AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is targeting mobile advertising with a new program called ShopAlerts that provides special offers via text message when its wireless subscribers are close to a retailer or brand participating in the program.
AT&T has partnered with Placecast, to deliver advertising and offers to subscribers' cellphones via its "ShopAlerts by AT&T" program. The service, which targets the ads based on a person's location, age and gender, has launched in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. Eventually, ads will also target interests, such as sports or cars, which users will be asked to identify when subscribing.
Subscribers will have to sign up for the service, which takes advantage of mobile-phones' ability to track their users' locations. In theory, that means companies can target offers at people in a position to act on them immediately, a capability advocates hope will open up a lucrative new advertising market.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ:JBLU), and several other companies have agreed to join AT&T's ShopAlerts program. When a customer walks near a Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), for instance, H-P will send a text message with a promotion for a ink cartridge or printer, AT&T says.
The ShopAlerts program will be a test of AT&T's ability to squeeze new lines of revenue out of its nearly 75 million retail mobile subscribers.
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