Alcatel-Lucent and 1020 Placecast, the cross-platform location-based advertising solution provider, are teaming up to provide mobile service providers and brands in the US with what they describe as: a unique, location-based service hosted by Alcatel-Lucent - that delivers highly relevant messaging and advertising to mobile consumers who opt into the service.
The companies are offering an end-to-end service that enables service providers to support brands in reaching their target audiences wherever they are. As part of the service, 1020 Placecast leverages its ad engine to weave location information into relevant messages, enabling brands and advertising agencies to deliver scalable, proximity-based  marketing campaigns that will be pushed to consumers' mobile devices via SMS and MMS.
Alcatel-Lucent, leveraging its Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) as a hosted service, tracks opted-in subscribers location on behalf of the service provider and pushes mobile content to the subscriber when and where appropriate, based on the advertising campaign developed and managed by the 1020 Placecast platform.
The companies say the service can support millions of subscribers, and creates an environment where service providers and advertisers can partner in developing and delivering a new generation of revenue-generating mobile advertising services to customers.
Mobile service providers can, for example, offer consumers an opt-in service where they will receive a mobile message offering a discount at a consumers favourite retailer around the corner on their way to work. The message could include the store address, phone number, proximity to the customer, and other brand- and carrier-developed content. For subscribers, the companies note, receiving messages and advertising from brands subscribers care about at the time and place they are most interested in getting them enhances the mobile experience.
One of the key benefits of mobile marketing is the precise location targeting inherent in mobile devices and communication networks, says Michael Boland, Program Director, Mobile Local Media, for The Kelsey Group, which provides local advertising research, analysis, data and competitive metrics. Pulling together Alcatel-Lucents location service with Placecasts location-based ad serving engine should create a greater ability to deliver more relevant ads that perform better.
The turnkey service, available in North America, delivers messages and ads to mobile devices without any capital investment from service providers. Subscribers simply sign-up for the service and select the kinds of messages and offers they want to receive. Their privacy is protected because their exact location is never revealed, only the fact that they have entered a designated geographical area.
Alcatel-Lucents technology allows us to trigger the delivery of a tailored marketing message to a subscriber who has opted into the service when they enter a specific zone, says 1020 Placecast CEO, Alistair Goodman. This enables a direct connection from mobile to the physical world.