AT&T Launches Location-Based Marketing Service

Image via Adquantify.com

Earlier this week, AT&T and Placecast officially launched ShopAlerts™ to provide AT&T subscribers special offers via their mobile phones. ShopAlerts™ is currently only available in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. AT&T customers can opt-in to the location-based marketing service by going to the AT&T ShopAlerts™ registration page.

ShopAlerts™ provides AT&T subscribers who opt-in to the location-based marketing service SMS messages from retailers near the subscriber’s specific location. These are text messages and the service is using your phone’s GPS feature so remember that standard data and messaging rates apply. AT&T says participants will not receive more than four messages a week.

ShopAlerts™ works by creating a geo-fence around retail locations, events, etc. and then sends relevant marketing messages when participating subscribers are inside a geo-fence.

ShopAlerts™ launched with backing from SC Johnson, HP, Kmart, JetBlue, and others. Brands currently being promoted on AT&T’s ShopAlerts™ page are JetBlue, KMart, KOHL’s, HP, “and more.” No information is available on AT&T’s site for marketers, but if you are interested in marketing with ShopAlerts™ you could check out Placecast’s PlaceAd™ information page.

Now that AT&T has officially launched this service, I fully expect other carriers to roll-out similar location-based marketing services–essentially bringing ads to our cell phones. Come to think of it, I’m surprised that no company has rolled out free or really cheap phone plans which require callers to listen to an audio ad prior to placing a call. I remember some internet phone companies did this. I guess it wasn’t profitable.

This text message method of location-based marketing is smart and seemingly less invasive than the check-in method offered by other location-based marketing services. You are not providing your location to an additional party. AT&T, who’s already tracking your phone, is sending the messages to your phone. The fact that your location is not being shared may calm some people’s concerns about privacy, however, while reading the Terms & Conditions, I noticed the following:

Data obtained from you in connection with the Service may include your cell phone number, the name of your mobile carrier, and the date, time, and content of any SMS or MMS text messages sent by or received by your mobile device.

Really? AT&T specifically states “[w]hen you opt-in to receive ShopAlerts™ text messages, you will only receive messages . . . Advertisers will not have access to your phone number.”

Which is it? May my cell phone number be obtained or not? These conflicting statements are troubling. I was thinking about singing up until I read that they may collect all that information. Does AT&T hope people will not read the terms and conditions? I don’t think anyone would agree to have their message information collected.

Working in marketing, I assume the data is being collected to target subscribers with relevant offers, but collecting that information, especially the incoming and outgoing messages, is just too intrusive. What bothers me is that most people who opt-in for the AT&T ShopAlerts™ won’t read the terms–though you have to check the box confirming you have read the terms and conditions–and they won’t know this.

I’ve written about location-based marketing several times in the past and this idea of having the cell phone companies target their customers with text messages seems the best by far. The ShopAlerts™ concept is solid, but the data collection needs to be eliminated. I can accept the service targeting you based on your age, sex, and location at the time–I am against the service tracking your tendencies to go to a specific location, etc.

Aside from being unclear on the data usage, I have unlimited text messaging and I really want to test the service out, but the fact that the service collects your data has turned me off. I will check back sporadically to see if the terms have changed, but AT&T missed out on one potential participant due to its invasive terms.

What do you think about ShopAlerts™? Would you sign up? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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