Mobile Marketing Gives Advertisers A Door To Access Your Phone

Written by Kelvin Wilson Thursday, 02 December 2010 08:56

So far, most of the advertising on cell phones has been from phone companies themselves. But that could change soon, reports Fortune's Stephanie Mehta.

So far, most of the advertising on cell phones has been from phone companies themselves. But that could change soon, reports Fortune's Stephanie Mehta.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Who's advertising on mobile phones? Mobile phone companies. And mobile game makers. And purveyors of ringtones and other applications for cell phones.

No duh, you say: Of course creators of content for mobile phones would want to market to mobile-device makers. But the flip side of that obvious fact is who isn't advertising there yet. For the cell phone to become the next great marketing medium - a platform akin to radio, television or the Internet - it will need to attract advertisers from outside the mobile industry.

Big marketers certainly seem interested in the opportunity: Car makers, movie studios and other deep-pocketed companies have started testing the waters of mobile marketing, and research firms estimate mobile advertising could be a $1 billion-a-year market in just a few years. That revenue is going to have to come from more than firms hawking ringtones. (There's an interesting side discussion on whether advertising on mobile phones eventually can offset the cost of phone service, or even allow it to be delivered for free - more on that later.)

For the time being, mobile phone advertising a term that encompasses numerous techniques from adverts to text-message voting promotions seen on shows such as American Idol remains both growing and limited in the appeal to advertisers. AirG, an organization which evolves mobile online communities for carriers such as Sprint and also Canadian operators Robers and Telus, says it produced more than 20 billion mobile advertising impressions (quite simply slots for advertisers) this past year, and sold less than 2 percent of that inventory. It's largest advertisers include Verizon , AT&T and Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint.