‘Future of Mobile’ Seminar: Customers are open to receiving mobile advertising
“Customers are very open to receiving mobile advertising, as long as it is on their terms,” Jonathan Kelly, principal manager of Vodafone marketing services, told delegates at yesterday’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of Mobile’.
Kelly, on the second panel of the morning, said that it is vital for consumers to be offered “real value”, giving the example of local search sponsorship around places of interest.
He was supported by fellow panellist Brian Jacobs, founding partner of mobile marketing firm Qustodian, who agreed that mobile advertising is quite different from advertising on other platforms. “Advertising has to be engaging, fun and contextually appropriate,” he said, adding that these factors are much more important on mobile, as unsolicited messages can be very annoying and upsetting.
However, Jacobs questioned whether the unique proposition offered by mobile meant that advertising on the platform was in fact something else altogether. “I’m not sure what happens on mobile phones is advertising as we know it – it is more like commercial communications,” he said.
Responding to a question from the audience about the revenue possibilities in mobile advertising, O2 Media’s head of sales, Shan Henderson, said that although agencies have been aware of mobile advertising for quite some time, what has been on offer has not been hugely compelling. “Banners on a portal are not going to give us the sort of revenues we’d want as an operator,” he said.
In terms of taking mobile advertising forward, said Simon Andrews, founder of mobile agency addictive!, it has to be kept in mind that “advertising is driven by ideas”. He cautioned against getting too caught up in focusing on data and numbers, which “can get in the way of having the ideas we need to drive mobile ads forward”.
MediaTel Group has launched a new mobile database, featuring top sites, demographic breakdowns and mobile phone activities alongside case studies and white papers.