Commentary

Three's Company: Mobile, Location & Programmatic

Mobile advertising, programmatic buying and location-based targeting have been quite the trio this week.

On Monday, Swirl announced a programmatic ad exchange that will use iBeacon technology to target in-store shoppers. Also on Monday, PubMatic and xAd expanded their partnership to allow publishers to set up private exchanges featuring location-specific inventory, such as when a consumer is in a grocery store or an auto lot.

Fittingly, a third piece of news is now out regarding the marriage of mobile, location data and programmatic.

Chitika, an online and mobile ad network, this morning announced the launch of “cidewalk,” an app that sits on top of Chitika's mobile real-time bidding (RTB) platform that lets advertiser target users based on -- you guessed it -- location.

Three stories, in three days, about the same three things. 

I know that mobile advertising goes hand-in-hand with location-based data, but these announcements were unique in that location-targeting was not part of the offering, it was the offering.

Acording to the Ad Sentiment Index that Real-Time Daily has been publishing in recent weeks, mobile ads have been influential of late. Last week, consumers reported to being more influenced by mobile ads than they had been at any point in the previous six months. That sentiment has since dropped to be more in line with the past two months, but it has only been two days since the recent high, so it’s plausible it will rise again.

These announcements also come just weeks after a recent study by Kitewheel found that 91% of consumers might be influenced by an “in the moment” offer from a brand, with 25% saying they are likely to ultimately the select the brand who presents the “in the moment” offer.

I wrote then that a “real big real-time opportunity awaits marketers.” With the slew of announcements this week, it appears the infrastructure is now in place for marketers to take advantage of that opportunity -- or to at least test it out.

"Mobile location" image via Shutterstock.

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