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August 01, 2007
Phone's Impact on Mobile Marketing
By Mike Fawcett
Affiliate Manager
CPA Empire
Ah the iPhone, a $500 gadget that in the hands of the average technophile will expand his or her ability to log onto the Internet for work or play on the go. Users will have full Internet access whenever the urge strikes them. There have already been hundreds of articles written about the best features, worst features, and what to expect functionally from the iPhone, but I don’t want to talk about all that. What I want to discuss is the effect that the ability to log onto the Internet wherever you are, will have on mobile marketing in the United States.
Are these new phones going to be a revolution or just a reason to own a bigger, newer phone? Does it signify the next chapter in the big book of marketing, or will the numerous functionalities lie dormant?
What the iPhone will do is give Americans the ability to catch up with the rest of the world on the mobile capability front and finally help us start seeing the cell phone as a mobile computer, rather than simply a way to make calls away from home.
So how will all this be good for marketing on the affiliate front? Will it be harder to see banner ads on the smaller screen? Are redirects going to work smoothly? Will users be able to see PPC text ads at all? Is geocentric marketing (ads designed to change with the users position) going to create technical challenges for web developers? Do these types of devices fall under the laws of mobile phone use, or under the laws of the Internet? As users leave the comfort of the 19 inch computer screen and start using more compact smart devices with information collected more frequently, what role will advertising play? Finally, and most importantly, is there revenue out there to be earned?
This article is a beginning point, not an end. The nature of advertising is determined by the images we convey, and ultimately the effectiveness of the tools we use. In a world where we are moving from consumers sitting down at a computer for two hours a night and surfing the Internet, to having the ability to get online 24/7, how do marketers best utilize those sources to increase revenue? Where on that tiny screen is there room for the ads we love and rely on so much? I post these questions without knowing all of the answers, but as they say in the film Jurassic Park, “life always finds a way”. So does advertising.
Posted by Tom at August 1, 2007 04:19 AM