A GR8 RD..CAN U C IT?

It allows permission, it's instant, and it allows interactivity...The Next Big Thing.


From BizWeek Mag Cell Phones Ring for Marketers.

At a hip singles bar in Las Vegas earlier this year, attractive urbanites were busy typing messages into their cell phones. But messages like, "Who's the hottie at the end of the bar?" weren't just going to friends -- they were being posted on a giant video screen as part of a promotion at several events organized by Anheuser-Busch (BUD ) and Maxim magazine

Mobile advertising is rushing to find its way into handsets everywhere.

While the effort is still in its infancy, the audience is too big to ignore

It may seem like just a gimmick for restless audience members and barflies. But it's the beginnings of the much-hyped, much-anticipated rush to mobile advertising, in which marketers connect to consumers in a variety of ways via their cell phones.

And industry watchers say 2005 is set to be the year a lot of big brands finally give it a shot --

I wonder what the best to give it a shot would be?

Despite the difficulties that still loom. At this early stage, it's still hard to predict a how much will be spent on mobile advertising since the cost of these campaigns can range from thousands to millions.


These aren't your typical Madison Avenue campaigns, but mobile phones aren't your typical medium.

It will take creative thinking and new methods to tap this enormous market.

Even though most Americans' wireless handsets can't yet support media-heavy games and video, some 170 million of them in the U.S. are capable of receiving text messages

170 million captive eyeballs...that's an enormous market.

Mobile devices also carry the promise of a new era in advertising -- one where a marketer is not only virtually guaranteed that its message will be read but one where it can usually control when the message will be read.

A Hollywood studio can send a message pumping up a big release around the time most people are making their Friday-night plans.

A restaurant can send a discount offer just before lunchtime. Or the corner bar can send happy-hour coupons as urbanites are getting off work.


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.

The Next Big Thing in interactive marketing is this.