What's to Come

It's Time for The Third Screen!

One of the hot subjects now is mobile advertising. According to the Mobile Marketing Association MMA there are over 195 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. Compare that to approximately 111 million television households. The possibility for a one-on-one marketing relationship is huge! All of the major wireless carriers are in the midst of exploring mobile advertising. Many applications have been developed that would include advertising. Applications that not only deliver ads, but ads that are location sensitive based on the subscriber's current location are promising. As video feeds are delivered over mobile, ads are embedded much like those on television.

The real value proposition is targeted advertising. Most people don't share their phones like they do televisions or print media. Through good campaign planning and management and targeted ad insertion, the response rate should be very high.

And there has to be inherent value for the consumer in receiving ads on their phones. I'm not sure most carriers understand the best way to balance subscription revenues with ad revenues. But, I think they have to move in this direction. Much like cable TV did some years ago, we are now afforded a large range of choices for a price within our reach. Advertising by in large pays the bill. As the options spiral up in the mobile world, there will be a ceiling of how much people are willing to pay. At this point the carriers won't quit innovating, or at least I hope not. I think they'll supplement with ad revenue and allow prices to settle in a more comfortable place.

Another issue involves how the ads are actually placed over mobile. The current landscape shows tons of vendors with mobile applications, each with an ad component on the front end. Carriers are also trying to get in the game with their own ad front-ends. Advertisers, in the big picture, don't care who subscribes to which carrier or what application the ad resides on. What they care about is getting the right ad to the right person, getting a positive response and tracking the success of that ad placement. They are not going to go to hundreds of applications or several different carriers to place their ads. They need a more universal solution that bridges this gap. If this doesn't happen, middle-men will pop up and gladly charge a fee to orchestrate the dissemination of mobile ads.

ADDITION as of 3/8 at 8:51 am: Refer to article CELLPHONE ADVERTISING OFF TO SLOW START for a discussion on this topic.

Tell me what you think!

-Andy

posted by Andy Huckaba @ 3:23 PM