Monday, January 08, 2007

Cell Phones Get Ready For Prime Time

By Ed Sutherland

Cell phone carriers such as Sprint Nextel, Vodafone and Verizon (Quote) are taking their first steps toward full-fledged mobile advertising. And with good reason.

According to market research firm ABI Research, advertisers are poised to spend $1.95 billion by 2011 to deliver ads to North American phones. Also according to ABI, those ads could yield better click-through rates than banner ads (between 2 percent and 3 percent, compared to 0.2 percent).

The temptation of green fields notwithstanding, Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney noted that carriers should be wary of creating consumer backlash. Compared to PC-based ads, said Dulaney, mobile phone users could be faced with 10 screens.

The founder of a consumer watchdog group also warned against ad fatigue.

No comments:

Post a Comment