|
|
ONLINE FEATURES
Book Reviews
BW Video
Columnists
Interactive Gallery
Newsletters
Past Covers
Philanthropy
Podcasts
Special Reports
BLOGS
Auto Beat
Bangalore Tigers
Blogspotting
Brand New Day
Byte of the Apple
Economics Unbound
Eye on Asia
Fine On Media
Green Biz
Hot Property
Investing Insights
Management IQ
NEXT: Innovation
NussbaumOnDesign
Tech Beat
Working Parents
TECHNOLOGY
J.D. Power Ratings
Product Reviews
Tech Stats
Wildstrom: Tech Maven
AUTOS
Home Page
Auto Reviews
Classic Cars
Car Care & Safety
Hybrids
INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | |
DECEMBER 23, 2004
By Sarah Lacy Cell Phones Ring for Marketers [Page 2 of 2] STANDARDS NEEDED. One problem is the wireless carriers. Even with megamergers like the recent tie-up between Sprint (FON ) and Nextel Communications (NXTL ), too many of them are still around, and they're using too many transmission-technology platforms with little standardization among them. In the last year, however, the major U.S. carriers did agree to deliver text messages carrying a common five-digit short code, no matter what the phone or platform it was sent from.Marketers, too, need to consider standards. "One of the essential things is to get focused on common [advertising] standards or guidelines," says Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Otherwise, he says, "it's going to restrict growth." Then there's mobile spam, which is carriers' and customers' greatest worry. And to them it includes not only bogus offers, but any unsolicited e-mail. The last thing wireless providers want is anything that prompts subscribers to defect to competitors, especially in an age of number portability. "DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD." Carriers are even wary of opt-in campaigns. Say Gap wants to add a line to a print ad encouraging people to enter a sweepstakes to win khakis by texting "KHAKI" on their mobile phones. Right now, the retailer has to get clearance from every major carrier to have that code recognized over their networks. If one provider doesn't like the campaign, it can demand changes, marketers say. Most marketers are savvy enough to know direct e-mail blasts wouldn't work with mobile phones anyway. The same immediacy that makes mobile advertising so appealing also makes it dangerous. "It cuts through the clutter so effectively, it's a double-edged sword," Campbell says. "If [cell-phone users] are in a meeting and the phone goes off because you sent a message, they won't be angry they left the phone on. They'll be angry the message says something like, 'Drink Pepsi.'" So what forms might more sophisticated mobile ads take in the future? Subtle ones, most likely. Carat Interactive has been among the more proactive agencies. For Adidas it came up with a soccer game that Nokia (NOK ) users can download, and for UPN Network, Carat created a campaign that lets texters send and receive messages from characters on the network's popular show Veronica Mars, Sanjabi says. Other Carat Interactive clients are simply advertising on mobile versions of popular sites like ESPN.com (DIS ). UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. Some advertisers look forward to the day when they can use video and other rich-media images with cell phones, the way they've been doing online in the last few years. The key to that in the near term may be the nascent multimedia messaging service, or MMS, the hipper cousin of the now ubiquitous SMS, or short messaging system, used for sending and receiving text. MMS allows for pictures, sounds, graphics, and some video. Few cell-phone users have this ability now, but their numbers are expected to grow to some 68 million U.S. subscribers by 2007, estimates research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass. Still, even though advertisers dub mobile marketing The Next Big Thing in interactive marketing, they also admit that lots of unanswered questions surround it. Like the simple Web-site banner ad was in 1999, mobile marketing is now just at the beginning of its evolution. And advertisers will need years to figure it all out. But figure it out they surely will. After all, ads have already made the leap from print to broadcast to the Net and even to video games. And as people spend more and more time using their cell phones, you can bet that ads will follow them there as well.
 Lacy is a reporter for BusinessWeek Online in the Silicon Valley bureau
BW MALL
SPONSORED LINKS
Buy a link now!Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
 Copyright 2004, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.Terms of Use | Privacy Notice |
Printer-Friendly Version
