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There Are Spies Among Us ... Our Smartphones

by Peter Mychalcewycz on March 12, 2009 at 08:30 AM

According to a recent New York Times article, the smartphones so many of us use to stay organized and connected could soon be (and undoubtedly will be) used by advertisers for uber-specific target marketing. This "Big Brother"-like trend should come as little surprise, considering how our consumer tendencies and Internet habits have already been mined by ad companies that are attempting to reach more specific demographics, and considering how ad people have been dreaming about this day, in creepily Biblical language, for a long time.

Though companies are still a bit shy in exploiting the GPS-enabled applications found on smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry, etc.) to their creepiest extent, they're salivating over said phones' potential for facilitating advertisements. Mobile applications like Urbanspoon, Loopt and Yelp already allow the user to be tracked to a specific physical location. With the knowledge of a person's location and other pertinent information, companies essentially have everything they need to reach the perfect person with the perfect ad. Some ad firms are already trying out AisleCaster, a program that offers bargains based on a person's "exact location in a supermarket aisle or mall." Nice.

Though, at present, there isn't a sufficient number of U.S. smartphone users to make this type of pinpoint marketing worth advertisers' while, we would imagine that day is coming soon. Like, tomorrow. [From: The New York Times]

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Tags: advertising, marketing, mobile advertising, MobileAdvertising, smartphone, smartphones, viral marketing, ViralMarketing

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