Is Personalization a Bridge Too Far?

“We get users’ permission by ensuring their privacy is being protected and how we will use the data — and we make sure they understand they have given it. Once you get their permission, you can start to activate the process and begin to understand their preferences,” Seaborn said.

From there it is the service provider’s job to manage the customer relationship judiciously through the best practices that a company like Ogilvy and the Mobile Marketing Association brings to the table.

As Warner said, if you send an advertisement based on location that tells a user there is a sale across the street on high-definition televisions, it may not mean anything to them, but if you know that user has recently visited electronics sites searching for HDTVs it is more relevant.

Right now, the data service providers have about customers is fragmented and not ready to come together in such an ideal fashion. That’s where the TM Forum and its members come in. “Service providers have a lot of data on people. I don’t know that it’s the right data. Neither do they,” Warner said. “So how much value can you put on a piece of data you give to advertisers?”

That’s why the two worlds have to come together to understand their requirements and capabilities, Warner said. And they have to do it now. “It doesn’t do any good if when you’re building out your new processes that you realize a year down the road that you should have been capturing a certain piece of data that you can monetize,” he said.

Another thing the industries have to come together on is building the capability to respond. There is no point rolling out a targeted, personalized ad campaign and not being able to respond to consumers who take you up on it, Seaborn said.

Warner said personalization capabilities are much further along than people realize. And Seaborn said that by following best practices, including opting in, and making sure consumers are very comfortable with the process, “you can really open up a serious dialogue.”

The technical capabilities, along with some basic best practices such as parental notification and security, were demonstrated in the TM Forum’s Content Encounter demonstrations at last month’s Management World Americas show.

“I think Content Encounter is the most important work going on at the TM Forum right now. It’s not just about technology, but about changing business models and how our industry will evolve in content, in advertising, and in e- and m-commerce, the things that will make us successful in the future,” said Grant Lenahan, vice president of strategy for Telcordia Technologies Inc., of the many participants in the demonstration.