Mobile opt-in proximity marketing service to launch soon

Mobile advertising is no longer new, but Alcatel-Lucent's proposed proximity marketing service is unique in that it is purely opt-in. Consumers are able to control which companies they receive advertising messages from, their preferred format (SMS/MMS) and the number of ads sent. Opt-in can be achieved via a variety of channels including websites, responding to text ads or in-store.

How does it work? Leaving the office at midday a subscriber might be alerted of a lunch special at a nearby Starbucks, or a shoe sale in a favorite store. In addition, the subscriber might be linked to a coupon or other promotion. These timely, relevant messages are proven to perform well and catch consumers in the right frame of mind at the right time of day, via a channel to which they have actively opted in.

"When you add in a click-to-call or click-to-map, the relevancy of that message greatly increases the effectiveness of the marketing over showing a user a standard ad," said Alistair Goodman, chief executive officer of 1020 Placecast. "Part of what is unique about the combination of our technologies is the ability to create that offering and do it at scale."

The system leverages Alcatel-Lucent's Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) which tracks subscribers' locations and pushes marketing content to them based on their preferences.

Tags: 1020 Placecast, Alcatel-Lucent, location-based, mobile marketing, proximity marketing