Mobile Advertising Fumbles

A lot of analysis and design effort has been put into CryptoGraf Messaging v2.0.

Mobile app users can also now send an SMS Invite to their contacts to download (OTA) and use the Free Version of CryptoGraf Messaging. This SMS based Invite differs from the current wave of mobile advertising which is often perceived as unsolicited spam. The SMS based Invite to download and use CryptoGraf Messaging is more effective since subscribers who send the SMS Invite are well placed to know that the recipient will accept it as an informative message.

While at Nokia, I briefly managed a mobile advertising pilot trial. This system was an enabler of marketing based on positive opt-in to advertising. With a full CRM keeping information about subscriber input interests and preferences for receiving advertising. Subscribers would also have the added incentive of receiving discounts and coupons. I kept emphasizing the need to respect the subscriber's privacy and personal space. Subscriber's should be asked what topics interest them, how often and what times of the day they would be willing to receive a message from the mobile operator. Subscriber data gathering could be done at time of subscription and even modified when their interests or preferences changed. The system was designed to follow standard media industry practice with the involvement of full advertising value chain. This included advertisers, ad publishers, ad agencies, media planners, media buyers, the audience, and of course, the mobile operator being enabled to play several roles within this value chain. I offered the analogy of the mobile operator being the owner of several magazines, with each magazine having subscribers tuned to special interests. Ad agencies and media planners normally place ads in a particular magazine, with the knowledge that readers opted-in to advertising that's probably relevant to them. I was never to know how the mobile advertising trials would turn out, since my superiors needed me to work on a federated single sign-on related project, and Nokia soon decided to stop supplying network operators with mobile advertising servers.

Now a big talking point in the market is mobile advertising. This is apparently to help the whole industry boost revenues. But is also largely inspired by the success of Google's business model based on advertising revenues. Google's services enable them to collect internet user interests and search preferences and offer advertising that is non-intrusive and takes up a small part of the screen space. Users can even ignore google's advertising without taking any extra steps.

Google's web based advertising is in stark contrast to email that is labelled as spam. Spam is perceived as such due to the message being irrelevant to recipient's interest. There's also no knowing how email addresses are collected. However, bloggers who publish their email address can hardly complain when they receive email from a stranger. They'd be fortunate if part of the information they receive is relevant to their blog.

We made a judgement call by sending email announcing CryptoGraf Messaging upgrade release without asking the recipients explicit permission. The emails were sent to people I had personally met or been referred. We also sent the email to different organizations, journalists, mailing list regulars and bloggers who wrote about topics that were related to the email. However, a certain blogger wrote back asking why we sent him email. I apologised for sending him an unsolicited email but explained that we were implementing a mobile marketing technique (SMS based Invites to download and use CryptoGraf Messaging) which was in the spirit of topics covered in his blog. He also wrote back that the email was "neither welcome nor unwelcome", so apparently the content was of some interest to him. With hindsight, it seems that he's put up his email address as bait for his blog. We made a judgment call by sending email to a stranger based on their publicly available contact information and professed topic of interest. But we need to admit that we did not fully comply with best practices prescribed by the CAN-SPAM Act.

Meanwhile, too many mobile users have no recourse when they receive mobile advertising from their network operator with messages that are often irrelevant to their interests and arriving at unpredictable times of the day.

Somehow, it seems the advertisers and ad agencies are the ones who receive the short end of the deal. Mobile subscribers who are interrupted (in the shower, in a meeting, while driving, etc.) are less likely to be receptive to such marketing. Mobile marketing as it is currently implemented is as sophisticated as telemarketing.