Mobile Advertising?

[Ceres]

Have you ever considered advertising via mobile phones?

I read a recent press release that states Indian telecommunications company Reliance Communications (R-Com) will soon broadcast ad-funded videos on their mobile phones. The videos will be free to R-Com subscribers.

I wonder how successful the ads will be, and whether it costs a pretty penny to place an ad on such videos. Most people have mobile phones, so it's not surprising that mobile advertising is getting popular.

[Postman]

I’m not familiar with advertising on mobile phones. I wonder how it would look like. I guess that I have to wait first to find if it converts or not.

[Ceres]

Interesting article on ITExaminer.com that talks about ads included in SMS text messages. The article suggest that advertising via SMS will only work if mobile users' personal details are filtered.

"We can’t simply bombard the masses with SMSs without personalisation," said Tim Williams, co-founder and executive VP of worldwide sales with Flytxt. An advert which would interest a 16-year-old schoolboy may not work with a 40-year-old businesswoman. Operators need to filter personal details before they disseminate thousands of messages.

That makes sense. It also highlights how and why operators track your actions. There's no such thing as privacy.

Unlike Americans, who run on tight schedules, the majority of Indians have time to look at their mobile phones, since most of them spend a lot of time standing in long queues in bus and railway stations, "The reason behind the not-so-good graph of mobile marketing in India, is "TTT" - things take time.

Hey, it's a bit like London Transport - you'll get there in the end.

[Ceres]

Nokia India recently did a study on mobile advertising. I'm surprised to read that some mobile users actually click on banner ads. I would imagine banner ads are even more annoying on mobile phones than on your regular PC.