ADVERTISING on your cellphone?
Yes, and soon.
Already, ads are creeping onto cellphones around the globe. At this rate, experts say, it will not be long before the 2.2 billion mobile phone users around the world consider it natural to tune into a 15-second spot before watching a video, sending a message or listening to a downloaded song between phone conversations.
Or so they hope.
“This is the year that advertising breaks out worldwide,†said Laura Marriott, executive director of the Mobile Marketing Association, based in Boulder, Colo., which represents more than 400 advertisers, phone makers, wireless operators and market research companies. “Previously, there were not enough of the right phones and fast networks to support good advertising.â€
Ms. Marriott spoke yesterday in Barcelona, Spain, where 60,000 people are gathered this week for the 3GSM World Congress, the cellphone industry’s main event of the year. Several companies at the exposition are promising to meld advertising with the mobile phone in a way that respects people’s privacy while bringing in new revenue to offset sagging growth in voice services for phone carriers.
Yahoo, for instance, began displaying ads Sunday on sites accessible to subscribers with advanced cellphones in 19 countries. Mobile phone users with data as well as voice subscriptions would see the ads when going to Yahoo’s home Web page on their phones. They could then click on an ad to dial a company directly or to get more information and special offers.
The advertisers that Yahoo has signed up include Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Hilton, Nissan, Singapore Airlines and Intel, and the 19 countries include the United States, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and India.
By the time such advertising becomes a mass-market phenomenon, most people in countries with developed economies will have advanced phones that can browse the Internet and play video, according to Nick Lane, an analyst with Informa Telecoms and Media, based in London.
