Mobile Marketing  - They Know Where You Are…

They know where you are and they’re out to get you…yes, I’m talking about evil marketers and their Mobile Marketing campaigns.

(Insert Evil Laugh)

Local based SMS marketing is one of the new kids on the block in the fast evolving world of mobile marketing. The concept is this:

Imagine walking into a mall and then receiving a notification(s) on your phone offering you some freebies or coupons from some of the mall merchants. It can be achieved using a number of technologies including mobile phone tracking, WiFi and Bluetooth.

My first thought on this is that it wouldn’t work because it isn’t permission-based marketing and would be seen as spam. Now, developers of this technology have changed their evil ways so that in order to receive these messages you need to opt in. I like the sounds of that a lot better.  It’s almost like an SMS Smart Bomb.

Let’s say that you like shopping at Metropolis in Metrotown and wanted to receive deals from the stores inside. Of the 3 or 4 stores that I would actually buy things from (I might be a bad example, as I’m not a big “mall guy”), I sure as heck wouldn’t want to get blasted by 20+ merchants as I walk to the food court.

For me, it makes a lot more sense to sign up to hear about the promotions from those 3 or 4 individual stores that I actually care about.

As with anything, there are pros and cons and you may have your eyes opened up to businesses that you’ve never heard of before.

What are your thoughts on Mobile Marketing ? Would you like to get offers from all kinds of merchants or just hand pick the ones that you already know you like?

I’d love to hear what you think.