Mobile Advertising: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Mobile advertising is a trend that’s hard to ignore. If you don’t believe me, follow the big money: Google and Apple upping the stakes with their acquisitions of AdMob and Quattro Wireless, respectively. But ignoring the opportunity is what many in the game seem to be doing. Advertising agencies and mobile operators are talking past each other, delaying the revenue streams and leaving new business models on the shelf to gather dust. Here’s what I see as the typical exchange between mobile service provider (SP) and ad agency (AA):

AA: We are very interested in the targeted nature of mobile advertising. We typically use mass market media, but we’re always looking for ways to improve the effectiveness of our spend.

SP: Yes, agreed. In our last promotion, we witnessed an astounding 23 percent open rate with our opt-in subscribers.

AA: Wonderful. For how many users?

SP: For 90,000, which is quite remarkable given our footprint.

AA: Hmmm. I don’t know. My consumer-products client is trying to reach 9 million people globally with their new product campaign.

SP: Well, that’s our entire subscriber base.

AA: OK, so why don’t you round up 100 of your mobile operator friends and maybe we can do business.

The value proposition of mobile has to be so compelling that it’s hard to ignore. Personalized, real-time, interactive, age-appropriate, location-aware, and privacy-ensured. All the things that service providers do best to create and deliver new services, manage policy and optimize order-to-cash, should have appeal on both ends of the double-sided business model. But it may take baby steps to get to the big payday. If the major advertisers are looking for where the next billion consumers are coming from, chances are they are more likely to have a mobile phone than a television or PC.

Adan Pope is the chief strategy officer for Telcordia, a global leader in the development of fixed, mobile and broadband communications software and services. He also serves as CTO for their OSS and service delivery businesses.