Codetown ::: a software developer's community
Brad wrote: I noticed that in the Florida Mall, there are a lot of kiosks and the sellers there want to sell their stuff. I also see a ton of people walking by with cell phones. Would there be any way to help the owners of the kiosks to engage the cell phones passing by pushing an advertisement to those cell phone so that the owner of the cell phone would be aware of the kiosk and we could sell this product to the owner of the kiosks?
Brad, this is best as a discussion, so I added it. Let's talk first about the idea itself (then about the "art of the start")
It's a fact that people don't like unsolicited email, etc...but your idea could enable people to turn on and off push messages. That would let them receive push messages when they wanted, like when they are in a mall, and not at other times that may be irrelevant.
Let's discuss!
Tags:
What if someone were to talk to all of the mall businesses and see if they might try to make a contest using an app.
One of the restaurants could offer a free entree to the winner for example.
The participant would have to go to each kiosk to find the missing something or other.
The winner would then get the prize.
That way the participants would have to visit all of the kiosks in order to win.
A url in the form of a QR-Code might be used to make the whole thing work.
It could be printed by each kiosk.
What if someone were to talk to all of the mall businesses and see if they might try to make a contest using an app.
One of the restaurants could offer a free entree to the winner for example.
The participant would have to go to each kiosk to find the missing something or other.
The winner would then get the prize.
That way the participants would have to visit all of the kiosks in order to win.
A url in the form of a QR-Code might be used to make the whole thing work.
It could be printed by each kiosk.
Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.
Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.
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