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Banner Ads on Your Cell Phone
James Ensor writes, "I'm sure you'll all be just thrilled to hear that Ericsson has developed and is implementing a way to do targeted ads on Internet enabled cellphones. They envision TV-like FMV commercials in the future. I can hardly, umm, wait."
I really don't like this idea -- I want to use my phone as a tool, and don't want to bother with adds or anything else that will chew up my time.
As a consumer, you have a choice -- just don't buy it. I only hope that enough people vote with their dollars to make this a repeat of divx.
We already have a law in which it is illegal to get unsolicitated commercial phone calls to a cell phone. Don't these ads fall under that law?
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Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com." The purpose of that site was not known. -- MSNBC 10-26-1999 on MS crack
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# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
I am looking forward to it, as long as it brings the cost of cellular service down. If it can bring down the cost of a cellular phone to seriously compete with landlines, and motivate cell phones to be as popular her as in Finland (which 70% of people use cellphones, and an exspecteed 120% (yes thats more then 1 per person) is exspected within a few years). Cell phones are a very valuable resource to me, if everyone had them it would make communication much easier. Anyway, a company called AdBroadcast currently does this, and they pay you money, like 50 cents or something, to send you an ad to your cell phone. Personally, a few of these a day, and my cell phone bill is covered.
BTW. If you are thinking of buying a WAP enabled PCS phone, I suggest the Samsung SCH-3500, I love mine.
Jeff Knox
This is new?
In my area of the world (Orland, Florida, USA), Primeco has been sending us text ads for months.
This ain't cool.
InitZero
Is to have "Free Cell Phone" service, where they pump ads at you all day in exchange for free airtime.
It's only a matter of time...
Let's look at an example. Say you've got one of these cellphones with targeted advertising and discount net access. You're walking by the candy aisle of the supermarket when it lights up with an ad for M & Ms, which you happen to see.
Now, before you saw that ad, you didn't want M & Ms - if you did, they'd already be in your cart, right? You know that they'll help rot your teeth, raise your blood sugar, and add to that spare tire around your middle. But now you have been influenced by that ad, you figure the sweet, sweet taste of chocolate is worth it. The M & Ms go into the shopping cart.
("But I don't let ads influence me!" you cry. That's what they all say, chief, and yet advertising is effective. It's influencing somebody.)
Up at the cashier, you pay for your junk food. And included in the price is a markup that's part of the Mars corporations advertising budget - you just paid for part of your phone's net access.
But you'll be paying more, of course: at the dentist's office, to treat the cavity that you wouldn't have gotten if you hadn't bought those M & Ms -and you wouldn't have bought them without the ad on your cell phone.
Let's get it straight, my friends: 90 percent of advertising wants to influence you into making unhealthy and wasteful choices. It is your enemy.
Think I'm parnoid? Read a few issues of Adbusters to find out what really goes on in the world of advertising, then decide if exposing yourself to more ads is really a good idea.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Imagine, if you will, as you drive past a grocery store, you recieve an instant e-coupon for $1.25 off a 6 pack of bud.
Upon recieving this little blipvert, you go into the store to pickup your 6 pack. Happy that you've saved 1.25 on the price, you open a can as you drive and phone a friend to tell him about this wonderfull deal.
Ericsson and any other company considering this, should think twice.
The problem with this technology, is that if the advertizement in the above example came from DoubleClick, they would have a complete track of who-what-where-when-and why
1) WHO I am from the cell phone billing information (linked together with older buying habbits).
2) WHAT I buy from the grocery store records.
3) WHERE I am at all times thanks to triagulating the cell phone signal.
4) WHEN I was driving to the store from the time/date stamp on the location log.
5) WHY I bought the beer from the "Eshilon style" key-word based logging of my conversation in order to give the advertiser feedback.
The problem with this is that it closes the "last mile" of the trust model.
I've got news for Ericson and anyone else considering squeezing a blipvert onto my pee-green-screen-underpowered static box you call a cell phone.
NO!
_________________________
Not only that, but when you have your GPS enabled cellphone, they'll be able to track where you are, figure out what shops you are close to, and....
Oooh, the possibilities. Right now I'm thinking about 'Intelligent Agents' for both the advertising company, and the individual merchants. I can see the negotiation now:
ADSYSTEM534 : HELO SEARS284
...
.. etc
SEARS284 : ACK ADSYSTEM534
ADSYSTEM534 : CUSTOMER 32ft x 270 degrees, 2mph
SEARS284 : ACK - LEATHERandFOOTWARE Quotient
ADSYSTEM534 : INCOME 65000, MARRIED, LEATHERandFOOTWEAR 83.6, last purchases: 8mo self, 6mo spouse, 2 and 3 mo children
SEARS284 : ACK BARGAIN
ADSYSTEM534 : 2.3 cents initial, comission 5 cents per 60 seconds linger
SEARS284 : ACK NEGATIVE, comission 3 cents per 60 seconds linger
ADSYSTEM534 : ACK STANDBY
ADSYSTEM534 : HELO EDDIEBAUER86
EDDIEBAUER86: ACK ADSYSETM534
Well, as long as they can't tell what direction my head is turned...
I have a friend who when he was feeling angst, would sit alone in his room blasting Nine Inch Nails music. And that's kind of what I'm feeling right now.
I agree that advertiser supported services, such as TV, Internet, and magazines, may have lower prices. However, I'm becoming more and more annoyed at the distractions. I don't watch MTV anymore because I can't stand the spinning logo in the corner. I always throw a window over the top of IM because I don't want to see blinking ads. I use The Proxomitron to kill animated GIFs.
I never really had a problem with advertisments until they started interfering with my focus and my time. Sometimes I'd rather just outright pay for content instead of having to waste time and energy on an ad.
Some might say that we have a choice. Unfortunatly that is just not true anymore. Like any other mass consumer good, the majority will always win, and the majority wants cheap at any cost. (I can't *buy* a way to message my friends w/o advertisments - and the MSM/AIM thing killed development of IM for BeOS).
All I want is a choice. I want a list of the expected return per advertisment, so that I can decided whether to pay off the company directly for use of their services.
My worst nightmare is being stuck on the side of the road at 2am and have to listen to an advertisement for Chucky Cheese before I can call a tow truck.
I realize that most of what I wrote is not directly related to web on cell technology. However, the reason that I would want such a technology is convience. Anything that lessens the convience of a cell phone can and will make me angry, especally if I can't decide to turn it off. And in today's slow speed cellular networks and with today's small screens, the impact of advertising will be especially annoying.
Oh and one more thing. Someone was joking about double click and how they would be able to track your cell phone usage. Well it's more than that. GTE has a working system that can track a ESN to within a couple of feet by using the timing that signals return to base stations.
- No click entry of your friends and family into your database. We'll track them for you as you call.
- Improved advertisement targeting. By tracking your cell phone location we can direct you to the stores nearest you.
- Improved emergency service. Why should you have to choose a tow truck service, we know your location, and can choose the service for you.
- Improved targeted incoming advertisements. For your convenience, our clients will call you with their best offers on your cell phone, regardless of what you're doing at the time.
- Telemarketer forwarding. Our database will insure that if your home or out at the movies, you'll never miss a valuable telemarketing call.
Doubleclick. We're there for you when we need you.-----
No Zen is good zen
Who knows, it may bring the price down a little with some of the targeted profit margin being met by the advertisers. At least on a cell phone, and later on Palm like devices, the screens are so small, the visual impact isn't all that annoying. Generally I only look at the screen on my cell when I'm dialing, then don't look at the display at all when I'm talking. Seems like a good trade off for lower air charges. Most of our society is numb to this anyway, look at radio ads, we just mentally tune them out. Heres an example.
What does this say:
Paris in the
the springtime.
Did you read it correctly the first time? Propably not. There are two "The's" in the phrase. Our minds generally just overlook or tune out what we instinctively think is irrevelant. In this case it was "the". The same is true for most ads, spam etc. We will just mentally tune the cell ads out just like we do on television. Hopefully lower prices will be the end result.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
If we could get the phone and calls for free or discounted rate, ala free i-net, it would be pretty cool. Currently I don't have a cell phone because of the costs. But I would probaly sign up for a service that offered me a free phone and discounted or free calls just for recieving ads over it. Now if those ads are matched up with my calls and my calls are tapped so they can match up the ads I'd have to think twice. That could be pretty bad. But assuming privacy is kept this could be quite a deal. I think ads will continue to permate (spelling?) our lives more and more. I think eventually we'll see ads in bathroom stalls and other places like that. It makes sense, it helps lower the cost to consumers.
Billy Transue
bill-transue@NOcoolmailSPAM.net
Open Source, Open Standards, Open Minds