The North Face is taking advantage of geo-targeting capabilities on mobile devices to send text messages to potential customers whenever they are near a store that carries North Face gear.
The campaign is based in and around New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston, and text alerts are sent only to those who have opted in to receive such messages, reports The New York Times.
Such location-based advertising has been slow to take off, despite the potential. Advertisers spent $391 million on mobile campaigns in 2009 - 1.5% of total interactive ad spend - and location-based advertising was just a tiny portion of that, according to Forrester. But mobile advertising is is expected to reach $561 million this year, and $1.3 billion by 2014, and location-based ads are expected to increase in use, analysts say. (via MediaBuyerPlanner).
Location-Based Services to Reach $12.7 Billion by 2014
A new report from Juniper Research predicts that total mobile location-based applications will reach more than $12.7 billion by 2014, and that such location-based applications will be particularly interesting to brands and retailers “in that they allow those companies to direct consumers to outlets in their vicinity while simultaneously providing information about the products on offer,” says report co-author Dr. Windsor Holden.
Factors driving the growth include improvements in handset user interfaces, combined with easier consumer access to an array of app distribution channels, which has led to greater interest from service providers in providing mobile location-based service applications.
Placecast Handles Campaign for North Face
The North Face campaign was put together by location-based mobile ad company Placecast, which works by drawing a virtual 'fence' around different locations. When a person enters the fenced area, the text message is sent. For the campaign, Placecast created 1,000 fenced areas in and around the cities where the North Face has many stores. The North Face also chose locations where there is a lot of snow and rain, so it could tailor its messages to the weather.
Eventually, the company hopes to send branded text messages to people arriving at hiking trails, alerting them to weather conditions.
“All of our highly brand-conscious clients were reluctant about text messaging because there was not as much of an engagement or sexiness to it,” says Paul Gelb, national manager of emerging media at Razorfish. “But here, when you have such relevance, it connects to a person’s passions.” Razorfish is not involved with the North Face campaign, but is working with Placecast on a number of other campaigns for various brands.
The North Face campaign includes print ads in outdoor and sporting magazines, web ads and billboards, and plans to run its first TV ads in three cities later this year.
