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.

Cox to enter the cellphone advertising market

Cox, a name well known in the television media, is preparing to enter the world of cellphone advertising. Cox is usually known for its television advertisements, but has decided to take its advertising program one step further into the cell phones of customers, thanks to the enormous hype that cellphone advertising has created in the market recently.

As you might know, user participation increases exponentially in any TV program if there is an option for the users to take part in the program through their cellphone. The best example for that would be the American Idol. The country saw millions of text messages being sent to choose their favorite as the American Idol and the program sponsors were simply amazed at the response. Similarly, Cox ran an advertising program for gourmet pizza chain Vocelli on TV last September, where users were asked to send text messages to get discount coupons. When users sent text messages, Cox replied them back with an offer in which customers can opt in to the Vocelli mobile club in order to be able to additional discounts and other offers. The user participation, needless to say, was higher than usual and more than half of the subscribers who sent text messages went on to opt in to the mobile club. This has given enormous confidence to Cox and it’s soon planning to venture into the world of cellphone advertising on a much larger scale.

The interesting thing to be noted here is, Cox partnered with Ping Mobile to run this advertising campaign. As more and more companies are interested in cellphone advertising, small cellphone advertising companies have a great chance to tie up with them and deliver their advertising solutions on a much larger scale.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.

Will you let someone listen to your calls? Pudding Media thinks so.

Trust me; I never thought this could happen. But then. As much as I like the concept of cellphone advertising (of course with the consent of consumers), I don’t think this is a good idea. Pudding Media has come up with a new form of cellphone advertising which will make other cellphone advertisers in the industry think “damn; how on earth did they come up with that??”

Listen up folks; the idea is this. You make a call to someone, either through Pudding Media website or through your cellphone, your call will be monitored by an automated machine, software, program, or whatever you call it, and you’ll be presented with “contextual” adverts (that’s how they call it).

Take for example – you call up your friend and talk about going for a movie. You get a display ad on your cellphone screen with the latest movies and their show times in movie halls. You send a text message to your friend regarding your hang-out plan for the weekend. An ad carrying some info on the favorite hang-out places in your area will be appended to your text message. You ring up your friend to discuss something about your classes – you might hear an ad on the latest crash courses in the university in your area instead of the dial back tone. Uhmm; how does it sound to you?

Whoever came up with this idea needs to be applauded for having come up with the most intrusive cellphone advertising plan ever. Already, we have an internet giant reading our mails and displaying “relevant” ads. Now, we have a cellphone advertising program, which listens to our phone calls and comes up with “contextual” ads. I mean, aren’t you guys pushing the customers too far?

Let me make my stand clear – I’m all for a decent, opt-in cellphone advertising program which lessens the burden of the users’ cellphone bills. But, if you want to do so by listening to their calls, even via an automated program, I’m sorry to say – I don’t think you’ll find too many takers.

It’s time for me to ask you people – what do you think of this advertising plan? Do you think it’s okay to have someone/something listen to your calls? Would you allow that? Or will this program find its takers just like Gmail has got all of us suck up to it? I’d love to listen to your opinions. Bring it on.

Categories: Rant.

1 comment.

Happy New Year

Alright; it’s time to do what my loyal readers (do I have any? ) would expect me to do at this point of time. So, here it goes. I wish each and everyone a very happy, safe, rocking New Year 2008.

In 2008, I promise to update you with all the latest happenings from the cellphone advertising industry as always and much more. You can also expect new features, contests, and other stuff which could make things a little more interesting.

Don’t want to waste your time any more; go out there and party like crazy. Wish you a very happy New Year again.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.

Cellphone advertising in 2007 - A review

2007 is almost over and we’re eagerly expecting the arrival of the New Year. So, it’s that time of the year when people look back at their silly mistakes, achievements (if any), resolutions they made, and all other useless stuff. I’m not gonna do any of them; don’t worry. Instead, I’m gonna look back at the cellphone advertising and marketing industry and share some of my thoughts with you.

The single biggest event that changed the course of the cellphone advertising and marketing industry was the launch of the Apple iPhone. It was more than just a phone and the truckload of features made it a favorite with users instantly. At a time when cellphone advertisers were thinking about advertising via text messaging and banner ads, the Wi-Fi enabled iPhone offered them a hell lot of options. Interestingly, iPhone is not the only phone in the market with such features. Blackberry, AT & T and T-Mobile Network phones, and a few models from Nokia also have Wi-Fi facility and other features that the iPhone boasts of. But the most important difference was in the way Apple marketed their product. The enormous hype created before the launch of iPhone was simply never heard of in the market before and thankfully, it lived up to the hype.

The second biggest event, in fact the one that almost outshone Apple iPhone was the launch of Google Android. Google had been timing the market to take the plunge for a long time and speculations were running wild. A lot of market experts and market watchers (including yours truly) had predicted that Google would come up with Google Phone, which could be the fitting answer for the iPhone. But when Google announced that it will not develop its own phone, at least in the near future, they had their foot firmly in their mouth. But Google Android proved out to be a bigger success, considering the buzz it created in the market. With its Open Handset Alliance with 30 plus big names, Google simply stole the show from the iPhone. I’ve already explained why Google Android could lead to the undoing of iPhone and it remains to be seen whether I’ll be proven wrong in 2008.

2007 could possibly go down as the most eventful year as far as cellphone advertising industry is concerned, as the year saw some major names like Microsoft, New York Times, Coca Cola, Facebook, MySpace, Fox Interactive Media, and of course Google enter the market in full fledge. Most of the industry experts and research firms predicted a huge growth for cellphone marketing and advertising industry whose revenue was estimated at around $1 billion. Also, it is said that in just about five years, this revenue could increase tenfold.

Also, 2007 was the year of acquisitions. Big players in the market realized the enormous potential of cellphone advertising and marketing and started acquiring cellphone advertising firms. We saw Nokia acquire Enpocket, AOL acquire Third Screen Media, Microsoft acquire ScreenTonic, Publicis acquire Phonevalley, and so on. This definitely marked the arrival of cellphone marketing and advertising in a big way.

Though 2007 is undoubtedly the biggest year for cellphone advertising, there are still some unconquered territories within the industry. First of all, mobile internet facility should be within the reach of the majority of consumers for advertisers and marketers to be able to reach them fully. A lot of companies have realized the potential of mobile websites and for consumers to be able to make the most of it, the price of high-end mobile phones should be brought down. Already, Apple has started the process with a hefty price cut on its iPhone and we can expect other handset makers to follow suit, hopefully. Also, thanks to mobile advertisers, the price of premium services has come down drastically and in a lot of cases, these services are available free of cost, thanks to ad-funded services. With some operators even offering free talk time to customers who opt in for cellphone advertising, I really think cellphone advertising has hit the target big-time. Its continued success though, lies only in the hands of operators, advertisers, and handset makers for they are in a position to lead the industry in the right direction next year.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.

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