Poynt, a location-based search app for BlackBerry, Android and iPhone, has announced a new service for vendors called the Offer Engine, which integrates with their app to offer those nearby with promotions in an effort to get users to swing by. With the help of a dashboard, merchants can determine the radius in which their ads are active, view when customers activate offers, and if there are any other businesses in the area using Poynt promotions.
Location-based advertising is still very much in its infancy, but Poynt is in a good spot to get in to the game early, as they have established a recognized, free, and popular app across multiple smartphone platforms that is all about being location-aware. Foursquare is in a similar position, and they’ve been dabbling in the location ads for awhile now, but at least in my area, participating locations are few and far between. Of course, big players like Google have begun making significant steps in the location-based advertising, Palm had made similar progress in patents, and if recent research can be believed, the people are ready to see those technologies implemented. Third parties like Poynt will likely pave the way before those platform owners jump in and push their own location-based advertising models on to app developers.
Head over to Multiplied Media’s Demo page to see their pitch for the service whenever it goes live, or download the Poynt app at the links below.
– Download Poynt for BlackBerry (Free) [App World Link]
– Download Poynt for iPhone (Free) [iTunes Link]
– Download Poynt for Android (Free) [Market Link]
[via Multiplied]