is of most interest to them and they are most likely
to act on it.
The company targets ads by city (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.)
and channel (Eat, Shop, or Play). Vindigo.com tracks which ads a user sees
and selects, and even allows a user to request information from an advertiser
via email. Vindigo.com determines a user's location through GPS or by asking
which neighborhoods they want to be matched with. For example, if you own
an Italian restaurant chain, you can use Vindigo.com to send a message to
anyone looking for Italian food within a few blocks of one of your locations.
You can give them directions to that restaurant and even offer them the list
of specials on the menu and discounts.
MyAvantGo.Com (avantgo.com) has over 2,500 content channels and over 7
million registered users. The content is delivered to smartphone and PDA
users. MyAvantgo offers an m-business channel and direct promotions to
deliver advertising from some of the world's top brands including American
Airlines, Chevy Trucks, the Golf Channel, CNN, the New York Times, and
Yahoo.
Hoping to become the king of location-based web domains, Go2Online
(go2online.com) helps mobile travelers *nd everything from lodging (choose
go2hotels) to Jiffy Lube stations (choose go2oilchanges). Partnering with
Sprint, NexTel, Verizon, and BellSouth, Go2 makes its services available to
smartphone and PDA users. Entering "JiffyLube" or hundreds of other brand
names into the Go2 system will bring up the nearest location where a
shopper can *nd that product or service.
Break your students into groups and ask them to address the following
questions:
The number of ads pushed to an individual should be limited. Why?
What security issues should vendors and users be aware of?
What ethical issues does wireless advertising cause?
Would you be willing to listen to a 10-second commercial if you got free
airtime?