Where I live, there’s a service that distributes coupon advertisements door to door on a monthly basis. The coupons are usually for local restaurants and bars, and others are simply announcements and other traditional advertising. The service has been around forever it seems, and people anticipate receiving their packs of coupons on their doorknob every month, waiting to use the savings at their favorite places. The ads are distributed to every doorknob in town, so the circulation is beyond that of newspapers, magazines, and pretty much any other type of advertising. I don’t know if this service is prevalent in other parts of the country, but the main question I’ve always had is; where is the mobile marketing aspects of these types of services?
With such a large reader-base, it amazes me that there are no mobile features available. Imagine getting your coupons for your favorite restaurant, and instead of only being able to use it once until the next month’s round is delivered, you could simply snap a photo of a barcode and get more coupons delivered to your mobile phone ready to use over and over. It would be of greater benefit to the user, and the merchant.
Also, with the print coupons, you don’t always have them available when you need them. What if at the same time they delivered your packet of coupons, they delivered the same coupons to your mobile device, so that they’re always available when and where you need them.
It’s just a thought for the day, I received my packet this morning, and started doing some research; not only do they not have any online/mobile features available, the service itself doesn’t even have a website. Despite this, there’s always over 120 advertisers every month. Imagine how many they’d have if they did promote and offer mobile marketing features as well…
