A method for transmitting a beacon message using a Bluetooth Low Energy protocol, the method comprising: generating, with a beacon generation device (110; 800), at least one beacon message for transmission in an AdvData field of a payload of a protocol data unit of a Bluetooth Low Energy advertising channel packet, wherein the at least one beacon message is defined by a beacon message format, the beacon message format comprising one or more type octets and, if necessary, a typed payload comprising a payload length field followed by payload data field, the payload length field being the length in octets of the typed payload, the one or more type octets comprising a main type octet comprising a first bit followed by seven type bits, the seven type bits indicating an advertising type for the beacon message, the advertising type being one of a set of predetermined advertising types that indicate location-based information associated with a location of the beacon generation device, the first bit being either: a first bit value, to indicate that the beacon message has no typed payload and that no subsequent type octets are present in the beacon message; or a second bit value, opposite of the first bit value, to indicate that a subsequent one or more octets of the beacon message comprise the typed payload; and transmitting, with the beacon generation device, the at least one beacon message in the AdvData field of the payload of the protocol data unit of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertising channel packet to a transmission area within a transmission range of the beacon generation device for reception by one or more mobile computing devices (140, 800) located in the transmission area. generating, with a beacon generation device (110; 800), at least one beacon message for transmission in an AdvData field of a payload of a protocol data unit of a Bluetooth Low Energy advertising channel packet, wherein the at least one beacon message is defined by a beacon message format, the beacon message format comprising one or more type octets and, if necessary, a typed payload comprising a payload length field followed by payload data field, the payload length field being the length in octets of the typed payload, the one or more type octets comprising a main type octet comprising a first bit followed by seven type bits, the seven type bits indicating an advertising type for the beacon message, the advertising type being one of a set of predetermined advertising types that indicate location-based information associated with a location of the beacon generation device, the first bit being either: a first bit value, to indicate that the beacon message has no typed payload and that no subsequent type octets are present in the beacon message; or a second bit value, opposite of the first bit value, to indicate that a subsequent one or more octets of the beacon message comprise the typed payload; and a first bit value, to indicate that the beacon message has no typed payload and that no subsequent type octets are present in the beacon message; or a second bit value, opposite of the first bit value, to indicate that a subsequent one or more octets of the beacon message comprise the typed payload; and transmitting, with the beacon generation device, the at least one beacon message in the AdvData field of the payload of the protocol data unit of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertising channel packet to a transmission area within a transmission range of the beacon generation device for reception by one or more mobile computing devices (140, 800) located in the transmission area.