In The Mobile Advertising Panel Roundup in AORTA, industry experts view privacy issues as a priority in developing mobile ad campaigns. I applaud their concern but I'm a bit worried on the implementation side. If given the chance, I think industry members must all agree on the scope and limitations of the word "privacy". After all, the event cites that mobile advertising means different things to different people. Logically, privacy is always relative.
While I'm a little bit disinterested on the technical side, I find the idea of using recommendations as form of non-intrusive advertising very interesting. It is possible then that the key to connect mobile consumers and mobile ad agencies lies in what marketing guys call as buzz marketing.
There was some discussion on the meaning of mobile advertising and how promotions and marketing are part of the same mix. Jai said that recommendation is another form of advertising which appears non-intrusive and is actually useful for the consumers. Amazon gets a good chunk of their revenues from recommendation clicks. I myself find them quite useful and end up buying dozens of books this way every year.
Victor thought that the "promotions" piece (tied to local search) is actually going to be a much more lucrative business than the banner ads or even media search related advertising.
Simply put, buzz marketing is word-of-mouth marketing – effective and affordable. To make things more interesting, marketing experts believe that technology dramatically magnified the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Mobile phones, e-mails, chats, and blogs (ahem) allow people to connect easily and recommend products/services instantly.
I guess it is time to return the favor and let mobile technology rely on word-of-mouth marketing.
To know more about Buzz Marketing, you can download a free sample through this link. You can also visit the site Buzz Marketing.
Thanks to AORTA and I hope they have more discussions on mobile advertising.
April 20th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I don’t think it’s the key to mobile ad acceptance, I actually see it as it’s own tactic/strategy, the difference being in HOW the message is delivered.
Starbuck’s Location-Based mobile ads that ping your phone with a coupon when you walk by were seen by many as completely invasive, especially when you consider it’s really hard to walk down any street in the U.S. and NOT walk by a Starbucks.
A Buzz Marketing message, on the other hand, when perfectly executed, is meant to be delivered on the customer’s terms, whether through SMS, email, phone or old-fashioned talking. Yeah, talking! J
I know of a mobile technology company currently working on a way to bridge this gap between the two. It all comes down to control. Nobody likes to be told what to do, so they’re certainly don’t like to be told what to buy, unless of course, they ask.
Until we see exactly where mobile marketing goes, beyond couponing and short code keywords, we’ll have to wait and see what consumers find acceptable and who is getting it all wrong.