Category Archives: Mobile advertising

An alternative to “bluespamming”

Bluetooth marketing is raising concerns since it is basically based on an opt-out, rather than an opt-in principle. Since the technology offers interesting opportunities, but consumers are sensitive and brands don’t want to spoil their relationship with them, NTT DoCoMo, the biggest Japanese carrier, has come up with an alternative. It’s called “ToruCa” and it will enable users to obtain information by simply waving their phones in front of dedicated reader/writers installed at restaurants, theaters, music stores, arcades and other establishments. Digital Media Asia reports the news, and TechDirt adds some interesting comments on the value advertising content should bring to consumers, especially when it comes to mobile phones.

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3 UK kicks off mobile viral marketing effort

In the UK 3G operator 3 has partnered with viral content provider Kontraband to start serving viral ads to mobile phones. New Media Age (sub. req.) reports the funny content will be available using video shortcodes (so it won’t be 100% viral), but at least it’s a first in the viral direction. Anyway I will be curious to know the pricing model. On the Internet, what is viral, it’s free. But when it comes to mobile phones the word “free” almost has no meaning, carriers dominate the scene and want to make money anytime, anywhere, which isn’t something good neither for marketers nor end-users. Tag: mobile marketing, viral marketing

Smartphones and mobile advertising

According to the numbers recently released by Gartner, smartphones will represent one fifth of all mobile handset sales by 2008. 3G eventually appears to be around the corner, and we need to start thinking about the real opportunities on a mass market scale the new technology will provide us with. After the failures in the early stages of the mobile market, mobile advertising is about to come back but, of course, we need to take into account the lesson learned from past mistakes. Basically the marketing approach to mobile phones should be “push” not “pull” but, with the growth of WAP 2.0 portals and mobile HTML browsers, this concept will evolve. I see a near future of “light” contextual advertising, while I believe we still have to wait a couple of years for mobile rich media. Of course the technology is already there to support streaming media ads and now even Flash animations, but marketers need to remember the “pricing” issue. Given the current prices of 3G connections in Europe (recently I spent 15 Euros with Vodafone to download 300 Kb!!!) making the user pay to watch your ads is a crazy idea that could absolutely damage a brand. So while we wait for 3G to reach the mass market with carriers applying fair prices, SMS and partly MMS will still remain the best mobile marketing option.

Advertising spaces in mobile games become available

Mobile content provider Infospace will start selling advertising space during its “For Prizes” multiplayer game tournaments. Since consumers are increasingly relying on mobile phones for entertainment, this looks like an attractive opportunity to advertisers who want to reach not only the “text generation” but also young adults with higher incomes and less time to play from home.

Consumers ready for LBS

According to a new report by In-Stat/MDR US consumers are ready for wireless location-based services. 2005 will be a banner year for carrier deployments of LBS, driven initially by the integration of location capabilities into existing services such as mobile web browsing, information applications, and directory assistance. In 2006 and beyond, as the market grows, consumers will begin to see more advanced LBS applications such as user-configured tracking services and location-enabled games. In-Stat/MDR�s recent Consumer Mobility Study (CMS) found out that privacy issues were a concern for 35.0% of respondents, but 81.8% of that group said they would be less uncomfortable if they could easily disable the location tracking technology on their phone.

Mobile advertising boom in India

By 2003, mobile advertising will surpass online advertising revenues. The fact emerges from a recent press release by OneTele on eMediaWire. However it isn’t exactly quoted the research firm that came up with this data.