Have you ever been walking around and had a hankering to look at cbs.com? Neither have we, but just in case, you might see some interesting localized advertising courtesy of GPS social networking company Loopt (best known as the "where you at" Boost Mobile feature). Broadcasting and Cable reports:
So, how is this any different or more groundbreaking than calculating your location based on your IP and delivering ads that way? I see that all the time. The only way stuff like this could really work is through SMS messaging, which will never happen because people will hate it and it's creepy:CBS is partnering with mapping and communications company Loopt on a new service that will provide local contextualized advertising to mobile devices. Utilizing global positioning system and other mapping technologies, the company will allow users visiting CBS sites on their mobile devices to see ads tailored to their location, with other factors such as the time of day taken into consideration. "If you're hungry and we take into account your location and time of day to display an ad for a restaurant offering free appetizers during happy hour, we've really blurred the line between advertising and content,” said Sam Altman, CEO and cofounder of Loopt, in a statement.
Great. So CBS's mobile advertising is going to be more like normal localized ads. What does this change, other than Loopt's bottom line?In a pre-emptive effort to try to pacify privacy advocates, the companies said the ads would only be delivered on mobile Web sites, not via SMS messages, adding that they will be served anonymously and location information will not be stored.
Seems like chain retailers would be more interested - so if you go to McDonalds.com on your cell the site will automatically let you know where the nearest reataurant is.