How to take advantage of mobile ad trends
By Paul Suggett
Cell phones are as much a part of our everyday lives as televisions were thirty years ago, and radios thirty years before that. We don’t go anywhere without them. We can use them to buy products, connect with friends, check the news, the weather, play games, and so much more.
Mobile Ads Were Slow to Start, Quick to Catch Up
Now, when the Internet first started to take hold of the mass-market consumer, it changed advertising in a big way.
Unlike most forms of advertising in the past, the Internet offered instant gratification and fulfillment. Click a banner, go to a website, buy your product. PayPal even made the whole process seamless.
With mobile advertising, just like the Internet, the uptake was slow. And the ads were more intrusive than effective. Quite often, creatives in ad agencies had no idea what to do with those phone message ads. But times are once again changing. The impact of ads on cell phones could be as big as the impact that the Internet had on newspapers and magazines, despite the brave front they are putting up.
The Impact of Mobility on Advertising
Cell phones travel with you. And with most phones having GPS(global positioning system) technology, your phone can be served with geographically relevant ads. All of a sudden, you’re getting lunch deals and coupons from a restaurant that’s 30 seconds away. You could even be sent those ads 15 minutes before lunch.
Now that is not just targeted advertising, it’s coming from a sharp-shooter.
Here are just a few of the places that advertising can impact you, immediately, via your cell phone:
- In the aisles of the grocery store
- Outside of a movie theater
- At the food court of a mall
- In a book or music store
- At a car dealership
- At the DMV or any other government office
- A toy store (especially around the holidays)
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