Acuity aims to connect big brands with loyal customer base via mobile

It’s hard to find a mobile executive these days who doesn’t speak affectionately about mobile advertising and the new gateways it could open, but where the sweet spot lies-specifically what format or level of personalization would receive the greatest response from the end user-is largely up to the eye of the beholder.
While wireless carriers are understandably accustomed to continuing the status quo on business models that have been largely successful thus far, they are warming to the idea of pursuing innovative advertising platforms as the market ripens for the next generation of services and applications.
All the while, operators still have trepidations about any potential fallout from customers’ negative experiences with such advertising. And so they’re hesitantly entering the space without letting their guard down and without making much of a fuss about the partnerships they’re forging in that aim.
Enter Acuity Mobile, one of countless startups trying to find their groove-and what they believe is the right groove-in this uncharted space.
The company is now shopping a technology it first developed in 2000 to offer affinity brands and their marketing decision makers an easy-to-use interface complete with a branded mobile application to suit their individual needs.
Acuity is focusing on big, recognizable brands that already have a loyal customer base. By connecting those customers with a brand they already enjoy, Acuity says it’s hitting the perfect mark between personalization and cost-effective advertising. It’s that “ruthless focus on affinity organizations” and the end user that CEO Gregg Smith believes will drive mobile advertising to more and more welcoming handsets. “Our company’s very much focused on the loyalty groups,” he said.
“Nothing like this has really ever been done before and it’s all about the individual,” President and co-founder Alan Sultan said as he gave an online demonstration of the platform from the perspective of both a developer and end user.
“We’re giving our clients all the tools to build these applications,” he said. “It’s really up to our clients how targeted of a campaign they want.”
The downloadable application has already been developed in Java, BREW and Microsoft Corp.’s Pocket PC formats with plans to expand to new operating systems such as Symbian.
Once a client develops its branded version of the application it can easily send out a text message to customers who’ve opted in to receive marketing from the company. The application will then run in the background on the customer’s handset or the client can even set it to wake up at determined intervals to check for new offers from the company.
The application makes use of the capabilities of each user’s device by harnessing GPS applications, cellular tower triangulation or as a last resort it will rely on customized location information input by the customer.
“Our platform that we sell essentially learns over time what those end users are doing over time,” Smith said.
Companies who use the application will be able to narrow their marketing reach to a specific customer base by building custom “geofences” in the area surrounding a retail location for example. So if a customer enters that fenced area the client could have the application set to automatically deliver them a coupon, redemption code or other freebies that will pop-up on their mobile device.
With rather intuitive steps, an Acuity client can instantly develop and distribute targeted advertising to its already loyal customers. Acuity believes consumers will happily accept advertising like this because its reach has already been filtered for them based on their shopping habits, interests and most of all their willingness to receive the ads.
Acuity Mobile currently counts Traffic.com and Axciom Corp. as its only announced customers.