This is a cross-post from the Convergence Culture Consortium blog, at http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2008/03/mobile_marketing_more_ads_on_t.php
A few days ago, Nielsen released a report where they estimated that 58 million Americans had seen advertising on their phones in the last month. That is a lot of people, but it represents 23%, less than a quarter, of subscribers in the U.S.
And that number might be a little high. According to Nielsen’s site, the findings were based on a survey of 22,000 people who were “active mobile data users who used at least one non-voice mobile service in the fourth quarter”, suggesting that the respondents may be more open to or better able to receive advertising and content in more formats than the average subscriber.
Clearly, there is growing interest in mobile as an advertising channel, but the study found that just 10% of respondents thought that “advertising on their mobile device was acceptable”. As I work on my thesis, I’ve been thinking more and more about mobile phones as a delivery channel for targeted advertising. Although I’m very new to this area, the Nielsen study did make me think about why we aren’t seeing more advertising on our phones and PDAs, why consumers are so opposed to the practice, and if there is a trade-off that’s preferable to the ad-supported content model.
