Brand advertisers such as UPS, Verizon and Cisco's WebEx are running location-based ad campaigns via Borders' in-store WiFi.

Borders, a specialty retailer of books and other educational and entertainment items, partnered with location-based mobile media company JiWire to enable advertising across Borders' WiFi network. Brands can use the bookseller?s WiFi platform to reach on-the-go consumers in 500-plus Borders locations in the United States.

?Many brands are interested in location-based advertising, and they are approaching it in a number of ways, with some taking a mixed-funnel approach,? said David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire, San Francisco.

?It?s a great branding opportunity to reach a local audience they?re looking to target, with calls-to-action as part of the branding campaign,? he said. ?What?s interesting for these brands?

?They can be a big national brand and do this location-targeted advertising?they can do localized advertising on a national scale.?

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, Borders Group Inc. operates Borders and Waldenbooks stores, as well as online shopping via Borders.com.

JiWire operates a location-based interactive media channel, enabling advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person's physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account.

WiFi enables location-based mobile advertising
Every time users connect to WiFi in any one of more than 500 Borders locations, they will see location-targeted messages and offers from brands leveraging JiWire's contextual location-based advertising platform.

The service is free to the consumer. Borders monetizes it via ad support.

The partnership gives brands such as UPS, Verizon and Cisco's WebEx the opportunity to reach and engage the millions of customers who visit Borders stores across the U.S. each year.

UPS is running a campaign with the tagline ?We do more than shipping? to promote the additional services it offers for local businesses.

The UPS ad claims ?We can print and bind your documents, online and in-store at 4,300 locations? and has the call-to-action ?Start online printing.?

Borders WiFi users can click through to UPS?s small-business service page, which features a store locator.

Verizon is running a campaign that features video and the tagline ?Conquer the world with your own signal. Stay productive in 221 countries.? The call-to-action is ?Learn more.?

Here is a screengrab of the Verizon ad:

Each brand?s ad is optimized for whichever WiFi-enabled device the consumer is using.

For the iPad or laptops, consumers see a large 300X250 display ad. If consumers access Borders WiFi via a mobile browser, they are shown a mobile-specific ad unit.

?On the connection page where users log-in, brands have the opportunity to be highly visible,? Mr. Staas said. ?It?s the first impression, it?s a low-clutter environment and it?s an attention-grabber that can influence what they?re going to do at that point as they?re getting connected.?

With the rapid increase of WiFi-enabled devices?from laptops to the iPad and various smartphones?and growing consumer demand for public WiFi, premium café venues such as Borders are becoming popular places for local consumers to get connected for both personal and business use.

In fact, the use of WiFi in cafés increased more than 50 percent in the first quarter 2010 from the fourth quarter 2009, based on JiWire's recent Mobile Audience Insights report.

The Insights report in June of last year focused heavily on WiFi in cafés, including venues such as Borders.

The study shows that 83 percent connect in their own neighborhoods for both business and pleasure, allowing advertisers an opportunity to connect with local, tech-savvy, affluent consumers and small business owners.

Additionally, nearly 70 percent of café users connect for more than an hour on all mobile devices including laptops, smartphones and iPads, with 85 percent connecting at least once a week, creating a captive and consistent audience.

?When any brand is working with JiWire, what they?re looking at is ?How do I reach somebody who is on the go??? Mr. Staas said.

?One of the overriding factors is defining who this consumer is and give brands a way to reach them with a very location-specific approach,? he said.

?Location-targeting and the context around that location are very important."

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

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