Building a targeted mobile advertising system for location-based services

a r t i c l e i n f o Over the years, mobile advertising has grown to become a technology that allows an advertiser to promote products or services to targeted users efficiently and effectively. This is because the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices can provide contextual information and allow users to demonstrate preferences. This study proposes a targeted mobile advertising system (TMAS) that works as a platform to provide both merchants and consumers with context-aware advertisements. The approach integrates the advantages of both mobile and targeted advertising to allow merchants to disseminate location-based targeted advertisements while providing pull-type and personalized advertisements for consumers. To demonstrate the TMAS, we build a platform to provide highly relevant advertising to consumers and to guarantee that advertisements have an equal opportunity of being presented to consumers. Location-based services aim to offer personalized mobile transactions for targeted individuals in specific locations at specific times [45], using the knowledge of the location of an object and/or individuals [38]. The growth of mobile phones has provided an opportunity for such services. Mobile phones are by far the most popular personal communications device, and, as new multi-function mobile phones such as smart phones are widely adopted, they have emerged as a coveted media platform for marketers because they are personal, accessible anytime and anywhere, and location-aware [28,40,44]. Global mobile marketing spending is expected to be worth around $19 billion by 2011 [8]. However, the most vital problem for merchants is how to reach their valuable targeted audience. That is, how best to deliver an advertisement to the right mobile user in the right context effectively and efficiently remains an issue to be solved [13,49,52]. Currently, the most common mobile advertisement formats are Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) [31]. These are push-type technologies that send messages proactively to mobile users [9]. Typically, push marketing is better for companies who have an established relationship with users, who have granted permission to receive such messages. This is referred to as permission-based marketing [6]. However, the mobile phone can be used as a user-driven media device to enhance the dynamics of business-to-consumer relationships [43,33]. It can be used for pull-type marketing that sends information based on consumer requests [6]. This mode is most suitable for merchants with simple, time-limited, and location-related advertisements. Advertisements can even be restricted by quota, such as the promotion of a …