Location based mobile advertising

Abstract

The scope of this project is to use Location-Based Services and create an advertising platform for mobile phones based on the location of the user. A Location-Based Service (LBS) is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device (Chang, 2009). The system is aimed mainly at location-based marketing but can be used for other purposes such us location-based news, general information, events, weather and much more. Advertisers that would like to target location-based messages to subscribers need to register on the website and select the advertising zone to target the text advert. A user opting to use this system will need to subscribe on the website and install an application on a GPS-enabled mobile phone. This application will send the position of the device at every period of time specified by the user, to the system server. The server will check if the user's position falls into one of the targeted zones. Text messages will be delivered via SMS to the subscribers in the advertising zones. Today's mobile phones are getting increasingly sophisticated and are being equipped with geo-positioning systems which are accurate to a few meters' range. Without such technology available this project would not have been possible.