Behavioral and Environment Targeting for Mobile Advertising

As GPS chips become embedded in more and more phones, location based services will begin to explode. We have seen many different applications come out of the smaller more niche mobile carriers and some basic applications such as child finders deployed to the big national carriers, but the mobile advertising promise of promoting a hot cup of coffee as you walk by Starbucks has yet to materialize. One area I haven’t seen anyone mention yet is around environment targeting along with behavioral targeting. Obviously, Google and others will have a tremendous amount of insight about their users and could use this in a mobile setting, most likely their primary driver for their 700 MHz bid in the US and metro wi-fi attempts. But, I think another key opportunity is around environment targeting.

Let me explain this idea briefly. If I’m in Phoenix, Arizona and its 103 degrees, I’m not going to likely be interested in a hot latte no matter what the mobile coupon offer is. But, if I’m walking down the street and I get a note about a cold, chilled Frappuccino, I may just take the bait. Now, there are a couple of key pieces of information in this scenario that I just shared that the technology could determine and use to target the advertisement to this particular situation. The first was the fact that I’m walking. The slow pace of my movement could be understood by an application as “walking” and could trigger a business rule that says I’m likely more inclined to take the bait. Whereas if I’m driving 45 MPH past the same Starbucks, it’s probably not as effective to send me that same ad. Additionally, with my location information, an application could determine that it’s remarkably hot and decide to send me the ad for the ice cold Frappuccino rather than the hot latte. This environment targeting could be a key addition to mobile marketing or push advertising.


Meet Me Mobile

The technology is finally catching up to the idea. A friend of mine recently forwarded me a link to a new application for the iPhone and iTouch that allows people to connect randomly while remotely wandering this planet. It doesn’t use a centralized server to connect the profiles, but instead uses data on each device to connect individuals that are near each other and may want to be connected for one reason or another. I think it’s brilliant! Although, I think having the online profile and ability to keep track of the experience will be a much more exciting offering (an old idea of mine - mobile dating and SMS flirting), it’s a great start at using technology as an icebreaker.

The application: iFob
Features (from their site):
iFob is ultra simple to use, and has no required fields.
With iFob you enter only what you want people to know about you, plain and simple. You can modify whatever you enter whenever you want without having to login to any site.

iFob has lots of cool features, including:


  • Public Taglines that any iFob user can see.

  • Add more detailed public information about yourself.

  • Add additional private information that you can chose which iFob users may see.

  • Chat with other iFob users who are in the same hotspot.

  • Is not a web site: iFob is software that is installed on your iPhone, iPod or laptop.

  • Mark other iFob users as "interesting" if you would like to pay attention to in the future.

  • Visual and sound indicators when other iFob users come into the room.

  • Block iFob users based on whether or not they are boring so you will never be bored by them again.

  • Versions for iPod touch, iPhone, Windows PCs and Mac Intel laptops.

  • Works with any wireless network which your iPod, iPhone or laptop can connect with.

  • iPod and iPhone version are 100% free.

  • No subscription fees.

  • No advertising or any other kind of hassleware.

  • Ultra simple to use.

  • Ultra simple "profiles" with no required fields.

  • No having to define categories for yourself.


Copyright © 2007 Darin Archer. All rights reserved.