Dear anti mobile advertising experts

1. Mobile users spent 475 million minutes on mobile browsing – browsing the internet via mobile phone – in 2008 alone. The number is expected to go up to 1000 million minutes by 2011.

2. In the U.S.A., the market for mobile advertising keeps getting bigger. The amount spent on mobile advertising has doubled from 2006 to 2008. A recent report predicts that it will quadruple and reach $16,000 million in 2011.

3. In the U.K., more than 17 million people accessed mobile internet in December 2007 alone. With more and more people switching to high-end devices like iPhone, Blackberry, and PDA, this number is expected to increase rapidly in the coming days.

So, my dear anti mobile advertising experts, while you were busy screaming on top of your voice about mobile advertising and its so-called evils, people gave a green signal to mobile advertising, quietly.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant.

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Dumb questions, profound answers - All in the world of mobile advertising

A lot of people ask me why I think mobile advertising has a great future. Some others ask me why I get annoyed with anti-mobile advertising experts. Worse, some others ask me what on earth mobile advertising is. Let me answer you one by one.

First, why do you think mobile advertising has a great future?

The number of mobile phones in the world outnumbers PCs by many times. Yet you think online advertising has future and mobile advertising doesn’t have one? Either you haven’t read this blog yet or you need medical help.

Second, why do you get annoyed with anti-mobile advertising experts?

Well; I don’t really get annoyed with them when they talk/write something against mobile advertising. You see, freedom of speech/expression and all that. But when they assume things and predict things for people, I see red. Clear?

What on earth is mobile advertising?

Well; you’re a little too late. But fear not – you’ve come to the right place. Start right from here and read this blog in its entirety.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant, All things mobile phones.

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On why experts shouldn’t talk for people - III

This was meant to be a serious report, but it cracked me up. Nielson released a mobile report this week which had some interesting numbers. It said that only 10 percent of people were comfortable with the idea of mobile advertising. However, around 25 percent of the people said that they’ve been exposed to some kind of mobile advertising in one way or the other. Now, here comes the most important part. Almost half of the people, who got mobile ads on their phone, responded to it.

Excuse me? Did I hear it right? People didn’t want mobile ads on their phone and when they did get some ads, they responded? I mean, how strange is that?

Going by this survey, I can only conclude one thing. People are not actually against mobile advertising – it’s just that they don’t know what it is. When they get mobile ads that are useful – say a discount coupon or a trailer of a soon-to-be-released movie – they respond to it and make use of it to the maximum extent. So, what makes them go against mobile advertising? Misconception – one that is created by the media and the ‘so called’ experts.

So, another day, another myth debunked. Man, I love this job.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant, All things mobile phones.

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On why experts shouldn’t talk for people - II

Let me state two things.

First, mobile advertisers and cellular operators, at least as of now, give you the option of opting out of mobile advertisements. I, like every other mobile user, believe that it will stay that way.

Second, don’t ever predict things. Operators know their customers too well to do any such stupid thing like making mobile adverts compulsory. They know that customers can switch to some other network at the flick of a finger if they want to. So, operators will be careful enough not to push their customers too far to make them take a strong decision against them.

I’m done. Now you can read what David Haskin said about ‘the demon’ that is mobile advertising and why I said what I said in the beginning.

PS: Now don’t come up with another post which states that mobile operators around the globe will conspire against mobile users and make mobile ads compulsory, thereby leaving them with no choice or some crap like that. If you actually think that way, contact Mr. Steven Spielberg and get your script ready for the next sci-fi movie.

PPS: I already wrote a rebuttal for an expert who ‘claimed’ something similar. Now, here comes another. Let me see how long this series goes!

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant, All things mobile phones.

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On why experts shouldn’t talk for people

When I read this post, I almost had an impulsive urge to ask the writer to read this post of mine. But, I decided against that. After all, if I did that, I would be considered “yet another desperate mobile advertiser”, which I’m not by any stretch of imagination.

One of the problems of being an expert is that you start thinking on behalf of people. Like the writer, who has already decided that cell phone advertising is going to be a big turn-off for consumers and has warned them against it. It’s like telling people, “Listen up people; you don’t have to think about anything. You don’t have to analyze anything. After all, we’re here to tell you what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad, what amounts to intrusion of privacy and what doesn’t, and everything else you need to know. So, let’s do all the thinking. You just read what we write and make a decision.” Nice work fellas.

Categories: Rant.

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