Although such fragmentation would seem to offer greater marketing opportunities,
Jupiter Media Metrix warn that the new, smaller audiences who are accessing technologies such as interactive TV will limit advertising effectiveness and that such media offer limited opportunity and should be considered as secondary sources of digital advertising opportunity.
Research from Jupiter forecasts that in 2005 the PC will continue to dominate with 74% of household internet access via a PC alongside 68% of personal internet access. In 2000, the Jupiter Executive Study found that 77% of advertisers spent no money on wireless advertising and 82% spent nothing on interactive TV. 36% plan the same spending on wireless in 2001 and 57% for interactive TV indicating that revenue for these platforms will not rise a great deal in the near future.
Ad revenue is expected to reach $16 billion by 2005 although what is being described as ‘post-PC’ revenues will trail behind increases in traditional media. Revenue from interactive TV is predicted by Jupiter to reach $4 billion by 2005 and wireless $700 million. Although broadcasting to a more fragmented audience, wireless advertising does have the advantage of immediacy and audiences can be reached closer to the time and point of purchase so the overall effectiveness of such advertising may be more significant than these figures suggest.
Allowing wireless advertising to reach you via your mobile phone in exchange for cheaper calls and line rental will benefit consumers and advertisers alike, although this concept is as yet relatively unproven in its effectiveness. As Tom Kiersted, research manager for IDC’s Telecomunications Business Brands program says “Deep resistance to certain types of advertising delivery will force advertisers to assess expectations about and demands of commercial messages inserted into new media. The fact is that consumers are pretty willing to entertain some of the latest new media advertising models, but the more they can control the way advertisers reach them, where they reach them and in what context they reach them, the better they like it.”
