As mobile technologies continue to develop, it feels inevitable that advertising will ultimately find its way on to our mobile phones. When it happens, it actually could be a very good thing (sadly, the easy spammy bad option will likely arrive first).
Imagine heading out to your local shopping mall, parking the car, and then swiping a machine with your mobile phone. On the display, you can choose which shops within the shopping mall that you are interested in and for how long. You click OK and you have just opened access for those shops (and only those shops) to send adverts to your mobile phone for a limited period of time. A clothes shop might send you a 5% discount voucher if you spend it in the next two hours. Another shop might highlight that free ‘coffee and cake’ vouchers are being given with all purchases over £25. You make a mental note to visit that shop just before lunch… As you walk past the bakery later on, you receive an instant message that all produce is now half price (its late in the day and they need to sell their perishable items).
Done right, this could be a win:win scenario. The recipient controls the process and the advertisers get warm to hot leads versus spamming and annoying anyone and everyone.
The more likely scenario to reach us first will probably be localised search. Imagine coming out of a business meeting, you’re starving and in critical need of a caffeine injection. Open a web browser on your phone, click on a local search form, check the boxes for what you want (food, coffee, wine), the form picks up the location of your phone and you get a list of cafes, food shops and restaurants within 10 minutes of your location, ideally linked to an Amazon-style review system and ‘1-click-to-reserve’ option if you decide you’re sitting down to eat.
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Filed under: Mobility
Technorati tags: mobile technology
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