Cell Phone Becomes An Ad Machine

From Business 2.0.com

How Your Cell Phone Will Become an Ad Machine

Ads for pimple cream will be less annoying when you also learn that Britney is pregnant.
By Matthew Maier, April 19, 2005

I discussed this last week.

If you want to get a sense for where marketing is heading, look no further than Teen People. The publication, owned by Business 2.0 parent Time Inc., last week announced that it will integrate mobile phones into its marketing plans. The magazine will send out weekly updates and breaking news -- along with targeted advertisements and promotions -- via SMS to subscribers.


While the Teen People announcement likely flew right under most people's radar, it actually represents one of the largest commitments yet to using mobile phones as a marketing tool. The vaunted "third screen" in consumers' lives (after television and the PC monitor), the cell phone has long been considered a potentially important marketing and advertising tool, if only because it's the one device consumers carry with them throughout the day. But no one has figured out how to get the advertising to the phone without annoying the recipient.

You need to offer relevant info and consumers will build on that.

Text messaging is the first step because it has become an increasingly important means of communication for young consumers. Driven by shows like American Idol -- which generated nearly 14 million votes from subscribers via SMS this season -- along with SMS campaigns from McDonald's (MCD) and Coca-Cola (KO), short messaging is slowly becoming a more mainstream form of interaction.

Now companies including Flytxt -- the folks running Teen People's mobile marketing campaign -- Enpocket, and m-Qube are helping media firms extend their marketing reach to mobile phones. Even advertising agencies like Foote Cone & Belding and BBDO have recently announced partnerships to help clients develop mobile marketing strategies.

BBDO partner is here .

Foote Cone's partner is here.

Google and other search engines are looking to buy ad agencies. Ad agencies are now going mobile with their campaigns. So wouldn't it make sense for search engines to cater to the cell phone to keep pulling in advertising dollars?

Microsoft are you listening? This is your chance to dominate Search Engine Part 2.
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