The New York Times had an article this week, discussing the possibilities of small video messages on mobile phones. Introducing: Right-In-Your-Face (opt-in) advertisement.
Television-style advertising is coming to a mobile phone near you. It is part of a broader push by marketers to create a new generation of “up close and personal” ads by delivering video, audio, banner displays and text clips over a device carried by most American adults.
Marketers said they were particularly excited about the prospect of eventually using cellphones, many of which are equipped with global positioning systems, to send ads to consumers based on their location. [...]
By law, carriers are not allowed to divulge information on a subscriber’s location unless that individual gives permission. One idea being floated by carriers and advertisers is to offer consumers incentives, like reduced monthly phone fees, if they agree to receive ads. [...]
In March, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel plan to test how consumers react to short video ads on their phones. But the carriers, fearful of upsetting customers, said they were not planning to deploy this broadly.
The healthy fear of backfire from consumers is (for now) keeping the carriers to scale this to another level. But still, the idea is there and eventually we won’t be able to avoid this. Many consumers will fall for price-sensitive actions and if a 10 second clip will help you cut your calling costs… why not? I just hope it’ll only be when you access a browser for instance, because if you really need to make a vital call, those ten seconds you spend waiting for the ad to end might make the difference between life and death. Let’s hope the emergency numbers will be preserved from ads when carriers decide to implement this ‘new’ marketing tactics.
“This has to be approached delicately because there’s a fine line between adding value to a customer and intruding,” said Pragnesh Shah, vice president of product innovation at Sprint Nextel. Still, Mr. Shah said he saw enormous potential in delivering advertising on a device that is always on and carried everywhere. [...]
In theory, ads could be made even more personal. A message might say: “Use this card in the store coming up on your left and you’ll get x-percent off,” said Michael Lao, MasterCard’s vice president for global media and new channels. But this futuristic feature would be possible only if carriers developed a system in which subscribers could choose to be tracked.
Read the article on the [New York Times]