The Myths of Mobile Marketing

I noted in an earlier post that one of the other things that hit me at ad:tech was the myths mobile operators tell themselves about mobile advertising. Tip of hat to Doc Searls on the Project VRM list who pointed to this article in Business Week - an excerpt::

Imagine your cellphone as a mini marketing machine. As you head into your car after dinner, a text alert pops onto the screen of your handset announcing the 9 p.m. lineup at a nearby cineplex. You choose the Jodi Foster flick The Brave One and a promo video for the next Warner Bros. (TWX ) release, a George Clooney movie, starts running. Afterward, more text appears, prompting you to launch the phone's Web browser so that you can click through to buy the movie's ringtones and wallpaper.

That kind of 24/7 advertising engagement--on a phone, no less--may sound like a nightmare. But what if you could determine the kinds of products you get pitched? Or, when your flight gets canceled in a faraway airport, text messages pop up for the best hotel deals in town? No random insurance ads or airline deals for trips to places you never visit. Best of all: Watch or read the custom ads, and your phone minutes are free.

A mini-marketing machine - I can't think of anything less likely to succeed! Its a communication tool, thats its job. Insofar as Ads help in the communication they will be tolerated, but to usurp comms as just another way to serve Ads seems to be putting carts before horses.

Thing that got me about this stuff at ad:tech and to a lesser extent at Mobile Web 2.0 is that these mythical narratives (aka use cases) were trotted out over and over again and yet all the research I have ever seen says people - even PAYG customers - hate to be intruded upon by Ads on mobile phones, unless the "value transfer" is very significant.

Blyk is now hoping to make a business of this - good luck, but it will take a very deft touch and a lot of listening to feedback we think.

(Disclosure - we too have done some work with mobile advertising startups, and the lessons of what works and doesn't can be very counter-intuitive)