Debunking the myths about mobile advertising - III

When I first read this, I thought of writing a line-by-line rebuttal. But then, I saw no need for that. So, I’ll just highlight a few points and express my views on that. First of all, I wanna say that I respect everyone’s point of view. You’ve got your point of view, your own opinions, your take on certain issues, and so on. But Mike, I have a little problem with your write-up. That is, you went on to ‘assume’ certain things about mobile advertising. Let me explain.

‘It audibly interrupts your life like telemarketing.‘

Well; just like you have a DND (Do Not Disturb) option for telemarketing, you have an option for mobile adverts too. You are presented with a choice. You can either opt in to mobile ads or just say ‘no thanks.’ So, there is no question of mobile ads interrupting your life.

‘But you know that once the floodgates open, and the spam comes rushing in, everyone will hate mobile advertising.‘

Well; It may happen. But then, it may not. Why? Just check out - exhibit A and exhibit B. Perhaps the largest network carrier in the world, China Mobile, learnt a lesson the hard way regarding mobile spam. That, my friend, should reassure folks like you that advertisers and carriers can’t get away with mobile spam. There will be severe repercussions to face.

‘Some marketers are talking about respecting the privacy of users and putting consumer in control of what they get and when. Do you find that reassuring? I don’t.‘

Why do you think so?

‘And support any movement or legislation that seeks to block or criminalize mobile advertising.’

Don’t you think it’s kind of a knee-jerk reaction?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Rant.

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More about CBS and Loopt’s location based mobile advertising campaign

I’ve already blogged about Loopt and CBS experimenting on location based mobile advertising technology. This, however, is considered a very important step in mobile advertising industry by many. There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly, not everyone is very enthusiastic about location based advertising. There are lots of concerns over issues like privacy and spam. With this being the case, this step is considered a very important one, based on which others might follow suit.

Second, the way Loopt and CBS have made things easier for customers in this mobile ad campaign is very impressive. To get an ad, you should turn on the locator button in your phone. The locator button will help advertisers find your location, even without GPS facility, as the technology pings cellphone towers and finds the location. Then, when you check out mobile websites like CBS News or Sportsline, you’ll get a banner ad based on your location. The idea of banner ad has a couple of advantages. First, it doesn’t clutter your phone’s inbox and second, it doesn’t interrupt you with rings.

You can turn it off at any point and you can opt out of the service any time you wish. What this means is – you opt in for the service, you get ads only when you want, and you can stop it any time you wish.

With this kind of a setup, Loopt and CBS are hopeful that customers will find this ad campaign interesting. If everything goes well, this might be the most prominent step in taking location based mobile advertising to customers on a large scale.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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China Mobile takes action against spam mobile ads

China Mobile has set the precedent for mobile phone operators all over the world by taking a strict action against a company which sent spam mobile ads to users.

Last weekend, a media report claimed that Focus Wireless, a subsidiary of Focus Media, was sending spam ads to mobile users. China Mobile, in return, has closed the message service ports through which the spam ads were sent.

Focus Wireless is a company which deals with mobile advertising and has a considerably big customer database, which it purchased from leading operators in the country. These mobile ads are usually sent from the message service ports of big operators. Through these ports, Focus Wireless sends highly targeted ads to the mobile users in its database. Recently, it started sending irrelevant, spam ads to customers and received a lot of flak all over the country. When this was reported to China Mobile, whose service ports are used by Focus Wireless, the response was swift.

China Mobile has three channels through which customers can file a complaint against spam ads. Within 48 hours, you will get a response regarding your complaint, and that is a guarantee from China Mobile. The General Manager of China Mobile said that China Mobile has a strict no-spam policy and it will do everything to make sure customers don’t receive spam ads.

This, according to me, is a very good statement from a responsible mobile operator. Because, spam ads are something people detest the most – in the internet and even more so in the mobile phone. So, this sort of incidents will reinforce customers’ faith in operators.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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