Brands such as Ritz Camera & Image and its subsidiary Wolf Camera, Gap, Clinique, Hewlett-Packard and Groupon have partnered with mobile media company JiWire to run location-targeted advertising campaigns.

JiWire has launched Compass, a new location-based advertising platform that provides mobile application and public Wi-Fi users with interactive location-related ads. Ritz Camera & Image and its sister brand Wolf Camera are using the platform to drive foot traffic to its bricks-and-mortar retail locations.

?Ritz & Wolf Camera & Image is known for its high quality products, but where we really stand out from our competitors is our knowledge ? understanding what our customers really want and need,?  said Alex Goldman, director of media for Ritz & Wolf Camera & Image, Beltsville, MD.

?Compass enables us to reach these customers on a local level with rich digital advertising, showing them great new products we have available, just in time for the holidays,? he said.

?This will help drive in-store purchases, allow new customers to discover our latest products and ultimately contribute to the growth of our business.?

Ritz Camera & Image is a photographic retail and photofinishing specialty store that owns and operates a chain of approximately 300 locations throughout the United States.

While the company has maintained the names of other retailers it has acquired such as Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley?s, The Camera Shop Inc., Cameras West and PROEX, the stores are all owned and operated by Ritz Camera.

The JiWire location-based interactive media channel lets advertisers identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a consumer?s physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account.

The company also lets wireless broadband network hosts use advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access and provides mobile application publishers with an advertising-based revenue stream.

JiWire provides a cross-channel platform that extends location-based targeting to multiple devices, from laptops to smartphones across content channels from Wi-Fi to the Internet to mobile.

Mobile Compass
Ritz Camera is using Compass to push daily and weekly specials at 350-plus stores.

Location-based advertising has largely been limited to companies with physical venues such as retailers and restaurants, but JiWire claims that Compass unlocks location for all companies by providing product availability and real-time in-stock information, directing consumers to any place where a brand?s products are sold.

?The feedback we?ve heard from brands is ?How do we make advertising more useful,? and we came to the conclusion that if we could help brands to really contextualize themselves based on location, users win because they get content that?s engaging and useful, and the brands win because consumers want to engage with them based on where they are,? said Kevin McKenzie, founder of JiWire, San Francisco.

?Compass enables local search on behalf of the brand within the ad?we serve up what we think is relevant, brands? products and services availability based on location,? he said. ?We allow users to engage with that brand, which will equate to foot traffic and leads.

?We?re making it easy for brands to ?location-ize? themselves in this way, not only Clinique and Ritz Camera, but HP and The Gap as well.?

JiWire claims that Compass reaches an audience of more than 40 million on-the-go users, connecting them with brands and providing real-time inventory on what is currently in stock.

Compass geo-locates products and service catalogs from 200,000-plis retailers and product manufacturers.

The platform offers more than 3 million unique product SKUs across the United States.

Brands can provide both walking and driving directions via the mobile ads, and Compass lets users call or text the retailer and get text-message responses.

Within the mobile ad unit, consumers can put products on hold and make online purchases that will be ready for pick up, and also lets users set appointments to learn more about products.

Via Compass, consumers can schedule a sample trail for a new makeup line, book an appointment to try on a wedding dress, book a test drive or make a reservation.

?One unique aspect of Compass is scale, with distribution over public Wi-Fi and apps providing a meaningful platform to drive sales and foot traffic at scale,? Mr. McKenzie said. ?We can deliver this experience at scale, and brands want that?they want to engage millions of users at a local level with their national brands.

?As those brands look at this platform, we said look everyone is on the go, and especially during the holidays, you need to make yourself relevant if you want to drive purchases,? he said. ?The Gap has thousands of stores, and it has many campaigns running at a national level and at local levels.

??There is a Gap around the corner from you on specific products, so engage now because the specials will go away??that will drive traffic to their stores, like a Sunday circular but interactive and useful to consumers.?

How it works
Compass is designed to provide an interactive consumer experience, per JiWire.

A Compass ad viewed on either an iPad, smartphone or laptop first appears as a standard digital or mobile display ad.

But unlike standard ads, at launch it pulls in location-specific data about the advertiser, providing key information to the viewer about the brand as it relates to that user?s proximity.

Once the customer selects the ad, it expands to display a full-screen application-like experience that shows the nearby locations, which are either physical store locations for a retailer or locations where a product is sold.

Additionally, Compass will inform a consumer if a particular product is in stock at a specific location.

Consumers can take it one step further by performing one of the following: contact the store, retrieve driving directions or find out more information.

The latter option lets advertisers to create customized tabs so the users can interact and learn about their brand through videos, promotions and product demonstrations.

As what is in stock changes in real time, the brand?s ad changes in real time too.

In effect, Compass combines location-based advertising across iPads, smartphones and laptops with brand-specific local search, display and video centered on the consumer?s location.

?Similar to what happened with the whole social media phenomenon, a lot of brands when social media became impor