So, what’s your take on cellphone advertising?

Right from tomorrow, you will be charged $100 a month for watching TV at home and $50 a month for listening to radio. Wait; there is a catch. From tomorrow, there will be no advertisements on TV and radio to interrupt you while you’re watching your favorite show. Doesn’t sound that exciting, does it?

What went wrong people? You hate ads; don’t you? You get annoyed whenever you get ads, you don’t like being interrupted while you’re watching your favorite show or your favorite movie for that matter, and you get annoyed big time when you get an ad in the radio when you’re listening to the latest news. So, pay the money and enjoy ad-free television and radio. Wait; did I hear you say “adverts are a part of television and radio broadcasting as they need to keep it free for people”?

Bingo; you’re right on the money. They have advertisers backing them up so that you can enjoy TV and radio without paying a dime. Now, what exactly is wrong in applying the same method in cellphones, could you please tell me?

The moment someone mentions cellphone ads, you jump over the roof shouting, “harassment, intrusion, violation of privacy, annoying” and every other word in your vocabulary; don’t you? What if the operators were to provide you with unlimited internet access if you agreed to get ads on your cellphone? Or what if the advertisers were to bear the costs of your text messages if you agreed to accept text message ads on your phone? Or even better, what if they give you free talk time if you agreed to listen to audio ads instead of a ringback tone? Doesn’t it sound freaking good?

I just want to know. Why the hell would anyone have problems with cellphone ads? If TV and radio can play ads any time they want, without your permission, 24 hours a day, why not cellphones? And that too, when you have the option to choose or reject your ads on your cellphone, why on earth would you have a problem? Beats me.

Remember these golden rules.

1. Cellphone advertisers are not vampires. They only send you relevant ads, in other words, something (read offers, discounts, and freebies) which you could make use of.

2. They do give you a choice to opt in or opt out of any advertising plan. It’s not that they point a gun at your head to make you get ads.

3. Most importantly, cellphone advertising is here to stay – irrespective of the hoopla created by a bunch of privacy advocates who don’t even understand the essence of the issue.

Hope that clears all the misconceptions about cellphone advertising. Now, next time when I hear someone say anything stupid about cellphone advertising, I’m gonna put them under the special plan I mentioned in the first paragraph. Ciao.

Categories: Rant.

5 comments.

Cellphone advertising to hit Europe big time

The holidays are about to begin and those of you that live in Europe now have one more reason to look forward to the New Year. Blyk, a fairly popular network in the U.K., has started offering mobile ads to its users in the U.K. on an opt-in basis and it’s soon planning to extend the idea across Europe in 2008. These ads are being served only on an invitation-only basis, which means users will be “invited” to opt in for cellphone ads and those who do so will get free talk time, free text messages, and many other benefits.

Mobile users will be asked for details such as their likes and dislikes, lifestyle, brands they like, services they use, and so on. This information will be vital for mobile marketing and this will help the marketers come up with targeted ads for consumers. The more targeted an ad is, the more are the chances of the customer liking it and subsequently going for that product/service. So, the kind of ads you get on your mobile phone will depend on your preferences and interests.

According to Blyk’s latest plan, users that agree to get ads in their mobile phone will be able to get a maximum of 217 free SMS (text messages) and 43 minutes of free talk time per month. This has raised a lot of interest among users and the results so far have been positive. The service is about to be extended across Europe and Blyk is targeting a strong customer base of around 40 million youngsters between 16 to 24 years of age.

However, the operator agrees that it’s venturing into a territory wherein it needs to be really careful in terms of the marketing strategy. A lot of hue and cry has been raised regarding the privacy of mobile phone users and the people in Blyk are aware of all these issues. They are very clear about one thing. The kind of mobile phone ads they offer right now are strictly available on an invitation-only basis and only those who wish to get ads on their mobile phones will be able to get them. Blyk believes that the kind of freebies they offer will surely entice the users to opt in for mobile ads and it will definitely be a win-win deal for both the consumer and the marketer. Also, customers will be able to opt out of any mobile ad service at any given point of time easily. This makes it easier for the consumers as they have nothing to lose. If you are a user, you can opt in for mobile ads and enjoy all the freebies like free text messages and free talk time and if you don’t like what you get on your mobile, you can simply opt out of it any time you want. I think this no-frills-attached scheme will tempt a lot of users to try out mobile ads at least once. Have you guys tried out these ads from Blyk? Guys and gals from U.K., could you share your experiences?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.