Funny thing about North Face.  Many outdoor marketers may not realize this, but TNF really drives a lot of cool innovations for online marketing and often these innovations have a trickle down effect on the market.  Over the last three years, I've seen this consistently where TNF drives a new concept online and then the other players join suit.

In this case, TNF is ramping up their efforts at Geo-Fencing.  The technology comes from Placecast as is quite compelling.  Target your outdoor enthusiast with a text based ad when they are "near" a store that carries your product.  The end user has to opt in to have this enabled, and if they are lucky they score a coupon or a textual call to action to get them inside the store.  Ahhhh....hear that?  Like a cool glass of water after hiking all day in the hot sun.  The ever so illusive "last mile" in online marketing so many out there strive for.

Link to the article that goes into the details is found here:

North Face Embraces Mobile Ads – Location-finding technology provided by LOC-AID

For brands with a limited footprint in the retail front, using something like this could certainly drive more sales, more happy retailers and a more engaged consumer.  Excellent use of technology and innovation from North Face.