I remember 8 years ago when I was in London that mobile advertising was being touted as the next big thing – well that and iTV. Haven’t really seen much of mobile advertising since then. But I just read this article in which Google CEO Eric Schmidt states “The next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet”.
Schmidt predicts that, although it may take some time, mobile business will be a larger business than the PC-Web. I can see the logic in this. After all, your phone is mobile and is almost always on you. The iPhone with it’s real web browser is providing new mobile advertising opportunities – with the likes of Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola all soon to follow. Soon advertisers will be able to deliver new and exciting targeted messages right into your… pocket!
“The advertising has to be more entertaining, more interesting, more immersive compared to what we have today” – Eric Schmidt
Soon you will be receiving advanced targeted advertisments straight to your phone (better than this one i hope!)
For anyone who is unsure what mobile web even is, it is where a phone or PDA has WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) capabillities, and this is used facilitate access to the Internet from your mobile. To date it’s been fairly lousy and not really worth bothering with despite what some pundits might say. But it seems it’s all about to change.
I’ll be interested to see what form mobile advertising starts to take. I guess it will be the likes of redeemable mobile coupons, opt-in competitions, a new mobile form of advanced banner advertising, campaigns based on video and so on. The only advertising I have had delivered to my phone so far was from my provider and it was some lame little animated gif. As it matures advertising campaigns will obviously become even more personal and hopefully more effective. In this article on AOL Working With iPhone on Mobile Advertising, Time Warner’s Internet business Platform A already boast being able to “…deliver banners optimized for display on the iPhone.”
Hand in hand with some kick arse content development, I would hope to see some best practices for the mobile Web advertising. I am already constantly moaning about the amount of web browsers – imagine designing ads for the gazillion of different sized handsets that are going out be out there. And as for how to book a mobile campaign, well I haven’t even considered that until just now…
3 responses so far ↓
Shellee // October 2, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I like iphones and Burgers!!! The evolution of web capabilities and mobile phone advertising, not to mention google earth brings to mind the conspiracy theory concepts appearing in movies such as ‘the net’. The age of surveillance really is jumping up a notch!! In saying that… bring on the text sale vouchers and advertising. I like shopping!!!
chadschomber // October 3, 2008 at 9:37 am
Mobile advertising will pay for free wireless internet. Imagine walking in to bookstore, you access their free WiFi. Guess what? You opt-in for deluges of book ads. Which could be ok… think iTunes Genius function for books, etc. So without pacing the hundreds of aisles looking for a book of interest, you plop you butt in cushy chairs and flip through “pre-selected” titles on your phone (iPhone of course). Now just think how that would work in every part of your life… supermarket, car dealership, travel… the list goes on.
steve // October 3, 2008 at 11:57 am
yeah i know! How about preferences in your phone activate LCD screens in supermarkets that tell you what items that you are interested are on special and where they are. Step two – from those specials you could search recipes and add the ingredients to make meals based on those specials, and step three – ingredients for the meal/s are then downloaded as a shopping list with where to find them and total cost.
It will all come down to just how far do you want to take it!
all sorts of cool stuff is just around the corner. exciting times.
thanks for the replies!