McDonald’s has launched a new geotargeted mobile ad campaign for its signature cup of coffee, McCafe. It is using an iPhone app from Pandora to provide smartphone users with ads and information about McCafe hot beverages—along with directions to the nearest McDonald’s restaurant, as well, Business2Community reports.
A very popular application about a year ago, mobile geolocation ad technology doesn’t get much print these days. In a way, its use is wasted on directing users to a nearby location—at least judging from a study from White Horse. It found that users of smartphone-based geolcoation apps are most likely to see connecting to other people as their primary benefit. Finding a place liked by people they trust came in a distant second, cited by only about half as many geolocation users (21%).
The only other benefit cited by a double-digit percentage of users was insight about travel/movement patterns (17%).
An Intriguing Model
Still, the ad format clearly intrigues marketers and vendors have been rolling out products to support this model. Wahlstrom was one of the early adopters of a product rolled out by Google two years ago—a mobile local ad format that extended its click-to-call functionality with search ad expansions. It found it increased response rates.
Since then, geolocation technology has made its way into many different types of applications, including, as McDonald’s illustrates, ads. vAuto’s Provision inventory management system features geolocation technology. The technology recognizes auction locations and automatically serves up the vehicle buy lists and bidding recommendations dealers will need to work the lanes.
A more advanced example is provided by Tibco. It has just added geolocation technology into its Tibbr enterprise social-networking platform. The new feature lets companies to use physical spaces as "data hubs," for information delivery and collection, ComputerWorld explains. "What we said is OK, these locations have stories to tell. What if instead of you checking into the location, it checks into you?" Ram Menon, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, told the publication.
An airport gate, for instance, could give pilots and agents useful data about flight delays or customer ticketing needs as they approach.
