Monday Mumble: Can localised SMS marketing work?

Bluetooth proximity marketing is something which I have enjoyed experiencing on every instance. However the technology has limitations due to it’s short range and the fact that users need to have their Bluetooth activated and also devices set to “discoverable” mode.

So going back to something I read a few years back about mobile towers being able to shoot out location based marketing messages. Now this would be rather interesting. Say you enter the vicinity of a mall and as you get within 100 meters of the mall, the cell tower in that area will shoot out special customized marketing messages related to the offers from that mall. There could be a limit of 1 message for every 100 meters; which means the closer you get to the mall more the messages you get.

Feasible? I don’t know because I believe the cell tower may cover a large area and not all those around maybe willing to entertain those marketing messages. Also what happens to regulars coming to the area? Do we bore them with the same message every single day?

Possible solution could be to set-up a SMS shooting device (something like a wi-fi box) which shoots out SMS to all those phones coming within it’s specified range. I don’t know if there is a discovery tool which can identify mobile phone numbers within the area. A database of messages ensure the user is not bored with the same message over and over again. Regular users could send a toll-free SMS to stop updates from the particular provider.

Could create an enormous SMS traffic, but if some thinking is put into it’s limitations, filters and viability I am sure a work-able solution could be found.

Got some ideas to share, drop me a line and we could get talking.