The fifth leading lady of HBO?s ?Sex and the City? is New York itself and now a GPS-guided application for the iPhone leads users to more than 120 locations where cameras rolled for the hit series.

Users can follow in the fashionable footsteps of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. They can visit restaurants, bars, cafés, shops, salons, city landmarks and parks.

?Last year we decided to try our hand at this new medium, especially because it?s so perfect for travelers, with built-in GPS and the ability to contain tons of information in a very small space,? said Steve Radlauer, publisher of Ardea Media, the New York-based creator of the application. 

?The first app we created was a 5th Avenue NYC walking tour, meant to appeal to anyone who?s interested in having a great New York City experience and learning more about the city,? he said. ?The Sex and the City app capitalizes on our knowledge of the city, but it?s obviously aimed at a specific audience: fans of the show and the movies.

?It?s a simple idea: We?ve pinpointed more than 120 locations in the city where the show was shot and bundled them in a great looking, fun-to-use app.?

The city
The application opens up on a picture of the site that is nearest the user.

A button takes the user to a map that shows all of the nearby sites, with the ability to tap and get directions to any of those locations.

The main directory lists the various types of sites, from bars and clubs to restaurants to city landmarks to ? of course ? various shops featured in Sex and the City.

Tapping a button takes users to a listing of all the places of interest in the category by name. Tapping a name brings up a picture of the site along with its phone number, the map button and its distance from the user.

The ?info? button flips to a short page of text describing the site and the episodes of Sex and the City in which it appeared.

There?s also a one-touch Web site button.

In addition to the categories, there is a full list of all the locations, sorted either by distance from the user or alphabetically. And, there is a favorites list, so fans of the show can make their own Sex and the City album.

?The great thing about an app is that you can not only fit a tremendous amount of information in a small space, you can also connect that info to the real world via GPS and built-in maps,? Mr. Radlauer said.

?The reason people are using apps as marketing vehicles is that apps are new, exciting, and, for the most part, fun to use ? which means attractive to the eyeballs that marketers are forever seeking,? he said.

Final take
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily
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