Marketers Interested in Small Screen - New York Times

Forget the 30-second spot on a 50-inch high-definition TV. How about a three-second message on the tiniest of screens?

Television-style advertising is coming to a mobile phone near you. It is part of a broader push by marketers to create a new generation of "up close and personal" ads by delivering video, audio, banner displays and text clips over a device carried by most American adults.
Marketers said they were particularly excited about the prospect of eventually using cellphones, many of which are equipped with global positioning systems, to send ads to consumers based on their location. With that information, marketers could, in theory, send pitches from retailers to cellphone users who might be in the vicinity of a store.
Cellphone-based marketing could be "the silver bullet we've been looking for in advertising for a long time," said Laura Marriott, executive director of the Mobile Marketing Association, a consortium of wireless carriers, ad agencies, technology companies and advertisers.
But ads on cellphones pose serious concerns, say consumer advocacy groups. Critics argue that Madison Avenue, having plastered ads on all kinds of empty spaces - like billboards, building facades and the sides of buses - may soon be intruding on a gadget that has become as common as a wallet.
"This is part of the creep of advertising into every nook and cranny of our lives," said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit consumer group. "This is advertising right in your face."
The wireless carriers say the risk of losing customers is a strong incentive to keep down the marketing noise. It is illegal for carriers to sell phone numbers to telemarketers. And in their contracts with content providers, like CBS Sports and other channels, the carriers can keep out advertisers who send unsolicited messages.
By law, carriers are not allowed to divulge information on a subscriber's location unless that individual gives permission. One idea being floated by carriers and advertisers is to offer consumers incentives, like reduced monthly phone fees, if they agree to receive ads.
For now, mobile marketing is still rudimentary. But that is expected to change quickly, with phone-based ads incorporating more sophisticated graphics and videos this year.
Some marketers have already started to send simple text ads to cellphone screens when consumers use Web browsers on their phones to visit certain Internet sites. Other marketing campaigns urge consumers to use their phones to send text messages to advertisers to receive special offers.
In March, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel plan to test how consumers react to short video ads on their phones. But the carriers, fearful of upsetting customers, said they were not planning to deploy this broadly.
ESPN, the sports network, which offers a service that sends scores, text stories and video highlights to cellphones, plans to start running short video clips later this year from advertisers like Visa USA, Nike and Hilton Hotels. Other companies starting tests or full-blown campaigns - with video, banner ads or full-screen images - include American Express, Microsoft, and Pepsi, among other major brands.The size of the mobile phone advertising market was only $45 million in 2005, but is expected to grow to $1.26 billion by 2009, Roger Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said.
Jon Raj, vice president of advertising and emerging media with Visa USA, said he expected to see many new ad formats that could combine the text, video and the location-based nature of the phone.
"Unlike the computer, or a magazine or television," he said, "the phone is a piece of you."
That quality, which makes mobile marketing so powerful, could also make phone ads widely disliked and force carriers to use them very cautiously, said Edward Snyder, a financial analyst and co-founder of Charter Equity Research, where he covers the cellular phone industry.
Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said the company had "no immediate plans" to send video ads to cellphone screens widely.
Another limiting factor is phone technology; only a small fraction of phones can play video, though many can use browsers to surf the Web and display some content.
The wireless industry and some advertisers say they have spent several years figuring out how to deliver unobtrusive messages. The carriers have adopted a voluntary code of conduct developed with the Mobile Marketing Association, which permits sending commercial messages only to consumers who agree to receive ads. For instance, a consumer must send a text note asking for information or click on a banner ad for the full pitch.
1
2Next