Huge Potential For Targeted Mobile Ads

Mark Slade, managing director of 4th Screen Advertising, was speaking in a debate looking at the future of mobile, and he said: “The [mobile] operators know a hell of a lot information about the customers that can be used in targeting that even traditional websites wouldn’t know.

“If you think about handset targeting, behavioural targeting, you can do so much more on mobile in terms of targeting – the potential there is huge.”

Fellow panellist Shan Henderson, head of mobile advertising and industry development at Vodafone UK, spoke about the ad models with the most potential to be successful on mobile.

He said: “The most interesting model for me, which will probably have elements of display, and certainly targeting goes with that, is actually the ‘pull’ model and trying to make that work.

“When customers are out, no matter where they might be they’ve always got their phone in their hand and they want information, being able to be a part of that transaction, giving them relevant content that you know is personalised to them, and as long as we are aware of the privacy area, I think potentially that’s the bigger game.”

The discussion also looked at whether the future might see free calls in exchange for consumers signing up to receive a certain number of ads.