Mobile advertising must offer value to the recipient
March 20th, 2008
Most people cringe at the idea of receiving ads on the most personal of media devices - their mobile phone. It’s invasive and annoying, many would argue.
Add in some free goodies in exchange and you’ll find a slightly warmer reception to the idea. A recent study posted in eMarketer found that almost half of those surveyed would even pass along ads to others for perks such as free music downloads and SMS messaging.
In other words, give me something cool, and I might tolerate your ads.
What about free, unlimited, on-demand access to dozens of great radio programs? And what if the value delivered was not only in the content received, but in the ad itself? That’s right - ads that present offers in which listeners would actually be interested. What if those ads were presented in an inobtrusive way that allowed listeners to respond instantly, but only if they were interested?
Sound impossible? It’s not. It’s a reality.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Much of studies like this, and this one in particular to a degree, are operating in the context of ads in lieu of mobile phone subscription costs, which is a different animal than many readers of these studies would perceive.
The difference is important in that consumers who would accept ads in lieu of a monthly bill from a carrier are already in the lower rung of having disposable income. Beyond studies, early actual attempts at this model in the UK have not done so well, leaving the studies to be redone in order to find other treasure like ad sharing, etc.
The good news is that mobile ads that have context familiarity, like radio spots, can fit well into user experience provided they have an interactive edge to them. Content services that are selected by users who do have disposable income are a joy for advertisers, and extras like ad sharing, txt messaging, and wap landing pages are great bonus items in the toolbox.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Huh. That’s pretty interesting. Seems like a smart idea to get advertisements going, and help out the listeners.
And this way it’s not just random annoying ads, they’re more targeted to the audience, and a lot more resourceful.