Cory Trefiti of MediaPost writes about the future possibilities of online social networking and advertising, especially wiuth GPS-enabled handsets in: Mobile Social Networking Opens The Door For Advertisers. I think he misses a big chunk of the solution.
This post is clearly missing major insight. What about Bluetooth enabled physical ads- billboards, subway posters, etc? This is sweeping Europe and its scores of GSM/bluetooth enabled headsets.
What about M-commerce linked to a mobile phone billing system? This is huge in Japan and something that could see real growth there. One thing that holds back the explosion of mobile payment that has been seen elsewhere in the world is probably the fact that most mobile subs here do have a bank account, whereas in latim america for example, prepaid mobile is almost a substitute for a bank account.
As to the BMW or Chuck E Cheese alerts, maybe some people would want such an alert, but I think the idea behind advancers in advertising targeting is to use data to influence messaging on the environment a user requests, rather than just bombard him with a zillion offers and things he could visit.