Local Advertising Service Targets Those Who Gotta Go

The hubbub over the iPhone this summer had a lot to do with its sleek, crave-worthy design, but it also had a lot to do with the implications of smart phones for advertising. Local advertising can be a whole lot more local as potential customers search for everything from coffee shops to banks while they're on the go. Or how about a public toilet?

ClickZ reports today on a new service offered by Yojo Mobile called (unfortunately) MizPee, which allows users to search for nearby public restrooms. Those who have ever searched frantically for a toilet can appreciate the idea of course, but businesses may also have reason to love the service. They can offer ads along with their listing. Clickz offers an example:

A search for public toilets near the intersection of Geary and Market streets in San Francisco, for instance, identifies the closest 45 toilets sorted by the approximate number of feet from a user's location. A text ad below the first page of results states "Free coffee, 870 feet away." A click through to the ad tells the location, and instructs users to show the screen and "tell them that MizPee sent you!" to redeem the coupon.

the Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. We should be able... when you say something like plumber, the presentation you'll get will be far better than what you get in the Yellow Pages. After all, we know your location, and so we can cluster around that.... I think that these things always take time, but Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say, below 50, will drop to zero, near zero over the next five years.