It seems like only yesterday that store-specific ads targeting customers within a 10km radius of the actual outlet were the things of marketing managers' wildest dreams. Not any more. SA's biggest cellular service provider has made this a reality with its new location-based advertising, currently in trial phase with brands such as Nando's and Sportscene. Promising to reach nearby consumers with notice of your particular store's specials, this new mobile platform should help cut down on the wastage of costly print ads that are dropped en masse, where the returns on these high volumes of hit-and-miss advertising are fractional... That is if marketers know what's good for them as the economic landscape drops into a valley where the buzz of 'green sustainability' is the pollen of today. However, as one who particularly loathes excess (and often unsolicited) mobile advertising, I'd be interested to see how other consumers will take to the new service that could reach them anytime, anywhere.

Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.