Online File W9.1 Wireless Advertising in Action
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Chapter Nine 1 Online File W9.1 Wireless Advertising in Action The following are a few examples of wireless advertisement campaigns or trials currently underway. Vindigo (vindigo.com) has a large database of customers (over a million as of May 2004) who are willing to accept promo- tional materials on their wireless devices. This is known as permission marketing. The users download special software to their PDAs that allows Vindigo to deliver timely, accurate information about places to go and things to do in their area. Along with every listing, the company can deliver a customized message to the users at a time and place where it is of most interest to them and they are most likely to act on it. The company targets ads by city (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.) and channel (Eat, Shop, or Play). Vindigo tracks which ads a user sees and selects, and even allows a user to request information from an advertiser via e-mail. Vindigo determines a user’s location through GPS or by asking which neighborhoods the user wants to be matched with. For example, an Italian restaurant chain could use Vindigo to send a message to anyone looking for Italian food within a few blocks of one of its locations. The restaurant could provide the user with directions to the restaurant and even offer a list of specials on the menu. MyAvantGo (avantgo.com) has several thousand content channels and over 8 million registered users (AvantGo 2004). The content is delivered to PDAs and handsets running Palm or PocketPC operating systems. MyAvantGo offers an m-business chan- nel and direct promotions, delivering advertising from some of the world’s top brands, including American Airlines, Chevy Trucks, the Golf Channel, CNN, the New York Times, and Yahoo! Hoping to become the king of location-based Web domains, Go2 (go2online.com) helps mobile travelers find everything from lodging (choose go2hotels) to Jiffy Lube stations. Partnering with Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, and BellSouth, Go2 makes its services available on every Web-enabled phone, Palm i705, and BlackBerry RIM pager in America. Entering “JiffyLube” or hundreds of other brand names into the Go2 system will bring up the nearest location where a shopper can find that product or service. Another aspect of wireless advertising is getting paid to listen to advertising. As in the wireline world, some consumers are willing to be paid for exposure to advertising. In most places where it was offered in the United States, this service was a flop and was discontinued. In Singapore, though, getting paid to listen to advertising works very well. Within a few months of offering the ads, more than 100,000 people subscribed to the free minutes in exchange for listening to the ads offered by SingTel Mobile (Eklund 2001). Subscribers to SingTel’s service fill out a personal questionnaire when they sign up. This information is fed into the Spotcast database and encrypted to shield subscribers’ identities—Spotcast cannot match phone numbers with names, for example. To collect their free minutes—1 minute per call, up to 100 minutes a month—subscribers dial a four-digit code, then the phone number of the person they want to talk to. The code prompts SingTel to forward the call to Spotcast and, in an instant, Spotcast’s software finds the best ad to send to the subscriber based on the subscriber’s profile. Sources: Compiled from vindigo.com (accessed 2003); avantgo.com (accessed 2004); go2online.com (accessed 2003); and Eklund, B. “Wireless Advertising’s Home of the Free.” Red Herring, March 6, 2001. redherring.com/mag/issue94/650018065.html (accessed January 2003). 2 Part 4 ONLINE FILE W9.2 U.S. FLEET SERVICES AND WIRELESS NETWORKING Started in 1997, U.S. Fleet Services has grown to be the code attached to the customer’s truck. This provides the leading provider of mobile, onsite fueling in the United driver with the type of fuel required by the truck. After the States, with customers such as FedEx, Home Depot, Coca- truck is fueled, a meter on the delivery truck sends a wireless Cola, Nabisco, Office Max, and more. Using trucks that signal to the handheld. The handheld then syncs with the resemble home fuel-delivery vehicles, U.S. Fleet travels to meter, capturing the type and quantity of fuel delivered. The its customers, refueling the customers’ vehicles onsite, data are stored on the handheld’s CompactFlash memory usually during off-hours. Three years ago, U.S. Fleet con- card. When the driver returns to the home base, the data are sidered building a wireless network for its drivers, but unloaded over the Wi-Fi network to the central database. At decided against it. Managers considered the project to be this point, the data are available for U.S. Fleet and its cus- too hard and too expensive given the expected ROI. How- tomers to analyze. ever, toward the end of 2001, they changed their minds. Before the handheld computers were deployed, drivers Although a mobile wireless solution was the end goal, would record the data manually. The data were then faxed the first step in the project actually involved the implemen- from the branch offices to headquarters and entered by hand tation of an ERP system. This was followed by a Web-based into the system. Not only were there delays, but the data application built on top of the ERP that provided customers were also subject to entry errors at both ends of the line. The with information about their fuel consumption and taxes, company and its customers now have accurate data in a enabling them to do better fleet management. Finally, U.S. timely fashion, which provides the company with faster Fleet equipped its drivers with handheld devices that could invoicing and cash flow. On average, the new system has also communicate with the company’s intranet using Wi-Fi. enabled drivers to service six to seven more stops per shift. The handheld device U.S. Fleet selected was the Intermec 710 (intermec.com). According to the architect of Source: Ludorf, C. “U.S. Fleet Services and Wireless Networking.” the U.S. Fleet system, this device was selected for a number Transportation Technology Today, August 2002, pp. 12–15. of reasons. Besides having a built-in bar-code scanner, it also runs Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system, supports Visual Questions Basic programs, handles CompactFlash cards, and has an inte- grated wireless radio for short range Wi-Fi communications. 1. What systems did U.S. Fleet have to put in place The device is fairly lightweight with a drop resistant case that before implementing its wireless solution? is sealed to protect against harsh weather conditions. 2. Why did U.S. Fleet select the Intermec 710 handheld The system works as follows: Branch managers enter a device? How does the device communicate with the delivery route and schedule for each driver into a centralized company’s intranet? database via the company’s intranet. Each driver starts the 3. What are the major benefits that U.S. Fleet has real- shift by downloading the route and schedule over the ized by combining handheld devices with Wi-Fi? company’s Wi-Fi network into a handheld. When the driver reaches a customer stop, the handheld is used to scan a bar- Chapter Nine 3 ONLINE FILE W9.3 WEARABLE DEVICES FOR BELL CANADA WORKERS For years mobile employees who had to climb trees, electrical So far, only a few companies make and sell wearables for poles, or tall buildings were unable to enjoy the new tech- mobile workers. Bell Canada’s system was developed by nologies designed to make employees more productive. That Xybernaut, a U.S. company that in 2002 had more than a thou- is beginning to change. sand of its units in use around the world, some in operation On a cold, damp November day in Toronto, Chris Holm- and others in pilot programs (see xybernaut.com). Meanwhile, Laursen, a field technician with Bell Canada (bell.ca), is out Bell Canada was impressed with the initial results and is equip- and about as usual, but this time with a difference: A small ping most of its technicians with wearable computing devices. but powerful computer sits in a pocket of his orange mesh Of course, a practical problem of wearable devices in vest, a keyboard is attached to the vest’s upper-left side, and many countries is the weather: What happens when the tem- a flat-panel display screen hangs by his waist. A video cam- perature is minus 50 degrees or the humidity is 99 percent? era attached to his safety hat enables him to take pictures Other potential problems also exist: If a worker is wearing without using his hands and send them immediately to the thick gloves, how can he or she use a keyboard? If it is pour- office. A cell phone is attached as well, connected to the ing rain, will the battery short circuit? Various solutions are computer. A battery pack to keep everything going sits being developed, such as voice input, tapping on a screen against his back. instead of typing, and rainproof electrical systems. Holm-Laursen and 18 other technicians on this pilot project were equipped like this for 10 weeks during fall 2000. Sources: Guernsey, L. “Wearable Computers for the Working Class.” By summer 2003 an increasing number of Bell Canada’s New York Times, December 14, 2000. nytimes.com/2000/12/14/ tech- employees had been equipped with similar devices. The wear- nology/14wear.htm (accessed February 2003); xybernaut.com (accessed 2004).