• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, October 17, 2012

Brands now have the ability target ads through a Telenav platform on iPhones or smartphones running the Android operating system when consumers come within 300 feet of brick and mortar locations.

The technology comes from ThinkNear, a privately held hyper-local mobile advertising company in Los Angeles Telenav acquired for $22.5 million in cash and stock. The acquisition, which closed earlier this week, added a mere 12 employees, including two co-founders. All joined the personal navigation company's mobile local advertising group.

The ThinkNear network reaches tens of millions of customers across more than seven billion impressions per month, according to Telenav, which claims the integration of the technology makes its targeting techniques more precise than ZIP code and designated market area (DMA) features offered by most ad networks.

Every impression gets bought in real time. The platform added the ability to target users with ads based on a specific situation. For example, situational targeting takes into account consumer location, what they are doing, and what happens around them. Pass a Starbucks and receive an ad or coupon, or only show ads in cities where it's raining.

Telenav's existing search and navigation Drive-To Advertising platform reaches 34 million consumers and provides advertisers with a measurement platform that captures the "drive-to" rate, the number of users who viewed an ad and then clicked on it before driving to the location.

ThinkNear works with companies like 1800flowers and Crunch Fitness Center, and has raised $1.7 million in venture capital funding from Google Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, IA Ventures and Metamorphic Ventures.