Check-in apps = a goldmine of public wi-fi IP’s
Einstein Bagels should show ads to people standing in line at Starbucks.
The challenge is that Einstein Bagels can’t just click a box that says, “Show ads to people at Starbucks locations that are next to Einstein Bagels.”
They could target IP addresses on the AT&T Wi-Fi Network. That would pick up a lot of people at Starbucks. There are other locations on the AT&T Wi-Fi network like Barnes & Noble, Hilton, McDonalds, Fedex and various airports. Even if they could focus only on people who are at Starbucks, not every Starbucks is located next to an Einstein Bagel Shop. It seems like this method is going to waste a lot of ad impressions.
Another option is to serve ads to people who check-in to Starbucks. Although, check-in apps may not have enough impressions to reach all the folks that Einstein needs to target.
What is Einstein Bagels to do?
The answer is to purchase ads on a network (or networks) with coverage across many different publishers AND can show the ads to a select list of IPs. That list of IPs can be built relatively easily by check-in apps.
The above video describes how a check-in app could find the IPs of all the Starbucks that are next to Einstein Bagels. They could sell that list to every major ad network with coverage in North America.
This illustrates how the mobile context can trump the traditional idea of “context.” Where it’s not about the content on the page — but the physical location & activity of the user. You could show these Einstein Bagel ads on Vanity Fair or Aviation Weekly. They would get the same result if both readers are sitting in Starbucks.
This could be a huge boost to mobile B2B advertising. One way to get a business’s attention is to get their customers to ask for your products.
There are countless food brands that are trying to get distribution in restaurants. If you could serve ads that get the people in the restaurant requesting your product, your sales people will have a much easier time closing the deal.